? question of the month ?
"But I don't pay attention to the lyrics! They don't affect me." True or False?
This is kids' standard response to parents and youth leaders who are alarmed by the lyrical content of their favorite songs. And they've always had benign back-up from researchers who couldn't seem to prove a cause-effect relationship between song lyrics and teenagers' behavor.
In fact, a little over a decade ago the journal of Pediatrics offered the medical community's party line on the impact of music lyrics on young people: "To date, no studies have documented a cause-effect relationship between sexually explict or violent lyrics and adverse behavioral effects. A possible explanation for this lack of finding is that teenagers often do not know the lyrics or fully comprehend their meaning. For example, in one study only 30% of teenagers knew the lyrics to their favorite songs, and their comprehension varied greatly."
That summation can now be filed in the "World Is Flat" folder.
That's because a new study by the American journal of Preventive Medicine has discovered a causal relationship between sexually explict lyrics and high levels of sexual behavior in teenagers. The study targeted more than 700 ninth-graders - about 1/3 had previously been sexually active. Kids were exposed to varying levels of "sexually degrading" lyrics over the span of the study. The conclusion: Teenagers who were most exposed to degrading lyrics were twice as likely to have sexual intercourse as those who had the least exposure.
In an AP interview, Dr. Brian Primack of the Center for Research on Health Care says: "Exposure to the lyrics describing degrading sex was one of the strongest associations with sexual activity. These results provide further support for the need for additional research and educational intervention in this area."
This article is from Group Magazine July/August 2009.