Rap music is one of the most liked genres of today's youths. But recently, researchers from The University of Texas Health (UT Health) came up to something that might probably cause parents to think twice before they would let their kids be fond of it.
The newly conducted university research, which was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, showed how rap music can affect the youth's mindset when it comes to sex. "Rap music influences your beliefs about what you think your peers are doing," said Dr. Kimberly Johnson-Baker, faculty associate at the University Of Texas School Of Public Health.
As to the research which was posted in Daily Mail, tested middle school students who were fond of listening to rap music for more than three hours each day showed that they were 2.6 times more likely to engage in sex after two years. These students were also 2.5 times more likely to think that sex is already a trend -- making them more vulnerable to engage in the act, too.
The University Of Texas Health Science Center at Houston included 443 students in the seventh grade, whose ethnicity's mostly Hispanic and black, to gather enough information about the study. As stated by Mirror, these students underwent surveys, which focused on how often they listen to such music and whether they believe their colleagues were already engaging to sex or not.
"My recommendation to parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents is to not ban or limit rap music but to instead use it to educate and confront any negative content regarding sex," Dr. Baker said. "Rap music is a powerful tool and a generation connector, because honestly many of the sexually explicit themes present in today's rap music have always and still are a part of the larger American popular culture."
For the next part of the research, the experts are looking forth to examine how rap music can also influence fifth-grade students regarding sexual initiation and perception of peers.
