Maternal Attachment and Television Viewing in Adolescents’ Sexual Socialization: Differential Associations Across Gender

Abstract

The present study explores whether gender and maternal attachment moderate the relationship between television viewing and adolescents' sexual and gender stereotypical attitudes. A quantitative survey was conducted among 1,026 Belgian adolescents in a targeted sample of nine schools (Mean age=16.3). Findings show that greater exposure to television among boys and lower maternal attachment among boys and girls is associated with more liberal and stereotypical sexual attitudes. While maternal attachment has a buffering effect on the relationship between television viewing and sexual attitudes among girls, maternal attachment has a risk-increasing effect among boys. Further research is needed to explore more fully the emergence of gender differences in the influence of maternal attachment and television viewing on adolescents' sexual development.

Sexually Explicit Websites and Sexual Initiation: Reciprocal Relationships and the Moderating Role of Pubertal Status

“…It is noteworthy that we did not find a threeway interaction effect between pubertal status, the use of sexually explicit websites, and either gender or age on sexual initiation. Regarding gender, this finding is in contrast with the results from studies on the use of television (Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012) and sexually explicit media in general (Brown & L'Engle, 2009), but it is consistent with research on sexually explicit websites. Valkenburg (2008a, 2009a,b) have repeatedly reported no gender differences for the longitudinal relationship between using sexually explicit websites and adolescents' sexual development.…”

“…The survey included questions on the control variables, pubertal status, sexual initiation, and the use of sexually explicit websites. The questions were based on instruments whose validity and reliability have been established in prior research involving English-and Dutch-speaking adolescents (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987;Eggermont, 2006;Peter & Valkenburg, 2008a;Peter & Valkenburg, 2008b;Stephenson, Hoyle, Palmgreen, & Slater, 2003;Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012). Instruments that had not yet been translated into Dutch were evaluated and approved by a panel of fellow researchers at the host university and pretested using a small sample of adolescents.…”

Cultivating Conceptions of Masculinity: Television and Perceptions of Masculine Gender Role Norms

“…They interpret this finding as evidence of the concept of mainstreaming, in that A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 8 television use helped the outlooks of those differing by religiosity to converge around shared support for same sex relationships. Other studies have identified important differences by respondents' gender in associations between overall TV viewing and holding gender stereotypes regarding sexual and romantic roles, in particular (Ter Bogt et al, 2010, Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012. colleagues (2016, 2017) provide the closest parallels to the study at hand.…”

The Effects of Sexually Explicit Media Content on Adolescents and Some Intervention Methods

“…Medyada sunulan cinsel içerikli yayınlar yukarıda da bahsedildiği gibi cinsellik açısından çeşitli kalıp yargılar barındırmaktadır (Ward ve Friedman, 2006). Dolayısıyla bu tür yayınlara maruz kalmak ergenlik dönemindeki bireylerin cinsellikle ilgili çeşitli kalıp yargılar geliştirmesine ve bu konudaki kalıp yargıları daha fazla benimsemesine neden olabilmektedir (Beem ve ark., 2015; Keastle, Harpern ve Vandenbosch ve Eggermont, 2012;Ward, 2002;Ward ve Friedman, 2006). Örneğin, bu konuda yürütülen bir çalışmada (Ward, 2002) daha yoğun ve ilgili bir biçimde televizyon izleyen gençlerin cinsellikle ilgili kalıp yargıları daha fazla benimsedikleri gösterilmiştir.…”