16 & Pregnant: Teens’ Interpretations of a ‘Reality TV’ Show About the Effects of Teen Pregnancy (2010)
Undergraduates: Heather Mandelkehr, none none none
Faculty Advisor: Jane Brown
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication
This study addressed the implications of how entertainment-education programming depicting teen pregnancy can effectively demonstrate the consequences of teen sexual behavior. MTV’s “16 & Pregnant” featured six teenagers in the late months of their pregnancies and life after their babies’ births, focusing on how pregnancy affected relationships, family, school and future plans. This study analyzed teens’ comments made in a discussion group after viewing three episodes of the show and anonymous online comments posted on the show’s Web site to determine if viewers found the show to be realistic or a glamorized view of teen pregnancy. The study found that teens saw the show as a realistic presentation of teen pregnancy and remembered how pregnancy disrupted the lives and plans of the pregnant girls in the show. Implications of the study include the media’s ability to present sensitive issues realistically to teenagers in an entertaining and engaging format.