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8 March 2007: A study has
revealed that white teenagers in the
United States who watch a lot of
R-rated movies or have unsupervised
access to television shows seem more
likely than similar black youths to
start smoking cigarettes.
Researchers found that white
adolescents with the most exposure to
R-rated movies were about seven times
more likely to have started smoking
compared to those with less exposure.
Even after taking into account such
things as having a friend who smoked,
lack of parental guidance or doing
poorly in school, those who watched
more R-rated movies were still three
times more likely to start smoking.
In theatres, anyone aged 16 or younger
who watches an R-rated movie must be
accompanied by a parent or adult
guardian.
White adolescents who are allowed
unsupervised television viewing were
also more likely to start smoking, the
study says.
But, among black adolescents included
in the study, there was no similar
impact for restricted movies or
unfettered TV viewing.
While the reason for the racial
difference is not known, one factor
could be that viewers prefer
characters “who are similar to
themselves in sex, age or race,”
something that begins in childhood,
says the report, published in the
March 2007 issue of Archives of
Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
“Because the majority of contemporary
screen actors are white, it follows
that experiencing identification and
subsequent involvement in the
narratives of popular movies and
television programmes is less likely
among black adolescents than among
white,” the study concluded.
The study said today’s movies depict
actors smoking as often as in the
1950s.
Previous studies had found that over
three-fourths of youngsters of all
races between the ages of 10 and 14
said they watched R-rated movies at
home without parental permission.
Previous research has also linked the
level of exposure to R-rated fare and
TV in general and teens’ starting to
smoke, but had not identified the
racial difference.
The new report was based on interviews
with 735 children aged 12 to 14,
almost equally divided between black
and white.
Christine Jackson of the Pacific
Institute for Research and Evaluation
in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the
United States, and colleagues
interviewed the 735, attending 14
public middle schools in the
southeastern United States.
In an initial interview conducted in
the fall of 2001, students were asked
about the types of movies they
watched, their TV viewing habits, and
whether their parents restricted the
kinds of television shows they
watched. The students were next
interviewed in 2004 about their
smoking behaviour.
Jackson’s team found that white
adolescents with high exposure to
R-rated movies were nearly seven times
more likely to start smoking compared
to white teens who did not see as many
R-rate movies.
Even after they adjusted for other
risk factors – like having a friend
who smokes, lack of parental
involvement, and poor academic
performance – the researchers found
that white teens who watched more
R-rated movies were still three times
more likely to start smoking.
They were asked which of 93 popular
films shown in theatres from 2001 to
2002 that they had watched, how often
they watched TV, and whether their
parents had rules about what they
could watch.
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