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 After accounting for factors in early childhood, and even before
birth that might explain the link, the associations were still “very
robust,” said lead author Andrea Waylen of the School of Oral and
Dental Sciences in Bristol, England.
The study only looked at a single point in time, so it cannot prove
cause and effect, Waylen noted in an email. But the results are in
line with research from the USA, Europe and elsewhere that links
youth “viewing of depictions of alcohol use in movies and the onset
of drinking, regular drinking, binge-drinking and alcohol-related
problems,” she said.
Waylen and her coauthors analyzed data from another long-term study
of children born near Bristol between 1991 and 1992, who were
followed periodically from birth.
At age 15, more than 5,000 of the kids completed a computer-based
interview, assessing whether they had seen 50 randomly selected
popular contemporary movies. Researchers had coded how many seconds
of alcohol use appeared in each film, and totaled the amount each
kid had seen based on their answers.
Those who had the least exposure to images of alcohol had seen 27
minutes or fewer in the study films. The next highest groups had
seen 28 to 44 minutes, then 45 to 63 minutes, and those who had seen
the most had seen more than 63 minutes.
The computer interview also included questions about personal
history of alcohol use, current use, binge drinking and alcohol
related problems with school, work or the police. It asked kids
about their smoking habits, peers’ drinking habits and questions
that measured “sensation seeking.”
The researchers also tried to account for parental drinking habits
and traits, socioeconomic factors over the child’s entire lifetime
such as housing stability and financial difficulties, as well as
diagnoses of attention deficit disorder or other mental health
issues.
With those kinds of factors considered, the kids in the highest
film-drinking exposure group were about 20 percent more likely to
have tried alcohol than the lowest-exposure group.
The kids with the highest film-drinking exposure were about twice as
likely to use alcohol weekly, to binge drink and to have had
alcohol-related problems than those in the lowest exposure group, as
reported in Pediatrics.
“We've accounted for alcohol exposure in movies,” but more accurate
measures would need to add in alcohol exposure on TV, online, in
magazines, and advertised in other ways, Waylen noted.
[to top of second column] |
Previous studies in the U.S. and elsewhere have found that exposure
to alcohol on screen does predict teen alcohol use, according to
Sonya Dal Cin of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who was
not part of the new study.
“In the U.S., the MPAA rating system does not specifically mention
alcohol use as a ratings criterion,” Dal Cin told Reuters Health by
email.
Alcohol use in Hollywood films has been on the rise in recent years,
in part because the alcohol industry pays for product placement,
according to Dr. Reiner Hanewinkel of the Institute for Therapy and
Health Research in Kiel, Germany, who was also not part of the new
research.
“Cigarette product placement in Hollywood movies is regulated by the
Master Settlement with the State Attorneys General,” Hanewinkel told
Reuters Health by email. “Alcohol placements in movies are subject
only to internal self-regulatory guidelines of the industry,
guidelines which are inadequate to protect children.”
Movies ought to be certified for alcohol exposure as they are for
violence so that kids and parents can make informed decisions about
movie viewing, and parents should discuss with their kids the pros
and cons of alcohol use and provide appropriate education and, if
necessary restriction, Waylen said.
“The important thing is education - alcohol is a drug and can have
adverse effects on the lives, not only of the people who drink but
also on their families and society: people need to be aware of the
adverse effects of irresponsible alcohol use and of the fact that it
could ‘happen to them’,” Waylen said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Oev5WV
Pediatrics, online April 13, 2015.
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