14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists have recently determined in a new investigation that children younger than 17 tend to try alcohol at an earlier age if they are exposed to R-rated movies without parental guidance and control. These films generally receive this rating because they portray behaviors that are deemed inadequate to be viewed by minors. They also contain moderate to strong language, and disturbing images, or adult content. Researchers suggest that these elements may strongly influence the minds of teenagers, who easily fall prey to the messages sent through these movies, ScienceDaily reports.
“The study found that watching R-rated movies affected the level of sensation seeking among adolescents. It showed that R-rated movies not only contain scenes of alcohol use that prompt adolescents to drink, they also jack up the sensation seeking tendency, which makes adolescents more prone to engage in all sorts of risky behaviors,” Dartmouth Medical School pediatrician James D. Sargent, MD, who has been in charge of the new investigation, explains.
“There is another take home point in the findings. When it comes to the direct effect on alcohol use, the influence of R-rated movies depends on sensation seeking level. High sensation seekers are already at high risk for use of alcohol, and watching a lot of R-rated movies raises their risk only a little. But for low sensation seekers, R-rated movies make a big difference. In fact, exposure to R-rated movies can make a low sensation seeking adolescent drink like a high sensation seeking adolescent,” he adds.
The research was conducted between 2003 and 2005. During this time, more than 6,255 children were examined once every eight months, as the experts were scanning for possible correlations between the probability of alcohol use and exposure to R-rated movies. The investigators also looked at the level of “sensation-seeking” behavior that each of the youngsters exhibited, as in the strength of their tendecny to seek out risky experiences. Funding for the new work came from the United States National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.