Teen books can be sexual

Reading books is a good habit but a new study has found that popular teen books can be surprisingly sexual, meaning that reading may not always be the wholesome activity that parents expect.

Books aimed at 12 and 13-year-olds were no less sexy than books aimed at readers ages 14 and up. In addition, sex was rarely presented in a healthy light: Contraceptives and practical consequences were almost never mentioned, said study researcher Sarah Coyne, a psychologist at Brigham Young University.

The 'Gossip Girl' books and a vampire series 'The Anna Strong Chronicles' were two series that were particularly focused on sex, she said.

"Teen readers are likely to be very involved or engaged or what we call ''transported'' by the narrative," Fox News quoted Jane Brown, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of North Carolina, as telling LiveScience.

"When that happens, what we know from other research is that [kids] are more likely to accept the story and find it persuasive," she added.

"So we would expect that a teen reader who is transported by the narrative would be more likely to engage in the kind of behaviour she is reading about," said Brown.

The study has been detailed in the Journal of Sex Research.