Amber (featured in the first clip) dropped out of high school in the 11th grade when she became pregnant with her daughter Leah. She lives with Leah's father, and is dealing with what seems to be a particularly nasty case of post-partum depression. Now that her daughter is no longer an infant, Amber wants to complete her high school diploma, but learns that her lack of funds, her difficulty with math, and her busy schedule means that she will have to opt for a GED instead. While speaking with her career counselor, Amber realizes that getting a high school education is much more difficult to accomplish after one has dropped out. She breaks down and says that she "screwed up [her] whole life." While the scene is sad, I always wonder about people who talk about how they don't have any money, but have perfectly manicured false nails. Fill-ins and upkeep on that shit is expensive!

In the clip to the left, Maci is still dealing with the same issues with her fiancé she confronted in 16 and Pregnant. Her intended isn't an attentive parent, and he goes out with his friends all night long every night of the week. She stays up waiting for him until dawn—while keeping her baby awake with her. In the end, she writes him a Dear John letter, and moves back in with her parents.


Catelynn and Tyler's story is perhaps the most heartbreaking. They made a completely selfless decision by giving their daughter up for adoption, knowing that another family could provide her with a better life than they could. As part of the agreement, the couple were promised that theirs would be an open adoption, that they'd be able to see their daughter multiple times a year, and that they would be a part of her life. However, the adoptive parents decided to not disclose their last name to the couple, and didn't made good on any of their promises to include Catelynn and Tyler in the baby's life.

The LA Times summarizes the report by saying "Young Latinos seem to face a tougher future - Those between the ages of 16 and 25 are more likely than other young people to have a child before 19, drop out of school and live in poverty, a study finds."

One of the major challenges facing young Latinas is the issue of teen pregnancy. The study is clear about the scope of the problem:

Hispanics start having children at much younger ages than non-Hispanics. More than one-fourth (26%) of Hispanic females are mothers by the time they reach age 19, compared with 22% of blacks, 11% of whites and 6% of Asians. Among Hispanics, teen parenthood is most widespread in the immigrant generation. Some 26% of foreign-born females ages 18 and 19 have children, compared with 16% of the same age cohort of second-generation Hispanic females and 21% of third- generation Hispanic females.

Not only do Latinos have children at younger ages than non-Latinos, they also marry at younger ages. Some 15% of Latinos ages 16 to 25 are married, compared with 9% of non-Latinos in that age group. The higher marriage rate for Latinos is driven primarily by immigrant youths, 22% of whom are married. Marriage rates among native-born Latinos-10% for the second generation and 11% for the third generation-don't differ markedly from the rate for non-Latinos.

Despite their relatively high rate of teen parenthood, most Latino youths do not look favorably upon having children prior to age 20. Three-fourths (75%) say that the prevalence of teens having babies is not good for society, an opinion shared by 90% of the overall youth population in the U.S.
Nearly seven-in-ten Latino youths (69%) say that teen parenthood hinders the ability to achieve one's life goals. However, Latino youths are more inclined than other youths to favor parenthood at a relatively young age. Latinos say that the ideal age for a woman to have a child is 24, and for a man it is 25. Among all youths, these figures are 26 for a woman and 28 for a man.

Among young Latinos, there is only a small difference in the likelihood of having had sexual intercourse prior to age 20 by nativity. Nor does the likelihood of having engaged in teen sex differ between Latino youths and their older counterparts. However, Latino youths are far more likely than older Latinos to report that they engaged in sex prior to the age of 16.

When it comes to attitudes about teen sex (as distinct from behaviors), once again there are no significant differences by generation among young Latinos, but there are differences between younger and older Latinos. Latino youths are more tolerant of teen sex within a serious relationship or of teen sex that involves using protection; Latinos older than 25 are markedly less accepting of teen sexual activity no matter what the context.

So what is causing this gap? One of the things that always frustrates me reading through reports about the issues facing teenagers, minorities, women, or any combination of those is the lack of specifics as well as the divorcing of certain issues from larger societal influences. Pew goes beyond most other projects by looking at attitudes about teen sex, and having a child early. But if most of these youths understand how difficult it is to have a child and still work toward their own personal goals, and many understand the need to use protection, what is causing the disconnect?

Are there correlations between the geographic area and pregnancy rates? Are many of these girls growing up in areas where they cannot access contraception? Are they being subjected to abstinence only education? Does religion play a role in this? What are they telling these boys? Are these even boys, or is there a disparity between the age of the mother and the age of the father? Is it peer pressure? Is there not enough mentoring and outreach? What is it?

And more complicated is the rhythm of these types of problems:

The picture becomes even more murky when comparisons are made among youths who are first generation (immigrants themselves), second generation (U.S.-born children of immigrants) and third and higher generation (U.S.-born grandchildren or more far-removed descendants of immigrants).[1]

For example, teen parenthood rates and high school drop-out rates are much lower among the second generation than the first, but they appear higher among the third generation than the second. The same is true for poverty rates.

It is good to identify problems - it's the first step toward finding a solution. However, I hope that this issue receives more attention.

These children (and teens) are literally our future.

Young Latinos seem to face a tougher future [LA Times]
Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America [Pew Hispanic Center]

Here's ESPN's in-depth reporting — it's longish, but worth it. This young lady has clearly been discriminated against, but it's good to see her family rallying around her, and the media covering this story so thoroughly and with such urgency. And good news: the US Dept. of Education is investigating the school for Title IX violations:

Pregnant High School Athlete Faces Discrimination [Feministing]

• On Sunday, Michelle Wie won her first LPGA tour title. This was her 65th LPGA tour event, and while she had finished second six times, she had never managed a win. ''Wowww-w-w ...... never thought this would feel THIS great!!!!" she said on Twitter. • President Obama told - not asked - Burma's junta to free pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi at a recent summit with the Burmese prime minister. •  A Zambian reporter has been acquitted of pornography charges, which could have held a five year sentence if she had been convicted. The so-called porn possessed by Chansa Kabwela was actually photographs of a mother giving birth in a car park, which Kabwela did not publish but instead sent out to women's rights groups. • The suburban swim club outside Philadelphia that was accused of discrimination earlier this year has announced plans to declare bankruptcy. The club reportedly asked several children not to return because of "racial animus" expressed by a member. But the swim club's president denies that their closing has anything to do with the legal proceedings. •  A bushfire on the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve has turned the area into an "animal graveyard." Some blame Terri Irwin for improperly managing the property, but Irwin blames it on pig hunters, who she claims were probably trying to clear the land. •  A recent study published in the British Medical Journal found that current policies to reduce teen pregnancies are simply not working. The study also linked certain factors to teen pregnancy, including dislike of school, poverty, unhappy childhoods and low expectations for the future. •  For the first time in decades, the U.S. skating team has no clear-cut Olympic medal contender. "In the past, we've had Michelle Kwan, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill year after year, and every time we felt that they were going to win the gold medal," said David Ruth, executive director of US Figure Skating. "But when Michael Jordan left the N.B.A, they were looking for a new star, and we're looking for a new star." • Researchers have found that texting may be linked to neck pain, caused primarily by the hunched-over body position favored by serial texters. • Doctors are hopeful that a vaccine for chlamydia isn't far away. However, previous research has shown that injections don't work very well, so a vaccine may come in the form of a vaginal cream or spray. •  Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has pissed off some 200 Italian women after he placed an ad recruiting "attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old" for an "event." While most expected a party, the event turned out to be a two hour lesson intended to convert them to Islam. •  A recent report touts the benefits of distributing contraceptives in Uganda. The report estimates that meeting just half of Ugandan women's unmet needs for contraceptives would yield dramatic health benefits, including an expected 21% decline in maternal deaths. • Angie Young's film The Coat Hanger Project tells the story of how abortions have actually become increasingly less accessible in the decades since Roe vs. Wade. One good example: the Stupak amendment. You can take action against the pro-choice Democrats who supported the amendment by signing a petition to send them a coat hanger. • The Association of Chief Police Officers in England and Wales has proposed a domestic violence register to track an estimated 25,000 serial abusers. The register would allow people to look up a man's history including convictions and unproven allegations. The Association is also pushing for the creation of a "course of conduct" offense to make it easier to go after serial offenders, even if there isn't enough evidence to prosecute each individual case. • Janet Clark went to a British hospital because she believed she'd gone into labor in her 25th week of pregnancy, but a doctor and four midwives told her to go home. The next day she went back and was told to go home again, and then started giving birth on the toilet. "A pregnant woman shouldn't have to plead with medical staff," said Clark, who had a healthy baby boy. • In a study 54 Caucasian subjects were asked to manipulate the skin color of male and female faces on a computer screen to make them appear as healthy as possible. Most increased the rosiness, yellowness, and brightness of the skin. "In the West we often think that sun tanning is the best way to improve the color of your skin," said researcher Dr. Ian Stephen, "But our research suggests that living a healthy lifestyle with a good diet might actually be better." The study didn't address what makes non-white faces appear healthier and attractive. • Researchers found that in business, gender is a factor in measuring a team's performance, but but not the leaders themselves. In industries in which most leadership positions are held by men, people will expect more of teams led by men, but expectations of the leaders themselves are not influenced by gender. • In an interview on CBS' Early Show Mary Lou Quinlan, author of What She's Not Telling You: Why Women Hide the Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About It, says women tell "half truths" about "anything with a number in it. Their age, their weight, how many drinks they had." • In a new interview with CBS News, Laura Bush said Texas feels like it's a million miles away from Washington. "...Not that I ever felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, or that George did when I lived there — but when it was gone, I could notice it," she said. "There's a great feeling of freedom." •

• Get your resumes ready: A tourist attraction in Britain is offering a salary of £50,000 for a knowledgeable witch. Duties include: teaching tourists about witchcraft and magic, hexing competing businesses, and pain-free wart removal. • Elderly Swedes may soon have the option to live in a gay-friendly nursing home. Plans have been in the works for ten years for a home that would advertise their welcoming attitude and accept all residents, gay or straight. • Same sex couples in Australia have won a legislative victory, with Law and Justice Committee in the New South Wales Parliament issuing a recommendation to change the law and force most adoption providers to allow adoption agencies to judge based on parental suitability and not sexual orientation. • D.C.'s new law recognizing same sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions went into effect today. Councilman David Catania plans to draft a bill to allow the city to perform same sex marriages but, given that Congress has 30 days to disapprove any law D.C. passes, its changes are uncertain. • The Viinzs Aviation Training Institute is now offering courses to Kashmiri women looking for upward mobility in careers like aviation. • Sad news: Oscar Mayer, the grandson of company founder Oscar F. Mayer, died today at the age of 95. • England has abandoned a £5.9m project to reduce teen pregnancies after figuring out that the program made girls more likely to become pregnant. "This pilot was based on a successful American programme. It didn't appear to reduce teenage pregnancy so we will not be taking it any further," said a spokeswoman from the Department of Health. •  A new report by the Guttmacher Institute shows that the United States' restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortion (i.e., the Hyde Amendment) forces 1 in 4 poor women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Conservatives have responded that that's the point. • One in four women in America who has an abortion has a medical abortion rather than a surgical one. • Police in Germany received a call on Wednesday about a badger believed to be lying dead in the middle of the road. It turns out that the badger was alive, but not quite well: he had gotten extremely drunk off fermented cherries, which gave him a bad case of the runs. Police eventually chased the non-responsive animal from the road with a broom. • The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and the UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan issued a report on the culture of impunity in Afghanistan that results in further violence against women. •

The study divided 2,407 overweight and obese people into three groups: one got $60 if they maintained a 5% weight loss for a year, another paid $100 but got it back if they kept off the 5%, and a third got $20 for staying in the program, regardless of weight loss. Losing weight is hard: the $20 group lost an average of just 1.8 pounds, while the $50 group dropped 1.4, and the $100 people 3.6. And 76.4% of participants dropped out by the end of the year.

The study authors say that people willing to risk $100 were likely motivated to lose weight no matter what, and that in general the monetary incentives were ineffective. But is the sheer difficulty of weight loss the only factor here? Perhaps money just isn't as strong a motivator as other concerns, like health, the social stigma of being overweight, a culture of dieting, et cetera. Perhaps monetary rewards aren't as effective as, say, an exercise program or nutritional counseling. Or perhaps some participants came to feel insulted by being paid to lose weight.

An interesting parallel is a North Carolina program that pays teen girls not to get pregnant. To enroll, the girls must meet requirements including having a sister who got pregnant as a teen. Once in the program, they get $7 deposited in a college fund for every week they don't conceive. The program also teaches about abstinence and contraception. Of 125 girls who have stayed in the program for six months or more, director Hazel Brown says only six have gotten pregnant or dropped out for other reasons.

In both cases, the monetary aspect is kind of strange — especially paying such a small amount to potentially underprivileged teenage girls seems somewhat condescending. It seems possible that the sex education is what really keeps the girls from getting pregnant, and that the money is just an incentive to get them to show up for the program. It makes a certain amount of sense that teenagers, whose decision-making skills aren't necessarily well-formed yet, would be swayed such basic incentives as $7 a week. But for adults, the social pressures against being overweight are already so intense that a little money may not make a difference. And for some, the ability to lose weight and keep it off may have more to do with biological and sociological luck than with motivation. One of the study authors tells the Times that, "there is surely some amount of money that would persuade most people to lose weight." But successful weight loss may be less about "persuasion," and more about learning the right techniques — and being fortunate enough to have these techniques succeed.

Behavior: Money Not A Motivator In Losing Weight [NYT]
North Carolina Program Pays Girls A Dollar A Day Not To Get Pregnant [FOX News]

Maci says that she didn't even consider having an abortion when she found out she was pregnant. (In fact, she wouldn't even say the word "abortion.") Even though she's five years younger than the father of her child, she's obviously way more mature than he is, and ready to handle the responsibility of juggling school, work, and motherhood. Not surprisingly, she feels resentful of her fiancé because he goes out with his friends after work and doesn't return home until their baby is sleeping. It seems like when a lot of teenage girls are willing to go through with the pregnancy, they think that the responsibilities of raising a child will fall equally on both parents. And that's the way it should be, but really, it rarely ever is.

The show, which premieres on June 11, looks like a good one, as it appears as though it will approach the topic of teen pregnancy in ways we've never seen before, like kids who think they may as well be parents, because they figure they couldn't do a worse job than their own parents did in raising them.

The series is intended to teach kids a lesson that having a baby is a pain in the ass. But I think that a series showing young women exercising their right to choose as a result of teen pregnancy — and everything surrounding it — would be just as interesting and beneficial. These shows usually feature kids having to deal with babies, but it seems like no one ever talks about the option of termination. I believe that teens shouldn't be having sex unless they can deal with the consequences, whether those be pregnancies or abortions.

[Breitenbach Breuberg, Germany; May 25. Image via Getty]

Teenage girls of the Georg-Ackermann-School in Breitenbach Breuberg, western Germany, practice on May 25, 2009 in their classroom the handling of a newborn baby with a baby-simulation-doll. The young girls will be in constant contact with the baby-simulators over the next few days. The dolls hide a complex computer system, which realistically imitates the behaviour of a baby and controls the reaction of the 'parents'. With this project, the information centre for pregnancy, family and sexuality wants to avoid unwanted teenager pregnancies and tries to create an awareness for the responsibility of a child within adolescents. AFP PHOTO DDP/ TORSTEN SILZ GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read TORSTEN SILZ/AFP/Getty Images)

In order to do so, she must, with the help of People, imply that her life totally sucks. People helpfully mentions that she didn't appear at all in her high school class's graduation slideshow, and that she spent graduation night "not with a gang of friends but at home, giving her 5-month-old son a bottle while her extended family plays 'Eskimo bingo.'" Bristol adds that she has had to write a school paper while listening to her son cry, and that "girls need to imagine and picture their life with a screaming newborn baby and then think before they have sex." But perhaps the strangest thing about the article is her statement that,

If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex. Trust me. Nobody.

Not only does the ignore the many ways to prevent the specific consequence Bristol's talking about, it also sounds incredibly condescending. Does Bristol really think that girls have no idea that sex can lead to pregnancy? And what about boys? Bristol's statement lets Levi off the hook pretty easily.

But she probably doesn't mean to talk down to girls. Bristol is in an incredibly awkward position — she was forced to be a public figure when she isn't particularly suited for it, the most private aspects of her life became national news, and now she's supposed to simultaneously adore her baby son and hold him up as the career-destroying consequence of bad behavior. Bristol probably never would have become an abstinence advocate if not for her famous mom, and her life would probably be better for it. She certainly wouldn't be called upon to make public statements about teen sexual behavior, something she's clearly not very good at.

Bristol Palin Exposes Her Sometimes Isolated Life [People]

Frustrated with a lack of response from leaflets and handouts, NHS Leicester decided to take the viral video approach: "We know this film is hard-hitting but so are the numbers of under-18s getting pregnant in Leicester," said chief executive Tim Rideout, "Nearly half the city's wards are classed as teen pregnancy 'hotspots'." [Guardian]

• Saberi said she was moved to hear that so many people worked for her release. She added, "I think that if somebody is supposed to speak about my case from now on, nobody knows about it as well as I do, and I will talk about it more in the future." • Tennessee has nullified the 18-month marriage of a transgender woman and a man because the state considers them both men. The woman was born a man and had a sex change operation, but the state does not recognize gender change (or gay marriage) even after sex reassignment surgery. • A Sacramento woman survived a car crash because she was hurled out of the car, over the the highway sound wall, and landed in a plum tree in a backyard. Firefighters say she survived because the tree cushioned her fall. • A Turkish court has ordered that an employer give a woman her job back after she was fired for kissing her boyfriend at work. The kiss was brief, and no customers say it, but her boss caught it on a security camera and fired her. • The banning of four books of French erotic literature in Turkey has caused debate over the qualifications of committee members to determine what is literature and what isn't after they decided to ban a book by the acclaimed French poet Apollinaire. • A new study suggests chemicals and hormones produced from our changing moods can affect eggs and sperm, altering the patterns of genes that are active in them and thus how a child develops. • Scientists have found that by observing the pattern of activity in the brain they can tell whether a person heard words spoken in anger, joy, relief, or sadness. This is the first study to show that emotional information is represented by distinct spatial signatures in the brain. • Scientists in Australia have figured out why there is an obesity epidemic: we eat too much food. They calculated how much people are eating today as opposed to three decades ago by comparing agricultural data. They determined that based on the total amount of food that is grown and imported, humans are actually less fat than we should be based just on changes in consumption, which may be explained by exercise. • A McDonald's in Alabama pulled Kidz Bop CDs from the store's Happy Meals because parents complained they could hear an obscenity in a cover of Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Wanna Be." McDonald's says there's no obscenity in the song, but a parent says, "In the song the word is supposed to be 'looking,' but they're saying the f-word with the -ing on the end." • A stripper working at a Times Square peep show caught an ex-con who was counterfeiting money. She noticed that the two $10 bills he handed her looked like they were made on an Ink Jet printer and alerted her manager. When confronted, the man panicked and dropped 21 more bills. The man was arrested and is currently out on bail. • A British man was arrested after he drove up to a police officer posing as a prostitute and how much she would charge to have sex with his 14-year-old son, who was sitting in the car. The man won't serve jail time because of his "previous excellent character" and the boy will be allowed to live with his father, but the man will be put on the sex offender registry for five years. • A study found that in many police units in England and Wales female officers have to wear uniforms and stab vests designed for men. Maria Eagle, the justice minister, said, "It does make a very clear point, doesn't it? How welcome would you feel as a woman in a police force like that, if you can't even get clothes that fit you? It's crazy." • Police are investigating whether a Russian gynecologist, Igor Ivanov, purposely sterilized his pregnant ex-fiance, Olga Sokolova, when she was admitted to a hospital with abdominal pains. Sokolova had called off their wedding on the night before they were supposed to get married because she believed he was cheating on her. She started dating someone else and got pregnant. Ivanov was the only doctor on duty when she was admitted to the hospital, and he told her she was miscarrying and performed emergency surgery, causing serious internal damage that will prevent her from having children. • On Saturday Sister Mary Elizabeth Lloyd will run a 100-mile marathon in Florida while wearing her nun's habit to raise money to help orphaned children. ''I'm like Johnny Cash,'' Lloyd said. 'I wear black to draw attention. And when people ask me: 'Why in God's name are you doing this?' I can say, 'For the orphaned children.''' • A video posted by the U.K. National Health Service in Leicester was banned by YouTube after 24 hours for showing what looks like a teenage girl giving birth on a playground while students watch. The NHS was trying to get their anti-teen pregnancy message to young people with a viral video. • Business is booming at Cryos, the world's biggest sperm bank. In 2008 the number of donors tripled, from 30 a day to 100 at its four offices in Denmark. The worldwide demand for sperm surged in the past three or four years and Cryos "can't meet the avalanche of demand from the western world, in particular the United States," said Chief executive Ole Schou, "We help a tsunami of highly-educated single women who are more demanding and who prioritised their careers and who want to have a child before it is too late." • Vietnam is experiencing a boom in male births, which researchers believe can be blamed on the tenfold increase in the availability of ultrasounds in the last decade. They believe women being able to know the sex of their unborn child is increasing the number of sex-specific abortions. • A scientist who writes under the name "Mike The Mad Biologist" blogged that he perceives a double standard in how female scientists are viewed when they party after work. "If a female scientist at a meeting parties hard and flirts, she is viewed as a 'party girl.' In other words, she is no longer viewed as a scientist with an interesting social life, but as 'a good time' (although perhaps not sexually)," he writes, adding, "Mind you, I think this double standard sucks. But... I'm not sure what we (including male scientists) can do about it, other than not be assholes (which would be a good start)." • Here's a letter to the Princeton Alumni Weekly from an alum of 1945: "Gone is the distinct masculine flavor of an all-male college. The maleness of the Nassau Inn's Tap Room has been replaced by a female, dainty, tearoom atmosphere... My fear is that the Princeton University I knew has been taken over by a female majority (for better or worse). I am surprised that other male graduates are not upset by these developments." • English ice cream maker Frank Frederick is reviving his Italian family's 100-year-old gelato brand, along with his grandfather's practice of singing opera to his cows to make them produce endorphin-rich milk. Frederick flew in opera tenor Marcello Bedoni from Italy to serenade his cows. "The cows are such gentle beasts and have a good ear for opera," said Bedoni. •

• A Saudi man has reportedly divorced his wife by text message. Under Saudi law, a man may divorce his wife if he says (or, I guess, texts) "I divorce you" three times. • A seven-year-old girl with with a Y chromosome but not other signs of "maleness" usually associated with the genetic abnormality (shriveled testes, ambiguous gonads) is providing scientists with new clues about the "master switch" of gender. • A couple from Seattle have discovered the newest trend in the wedding industry: outsourcing vows. • Washington State passed a bill yesterday that protects transgender people under the current hate crime legislation. • A report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission reveals this "shocking" fact about the pay gap in London: women working in finance make 55% less a year than their male counterparts. • Actress Virginia Madsen is currently working on a documentary about women ski jumpers and their campaign to be allowed to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics. • Sociological Images has posted a very interesting video on female sex tourism, followed by a discussion of the way we think about the role of the "victim" in sex. • Researchers at St Andrews have found that people do judge you by the color of your skin, and that certain (pale) skin tones are still associated with illness. • Despite certain high-profile celebrity adoptions, Americas are actually adopting fewer foreign children than we did five years ago. • This Easter, a new line of nonedible Peeps branded products (think china and stuffed animals) will appear in stores. No word yet on whether they will also explode in the microwave. •  Click here to watch a depressing video about the sale and use of skin-bleaching products in Jamaica. Skin-bleaching was once practiced only by women, but has now spread to men and children. • Oh dear: "Teen pregnancy boosts girls' risk of getting fat," reads a headline on Reuters. • After being groped by a stranger on the subway, a quick-thinking woman snapped a cellphone picture of her attacker, which eventually led to his arrest. • Another lawsuit against the "Hot Chicks with Douchebags" people has been dropped. • 

Johnston confirmed that he and Bristol have separated, but says contrary to reports in Star he's allowed to see his son Tripp whenever he wants. He adds that he'd like to get back together with Bristol some day. Clip at left.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh surveyed a group of 711 ninth grade students at three large urban high schools, reports EurekAlert. The teens were broken into groups by how often they listen to music. Those who listen more than 17.6 hours per week were classified as "regular"listeners, and those who listed less than 2.7 hours per week were classified as "not listening often". Students reported their favorite artists, then researchers calculated the percentage of each artist's popular songs containing lyrics describing "degrading sex." Researchers wouldn't name specific artists but gave the phrase "I'm gonna beat that pussy up" as an example of a lyric being studied. (Though researchers won't name the songs, we assume they are referring to the charming song "Wait" by the Ying Yang twins; lyrics here.)

Two thirds of the students were virgins when the study started, and, of those students, the group exposed to the highest number of sexual lyrics were more than twice as likely to have started having sex by the end of the study, compared to the group that listened the least. (The numbers were equal for girls and boys.) Lead researcher Dr. Brian A. Primack concludes that, "among this sample of young adolescents, high exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex in popular music was independently associated with higher levels of sexual behavior."

The BBC quotes Primack as saying:

"It is tempting to say music is just 'teenage stuff' ... I am not saying parents should try to ban such music, that is unlikely to help. But they should be talking to their children about sex and putting these sorts of lyrics in context."

Of course parents should be talking to their kids more, but some experts are calling the study's conclusions into question. A spokeswoman for Brook, a UK charity for teen sexual health, tells the BBC:

Obviously the cultural environment plays a part, but that is not to say there is a causal link. It is far too simplistic to say just because someone listens to this music they have sex. There are a variety of factors that influence decisions.

We have to agree. Every few years a study comes out blaming rap music or video games for everything that's wrong with kids today, but often the research gets boiled down to headlines like the Daily Mail's "Degrading Rap Songs Drive Teens To Sex." Even the EurekAlert article starts out by saying:

With sexual activity among adolescents in the United States resulting in over 750,000 teenage pregnancies each year and reports of up to 25 percent of all female adolescents in the US having sexually transmitted infections, researchers and public health officials are looking for those factors that might increase sexual activity in teens.

Songs with degrading lyrics about women are disgusting, but are they really one of the top factors leading to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases? Degrading images of women and depictions of sex are present throughout the culture, not just in pop music. It's questionable whether preventing kids from listening to Britney's "If You Seek Amy" is going to change the behavior of children and teens but, of course, it's easier to get alarmed about children listening to explicit rap music than to sit down and talk to them seriously about safe sex.

Sexual Lyrics In Popular Songs Linked To Early Sexual Experiences [EurekAlert]
"Wait" By The Ying Yang Twins [Song Meanings]
Music Linked To Teen Sex Habits [BBC]