This thesis utilizes quantitative content analysis to explore themes of teenage sexuality, sexual experimentation, and pregnancy in the ABC Family television program, the Secret Life of the American Teenager (Secret Life). The program, Secret Life, follows the events surrounding the life of a 15-year old girl who discovers she is pregnant just before her first year of high school. The project was guided by previous media research that has utilized Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory to explore the role of mediated portrayals in the lives of viewers. While this thesis is not an effects study, it was designed with future studies with audience involvement in mind.
The results of this content analysis indicate that there is a significant proportion of sexually-themed content present throughout episodes of Secret Life – with 40% of the sample coded as containing sexual themes. The program reflects many real-life research projects about the ways in which teenagers communicate about sexuality with others (e.g., peers, parents, medical professionals) as well as provides insight into one version of reality in the growing teen pregnancy genre (which includes MTV programs such as 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom).