Does Rap Put Teens at Risk?
March 3, 2003 — Teens who spend more time watching the sex and violence depicted in the “reel” life of “gangsta” rap music videos are more likely to practice these behaviors in real life, suggests one of the first studies to specifically explore how rap videos influence emotional and physical health. After studying 522 black girls between the ages of 14 and 18 from non-urban, lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, researchers found that compared to those who never or rarely watched these videos, the girls who viewed these gangsta videos for at least 14 hours per week were far more likely to practice numerous destructive behaviors. Over the course of the one-year study, they were: • Three times more likely to hit a teacher • Over 2.5 times more likely to get arrested • Twice as likely to have multiple sexual partners • 1.5 times more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease, use drugs, or drink alcohol. “What is particularly alarming about our findings is that we didn’t find an associa
