Sexual grooming is the deliberate manipulation of a minor by an adult to reduce their sensitivity to sexual contact, with the specific aim of perpetrating child or adolescent sexual abuse (Winters, 2022). Prevalence rates for sexual grooming vary; however, a recent study by Winters and Jeglic (2022) found that approximately 24% of their sample of undergraduate student sample reported experiencing sexual grooming as a minor. These predatory behaviors were prominently featured between lead adolescent and adult characters throughout the popular television show, Pretty Little Liars. This raises concerns about how such behaviors might be perceived when portrayed in popular media targeted at teens and young adults. When Pretty Little Liars first aired, it was ranked number one in TV programming in Female Teens in 2010 (ABC Family, 2010). This strong viewership highlights how the show was effectively marketed towards a young audience despite its portrayal of problematic – and illegal - romantic relationships between adults and teens. The goal of our study was to examine how sexual grooming behaviors were portrayed in both the original series and its reboot, exploring changes in how sexual grooming behaviors were framed over time. We conducted a content analysis study to examine grooming behavior in Pretty Little Liars, the original series, as well as Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, the reboot. For our study, we developed a codebook to track the manifest and latent content of each episode, with two raters independently scoring each episode for the following content: victim and perpetrator demographics, grooming behaviors, how grooming behaviors were portrayed in the episode, and stage of grooming. There are five basic stages of the Sexual Grooming Model (SGM) that were coded: 1) victim selection, 2) gaining access and isolating a child, 3) trust development, 4) desensitization to sexual content and physical contact, and 5) maintenance following the abuse (Winters et al., 2022). This was done for the first and second seasons of the original series and the first season of the reboot. For season one of the original series, we found that 90.9% of grooming behavior was portrayed as romantic, as for season two it decreased to 84%. Grooming behaviors were normalized and often seen as positive or romantic throughout the original series. The reboot had a dramatic change; there was only 10% that believed grooming behavior was being portrayed as romantic. The writers for the reboot reframed the portrayal of grooming in a negative light, often having the adolescents confront their perpetrators for their behaviors. Additional manifest and latent content will be presented and described. Understanding how grooming behaviors are depicted in media is essential for public awareness; this study contributes to a deeper understanding of grooming behaviors portrayed in the media. Teachers and educators can use these findings to help students recognize and critique problematic behaviors in television shows and movies, fostering critical discussions about the differences between reality and media portrayals of grooming and other sensitive topics. Ultimately, our findings could spark essential conversations about how the media portrays sensitive topics and encourage future creators to handle these topics more thoughtfully. References ABC Family. (2010, June 16). Pretty Little Liars retains 100 percent of premiere audience. BroadwayWorld. https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/ABC-Familys-PRETTY-LITTLE-LIARS-Retains-100-Percent-Of-Premiere-Audience-20100616 Gámez-Guadix, M., Mateos-Pérez, E., Alcázar, M. A., Martínez-Bacaicoa, J., & Wachs, S. (2023). Stability of the online grooming victimization of minors: Prevalence and association with shame, guilt, and mental health outcomes over one year. Journal of adolescence, 95(8), 1715–1724. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12240 Winters, G. M., Kaylor, L. E., & Jeglic, E. L. (2022). Toward a universal definition of child sexual grooming. Deviant Behavior, 43(8), 926–938. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2021.1941427 Winters, G. M., & Jeglic, E. L. (2022). The Sexual Grooming Scale–Victim Version: The development and pilot testing of a measure to assess the nature and extent of child sexual grooming. Victims & Offenders, 17(6), 919-940. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2021.1974994
Johnson et al. (Tue,) studied this question.