mobiles and sexual practice

New results from the project Ung i Norge, this time an article appearing in the latest issue of The journal of the Norwegian medical association written by sociologist Willy Pedersen. The study focused on possible associations between the use of new communication technology and sexual behaviour among youth in Norway. The results are obviously very interesting for Norwegian media, especially as Pedersen found surprisingly strong correlations between heavy users of mobile phone mediated communication and percentage having had sexual intercourse. Reading the actual article gives you a more nuanced perspective than reading the newspapers though, and my initial questions concerning the study were answered. The associations between the variables remained significant when controlled for age and a range of contextual, family, peer and individual factors. I am pleased to see that Pedersen introduces other factors to explain the correlation, and I especially approve of the possible interpretation that youth who develop an intensive use of mobile phone mediated communication are the same youth who would have been characterized by stronger possibilities for sexual practice in any case. Pedersen is moreover conscious of the interplay between online and offline.