This brief was done in partnership with IWPR’s Connect for Success initiative and innovation Research & Training (iRT).
Key Findings
Young adults learn about sex from media. The majority of students surveyed indicated that they learned at least a little about sex from mainstream entertainment media (83 percent) and pornography (60 percent).
Those who view media less critically are more likely to hold unhealthy beliefs about risky sexual behaviors, such as believing risky sexual behaviors are more common among peers, viewing those engaging in risky sexual behaviors more favorably, and having greater intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors.
Community college administrators can support healthy sexual decision-making by implementing media literacy education that equips students to critically analyze media messages about sex and relationships.
Introduction
Digital media play a central role in the lives of young adults1 and are a main source of information about sex.2 While some media messages provide medically accurate sexual health information, they can also offer incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading information about sex that increases the risk of unintended pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted infections (STIs).3 Research demonstrates that messages in media—from music to social media to pornography—play a significant role in shaping young people’s sexual beliefs and behaviors.4
Limited instruction in critical media analysis and evaluation (i.e., media literacy education, or MLE) in K–12 education5 leaves many young adults—many of whom are navigating new sexual experiences—vulnerable to misinformation about sex and unhealthy media influence. However, thinking critically about media messages—for example, recognizing that media often do not accurately reflect real life and may not be credible sources of information—can serve as a protective factor against the potentially unhealthy influence of media on sexual decision-making.6
MLE is an evidence-based approach to sexual health promotion that has been shown to enhance students’ critical media analysis skills and sexual health-related beliefs and behaviors,7 including for students attending community college.8 By decreasing students’ risk of poor sexual health outcomes—e.g., unplanned pregnancy—and the related stress, stigma, and structural barriers that can disrupt academic trajectories,9 MLE can help promote student health, well-being, and academic success.
About the Study
This brief examines young adult community college students’ critical media attitudes and explores the relationships between these attitudes and students’ beliefs and intentions related to engaging in risky sexual behaviors.
Specifically, this brief explores three key critical media attitudes: 1) perceived realism, which is the extent to which a person believes media messages are like real life; 2) perceived similarity, which is the extent to which a person feels that they are similar to people their age portrayed in media; and 3) identification, which is the extent to which a person aspires to be like the people in media.
This brief also examines students’ perceptions of an advertisement that used sexual themes and innuendo to promote an alcoholic beverage; importantly, the ad lacked any information about sexual health or consent. Analyses were used to evaluate students’ perceptions of the ad’s credibility (i.e., trustworthiness, truthfulness, and believability) and completeness (i.e., how complete is the information in this advertisement?).10
Analyses were conducted using data collected as part of the Community College Health Study (CCHS). The CCHS sample included 1,647 community college students from 34 campuses across the US. Student data were collected from 2021 to 2024. Students joined the study at ages 18–19 and completed a survey when they were enrolled (i.e., at baseline), and then completed additional surveys at the following time points over the course of one year: 1 month, 6 months, and 12 months. Most analyses in this brief are conducted with data from the baseline survey, while some are conducted with data collected from participants at the 1-month or 12-month time point (exact timing depended on their condition in the study; see Scull et al. 2022 for additional details).
Young adult community college students are learning about sex from media.
Almost all (97 percent) of adults under 30 in the US own a smartphone,11 and over half of adults ages 18–34 report that they are online almost constantly.12 Media messages are rife with sexual content (i.e., content that sends messages about sex, including depictions of sex and romantic relationships).13 Media can positively influence sexual and relationship health by providing access to accurate health information in a convenient and private manner, as well as providing connection and community for young people, especially those from marginalized groups.14
However, much of the sexual content young people encounter in media glamorizes and normalizes risky and/or unhealthy sexual behaviors.15 Media messages about sex and relationships often perpetuate harmful and stereotypical gender roles, normalize sexual violence, and contain inaccurate or incomplete information about consent, contraception, pregnancy, and STIs.16 Such messages frequently portray risky sexual behaviors as desirable while ignoring potential health consequences, including unintended pregnancy and STIs.17
Media are only one of several influences on sexual decision-making, but they remain an important factor to address because media messages can shape behaviors and beliefs that can contribute to negative sexual health outcomes. For example, a longitudinal study was conducted with adolescents who were surveyed at 12–17 years of age and then monitored at 15–20 years of age, which found that exposure to sexual content in mainstream media predicted pregnancy before age 20.18 Exposure to sexual content in media has also been found to predict having sex at an earlier age among both adolescents (ages 11–17) and young adults (ages 18–25).19 Additionally, studies have found that exposure to sexual content in media is related to increased acceptance of casual sex20 and engaging in risky sexual behaviors (e.g., using condoms less consistently).21
Analyses from the CCHS show that among 18–19-year-old community college students in the sample, 58 percent have had oral sex, 54 percent have had vaginal sex, and 16 percent have had anal sex. The analyses also show that among 18–19-year-old community college students, only about half of students used a condom the last time they had vaginal sex, 42 percent used a condom at last anal sex, and less than 20 percent used protection the last time they engaged in oral sex.22
Thinking critically about media messages can serve as a protective factor against the unhealthy influence of media on sexual decision-making.
Young adults benefit from thinking critically about sexual media messages, so they can evaluate the information and reject media messages that are unhealthy or misleading. Research shows that media influence is shaped by several critical media attitudes, including perceived realism (believing media reflects real life), perceived similarity (seeing oneself as similar to people in media), and identification (aspiring to be like those portrayed in media).23 Therefore, helping students think more critically about media by recognizing that it often presents unrealistic portrayals and by questioning whether they truly identify with and aspire to be like those in media can help them reject unhealthy media influence. Research shows that the more credible (i.e., trustworthy, truthful, and believable) a person perceives a media message to be, the more likely it is to influence them.24 Therefore, promoting critical thinking about media messages helps students question the credibility of messages that promote unhealthy beliefs and behaviors.
Community college students’ critical media attitudes.
Data were collected to assess students’ critical media attitudes. Specifically, students rated a series of statements to assess their perceived realism of media messages and perceived similarity to and identification with people in media. Statements were rated on a scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree. Lower scores indicate that students held more critical media attitudes, which can serve as a protective factor against the potentially harmful influence of media on sexual decision-making (Figure 1).
On average, students had moderately critical media attitudes, revealing that there is an opportunity in higher education to help students recognize that media messages are often unrealistic, question whether the people in media truly reflect their own lives, and reflect on whether they truly wish to emulate these portrayals.
Community college students’ critical analyses and evaluation of media messages.
In addition to understanding students’ general beliefs about media (i.e., critical media attitudes), it is important to examine how students evaluate media messages when they encounter them, especially those that contain unhealthy and/or incomplete information about sex and risky sexual behaviors (e.g., substance use during/before sexual activity). Credibility is the extent to which a person evaluates a message as trustworthy, truthful, and believable.25 Credibility is an important variable because the more credible a person perceives an advertisement to be, the more likely they are to be persuaded by it.26
Therefore, when viewing media messages promoting unhealthy sexual beliefs and behaviors, it is protective for students to evaluate those messages as less credible. Also, as discussed above, media messages are often missing important information about sex, such as protection and sexual consent. When students have medically accurate sexual health knowledge and think critically about media messages, they can identify when important sexual health information is missing from a media message.
To examine how students process and evaluate a media message, as part of the CCHS, students were shown an advertisement that used sexual themes and innuendo to promote an alcoholic beverage. Students were asked to rate the extent to which they found the ad to be credible (i.e., trustworthy, truthful, and believable) and identify if there was missing information in the ad (i.e., is the ad complete?). Analyses revealed that, while some students evaluated the ad as incomplete and not credible, many engaged in less critical media analysis and found it complete and credible (Figure 2). This indicates that there is an opportunity to enhance community college students’ critical analysis and evaluation of media messages, which can help them identify when important information is missing in sexual media messages and reject messages promoting unhealthy beliefs and behaviors.
Community college students who view media less critically are more likely to endorse beliefs that put them at an increased risk of engaging in risky sexual behaviors.
Students in the CCHS were asked a series of questions to assess their beliefs about risky sexual behaviors. These beliefs included established predictors of behavior, such as: 1) attitudes (i.e., permissive beliefs about engaging in risky sexual behaviors); 2) normative beliefs (i.e., their perception of how many of their peers engage in risky sexual behaviors); 3) perceptions of people who engage in risky sexual behaviors (i.e., the extent to which they perceive that people who engage in risky sexual behaviors exhibit positive or negative personality traits); and, 4) intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors (Table 1).
Thinking less critically about media messages was associated with holding more favorable attitudes towards risky sex, believing it was more common among peers, having more positive views of people who engage in risky sexual behaviors, and having greater intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors. In addition, viewing pornography as realistic (i.e., porn realism) and a useful way to learn about sex (i.e., porn utility) were associated with having more positive views of people who engage in risky sexual behaviors and having greater intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors. While these findings indicate a significant relationship exists between these constructs, additional research using longitudinal and/or experimental methods is needed to establish directionality and causation.
Media literacy education: An evidence-based solution to enhancing student sexual health.
Media literacy is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.”27 Media literacy is essential because it equips people with the critical thinking skills needed to navigate today’s complex—and rapidly changing—digital media environment. A media-literate individual recognizes that media messages are constructed and critically analyzes and evaluates the media messages they consume and create, assessing them for bias, accuracy, and missing information.
Media literacy education (MLE) aims to foster critical inquiry and analysis skills needed to actively engage with media in a critical and informed manner rather than passively being influenced by it.
MLE results in changes in how students perceive and process media messages and is an evidence-based approach to health promotion, including comprehensive sexual health education.28
While several legislative bills are pending regarding the inclusion of MLE in K-12 schools, very few states currently require MLE instruction.29 Therefore, the vast majority of students are likely entering community college with no formal MLE training. To compound this, students are not receiving adequate comprehensive sexual health education.30 This means students are entering college lacking the media literacy and sexual health education needed to navigate, decipher, and accurately evaluate the plethora of sexual media content they encounter.
MLE is a proven approach to enhancing students’ media literacy and sexual health outcomes, including among community college students. Recent research has established that an MLE approach to comprehensive sexual health education can successfully impact community college students’ sexual health and media literacy outcomes, including: 1) reduced perceived realism of media messages; 2) reduced positive attitudes about risky sex; 3) decreased descriptive normative beliefs about risky sexual activity; and 4) increased self-efficacy to use dental dams during oral sex.31
Policy Recommendation
Students are turning to media to learn about sex and relationships but lack the skills to critically analyze and evaluate the veracity of the messages they are consuming. Community colleges can serve a crucial role in filling this gap. Policymakers at the federal, state, and institutional levels should invest in and integrate evidence-based MLE into community college general education requirements and sexual health promotion efforts.
Conclusion
Young adults attending community college are frequent media users, and media exposure significantly shapes sexual beliefs and decision-making—sometimes supporting healthy sexual choices but often serving as an unhealthy influence. Being media literate enables young adults to critically analyze and evaluate the media messages they consume and create, including sexual content. However, most young adults have not received media literacy education and are in need of training and support to enhance their critical media attitudes and promote healthy engagement with media messages. This gap is further compounded by students’ limited access to comprehensive sexual health education, leaving many young adults underprepared to navigate sexual media content, which is pervasive in their lives.
As this brief illustrates, there is an opportunity for community colleges to enhance students’ critical thinking about media messages and to promote informed, healthy sexual decision-making. There is a strong evidence base that media literacy education is an effective approach to sexual health promotion. Community colleges can enhance student health by incorporating evidence-based media literacy programming into their sexual health promotion efforts.
This brief was prepared by Dr. Martinique Free (IWPR) and Dr. Christina V. Dodson, Dr. Reina Evans-Paulson, and Dr. Tracy M. Scull (innovation Research & Training, Durham, NC). It was made possible with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Funding for the Community College Health Study was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number R01HD099134 and award number R56HD113725-01A1 to Dr. Tracy M. Scull. Research reported in this brief is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. The authors would also like to thank Jesseca Boyer for her feedback on previous drafts and Miranda Peterson for fact-checking.
Amy Bleakley et al., “How Sources of Sexual Information Relate to Adolescents’ Beliefs About Sex,” American Journal of Health Behavior 33 (2009): 37–48, https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.33.1.4.
Francesca R. Dillman Carpentier et al., “Sex, Love, and Risk-n-Responsibility: A Content Analysis of Entertainment Television,” Mass Communication and Society 20, no. 5 (2017): 686–709, https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2017.1298807; Eric R. Walsh-Buhi et al., “Sexual Health Information Online,” in Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence, eds. D.A. Christakis et al., (2024): 349-356, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-69362-5_48.
Laura Baams et al., “Perceived Realism Moderates the Relation Between Sexualized Media Consumption and Permissive Sexual Attitudes in Dutch Adolescents,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 44, no. 3 (2015): 743–754, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0443-7; Reina Evans-Paulson et al., “Critical Media Attitudes as a Buffer Against the Harmful Effects of Pornography on Beliefs About Sexual and Dating Violence,” Sex Education 24, no. 6 (2024): 799–815, https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2023.2241133.
Zahra Vahedi et al., “Are Media Literacy Interventions Effective at Changing Attitudes and Intentions towards Risky Health Behaviors in Adolescents? A Meta-analytic Review,” Journal of Adolescence 67 (2018): 140-152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2018.06.007.
Tracy M. Scull et al., “Examining the Efficacy of an mHealth Media Literacy Education Program for Sexual Health Promotion in Older Adolescents Attending Community College,” Journal of American College Health 66, no. 3 (2018): 165-177, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2017.1393822.
Fathia Richardson et al., “Single Mother Students are Lacking Sufficient Support to Persist to Graduation in Community Colleges,” Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice 7, no. 2 (2022): 26-31, https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2022.202.
Tracy M. Scull et al., “Evaluating the Mechanisms and Long-Term Effects of a Web-Based Comprehensive Sexual Health and Media Literacy Education Program for Young Adults Attending Community College,” Trials 23, no. 1 (2022): 521, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06414-6.
Ward et al., “Sexual media content and effects,” 1-30.
Matthew N. Berger et al., “Social Media’s Role in Support Networks Among LGBTQ Adolescents: A Qualitative Study,” Sex Health 18, no. 5 (2021):421-431, doi: 10.1071/SH21110.
Dillman Carpentier et al., “Sex, Love, and Risk-n-Responsibility,” 686-709.
Ward et al., “Sexual media content and effects,” 1-30.
Dillman Carpentier et al., “Sex, Love, and Risk-n-Responsibility,” 686-709; Ward et al., “Sexual media content and effects,” 1-30.
Anita Chandra et al., “Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings from a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth,” Pediatrics 122, no. 5 (2008): 1047–1054, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2007-3066.
Sarah M. Coyne et al., “Contributions of Mainstream Sexual Media Exposure to Sexual Attitudes, Perceived Peer Norms, and Sexual Behavior: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Adolescent Health 64, no. 4 (2019): 430–436, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.11.016.
Johanna M. F. Van Oosten et al., “Adolescents’ Sexual Media Use and Willingness to Engage in Casual Sex: Differential Relations and Underlying Processes,” Human Communication Research 43, no. 1 (2017): 127–147, https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12098.
Leah Dajches et al., “Sexual Media Content and Effects,” in De Gruyter Handbook of Media Psychology (2025): 227, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111292144.
Reina Evans-Paulson et al., “An Examination of the Sexual Health Behaviors and Cognitions of Young U.S. Community College Students with Respect to the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Identity,” Journal of American College Health (2024): 1–10, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2024.2378294.
Erica W. Austin, “The Message Interpretation Process Model,” in Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media 2 (2007): 535-536, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412952606.n277.
Scott B. MacKenzie et al., “The Role of Attitude Toward the Ad as a Mediator of Advertising Effectiveness: A Test of Competing Explanations,” Journal of Marketing Research 23, no. 2 (1986): 130–143, https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437860230020; Henk Lütjens et al., “Determinants of Consumers’ Attitudes towards Digital Advertising–A Meta-analytic Comparison Across Time and Touchpoints,” Journal of Business Research 153 (2022): 445-466, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.07.039.
Scott B. MacKenzie et al., “An Empirical Examination of the Structural Antecedents of Attitude Toward the Ad in an Advertising Pretesting Context,” Journal of Marketing 53, no. 2 (1989): 48–65, https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298905300204.
MacKenzie et al., “The Role of Attitude,” 130–143; Lütjens et al., “Determinants of Consumers’ Attitudes,” 445-466; MacKenzie et al., “An Empirical Examination,” 48–65.
Christina V. Dodson et al., “Media Literacy Education for Comprehensive Sexual Health Promotion,” in Teens, Sex, and Media Effects (2024): 157–174, https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781032648880-20; Scull et al., “Examining the Efficacy,” 165–177; Tracy M. Scull et al., “A Media Literacy Education Approach to Sexual Health Promotion: Immediate Effects of Media Aware on the Sexual Health Cognitions of Young Adult Community College Students,” Journal of Health Communication 29, no. 11–12 (2024): 716–725, https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2024.2433527.
Tracy M. Scull et al., “Moving Toward a More Comprehensive Standard for Sex Education: A Latent Class Analysis and Examination of Young Adult Sexual Health,” The Journal of Sex Research (2025): 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2025.2475549.
Scull et al., “A Media Literacy Education Approach,” 716-725; Scull et al., “Examining the Efficacy,” 165-177.
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This brief was done in partnership with IWPR’s Connect for Success initiative and innovation Research & Training (iRT).
