Dr. Chih Hung Ko, a professor at Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan, found that teens who are "addicted" to the Internet are more likely to be aggressive. After surveying more than 9,400 Taiwanese teenagers, Dr. Ko and his colleagues found that those who used the Internet in a compulsive way were also more likely to tell the researchers that they had hit, shoved or threatened someone in the past year. Teens who are "addicted" to the Internet experience "withdrawal" symptoms, such as moodiness, when the Internet becomes unavailable to them.
This study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The second study involved listening to sexually degrading lyrics and having sex at an age earlier than average.
After classifying musical lyrics as either degrading or non-degrading, Dr. Primack and his colleagues surveyed more than 700 American teenagers about their musical choices and age of sexual initiation.
"There does seem to be a strong association between sexual experience and music with degrading lyrics, and yet the same relationship does not hold with non-degrading lyrics in other sexually-explicit songs," said Prof. Brian Primack of the University of Pittsburgh.
This study was published in the journal Pediatrics.
Critics were quick to point out that neither study demonstrates that media exposure causes the behaviors in question. In other words, aggressive teens may be more likely to use the Internet, and sexually active teens may be more likely to listen to degrading lyrics.
Labels: media_infuences, sex, aggression
Posted By: Aspen Education Group