Well, I can’t access the actual study which is in the April issue of Pediatrics (sorry folks, Blue Crab Boulevard isn’t rich, you know). But the MSM report appears here. Does exposure to media cause kids to engage in sexual activity at a younger age.
"This is the first time we’ve shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex," said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report.
The study purportedly shows that kids with higher exposure to "sexy" media have earlier sex (defined as 14-16 years old) at a rate 2.2 times higher than those with less exposure.
OK, first question: 2.2 times what? The importance of the claim changes depending on the rate involved. If the rate is 1 in 100,000, doubling that isn’t much. If it’s 1 in 10, it makes it potentially significant – provided it is not an outlier result.
Second: The study used a sample of 1,017. That’s a pretty small sample to be making sweeping generalities about. Outlier results are more of a problem with limited sample size.
Third: The effects of the internet were not even looked at. What else was not controlled? Were the results different based on where kids went to school? Were they different based on family life? Were they different on income levels. The only thing they say they have controlled for is race. The list goes on, and since I can’t get the actual data, I can’t answer.
Neither can anyone else based on this article.
*sigh* Correlation doesn’t prove causality.
