Assessing Effects of a Media Literacy-Based Intervention on US Adolescents' Responses to and Interpretations of Sexual Media Messages

Abstract

This study, a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment conducted in the field (n = 1098), examined a media literacy curriculum to determine its influence on adolescents' responses to and interpretations of sexual media messages. Main effects were confirmed on seven of eight dependent variables tested. Treatment-group participants increased their understanding that media influence teens' decisions regarding sex and media depictions often misrepresent sexual behavior. They also became more likely to believe sexual abstinence is normative among adolescents, lowered their expectancies for engaging in sex and increased their efficacy for delaying sexual activity as compared to control-group participants. Sex-based differences independent of the curriculum existed on participants' attitudes toward delaying sexual activity and expectancies for engaging in sex.