Fifteen year-old Laurie was rushed to the emergency room with acute pain in her lower abdomen. Doctors initially suspected appendicitis but during surgery they discovered something worse. Laurie suffered from pelvic inflammatory disease that was caused by either chlamydia or gonorrhea. The infection began in her cervix, then climbed through the uterus into her fallopian tubes and out to her ovaries. An abscess that formed on her right ovary had ruptured spilling the infection into her abdominal cavity. Quick action by the surgeons saved Laurie's life but she will probably never bear children.
Laurie's story is one of many that illustrate the pages of Meg Meeker's "Epidemic: How Teen Sex is Killing Our Kids."" A pediatrician who has treated teens for over two decades, Meeker sounds the alarm about how sexually transmitted diseases are killing the children of America. .
It is obvious through stories like this that the promiscuity of America's teens is a plague sweeping the nation. With teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases on the rise, parents are constantly looking for the causes of this terrible phenomenon. Researchers support the idea that television has a very strong effect on adolescent sexual behaviors and attitudes. By applying the social learning theory and other similar theories to this problem, they have determined that television is acting like an older sibling; kids learn by imitation. The more they watch, the more they are influenced. However, it is not just the amount of television watched that determines the correlation. The way teen viewers identify with TV characters is a crucial factor as well. The shows and characters that relate to their specific backgrounds make the characters and situations especially appealing. MTV's concentrated stereotyping and terrible messages also play a major part in teens' sexual behavior. .
Albert Bandura's social learning theory is the standard theory involving media's effect on adolescent behavior.