Teenage sexuality and media practice: Factoring in the influences of family, friends, and school

This multi-method, qualitative study addresses the question: How do mass me dia images and messages about love, sex and relationships interact with wha t teens learn about sexuality at home, in school, and from their friends? U sing the Adolescents' Media Practice Model introduced by Steele & Brown (19 95) as a starting point, this study seeks to extend our understanding of th e media's role in shaping adolescents' values, attitudes and beliefs about sex by factoring in some of the contexts that intersect with media practice . Data generated through focus groups media journals, room tours, and in-de pth interviews with middle school and high school teens suggest that ethnic ity, gender class status, and developmental stage influence media practices in important ways. Identity-teens' sense of themselves and others-affects the merlin they like best, how they interact with that media, and how they apply media matter in their everyday lives.