The question that has been debated by parents, psychologists and media critics for years is whether such racy content has an adverse affect on young viewers. Now researchers at the Rand Corporation say they have documented for the first time how such exposure can influence teen pregnancy rates. They found that teens exposed to the most sexual content on TV were twice as likely as teens watching less of this material to become pregnant before they reach age 20.

"The relationship between exposure of this kind of content on TV and the risk of later pregnancy is fairly strong,' says Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist and the study's author. "Even if it were diminished by other contributing factors, the association still holds.' Such consistent exposure may explain in part why the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is double that of other industrialized ...