According to a new study, African American girls
who spend more time watching rap videos than their peers are more likely to
hit a teacher, have more than one sex partner, pick up an STD or be arrested.
Dr. Edward W. Hook III of the University of Alabama
in Birmingham monitored the behavior of 522 African-American girls between the
ages 14 and 18. The girls spent over a year watching videos and then had their
behavior monitored.
Before calculating their results, the authors
considered other factors that could have influenced the girls’ behavior, such
as age, family, employment and parental monitoring.
The girls in the study showed higher rates of
dangerous and violent behavior, and over 38 percent picked up a new STD. The
study found that 12 percent had been arrested and 44 percent said that they
used drugs
Those who watched more videos than others were
more likely to be arrested, report multiple sexual partners and used more drugs
and alcohol.
"I think it’s a reasonable inference to
say that these things build on one another in a sort of spiral, circular fashion,"
Hook told the American Journal of Public Health.
Dr. Cheryl L. Keyes of the University of California,
Los Angeles, author of the book "Rap Music and Street Consciousness,"
said that the studies shouldn’t be based on just rap music.
" Looking only at a girl’s choice of music
ignores other important factors," Keyes said. "It just can’t exclusively
be just rap music videos. It sort of bothers me that they’re always reducing
it to rap music. It’s a much more complex picture of youth growing up in contemporary
America."
