A Dartmouth study in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that 10 to 14-year-olds whose parents allow them to watch R-rated movies are more likely to drink as teens.
Researchers studied more than 2,400 children. Almost a quarter of the children whose parents allowed them to view R-rated movies frequently confessed to having tried alcohol behind their parents’ back. Only 3 percent of the students in the trial who were forbidden to watch R-rated movies had ever tried a drink.
Dr. James Sargent, the principal investigator in the study, said that parental regulation of their children’s media habits “is a very important aspect of parenting, and one that is often overlooked,” and that “keeping kids from R-rated movies can help keep them from drinking, smoking, and doing a lot of other things that parents don’t want them to do.”
Sargent says he thinks seeing adult content actually changes children’s personalities. There has been research to back up his claim. A study he and another team published earlier this year suggests that children who watch R-rated movies become more prone to risk taking and sensation seeking.
Then again, my own experience is totally different. When I grew up, my parents took me to the movies every Friday night, and I saw my share of R-rated movies starting at a pretty young age. Times have changed, though. I haven’t let my kids watch any R-rated movies, but they have watched some PG-13′s. Maybe movies have changed, too. I mostly saw political or “issue” movies with my parents–Serpico, The French Connection–with a few Woody Allen movies sprinkled in. I didn’t drink or smoke or have sex as a teen, but I sure saw a lot of drinking, smoking and sex in the movies. Also, TV is now more sophisticated than it was. About the riskiest thing I watched was Fantasy Island. Now kids can learn about teen pregnancy and three-ways on TV. So I’m not sure how I feel about this one.
And try telling my 12-year-old daughter she can’t watch Glee…
There’s always the school of thought that watching or reading about risky behaviors provides a safe way to learn about the world, without actually doing all those things.
Whatever your beliefs, one thing is clear: there’s a whole other layer of parenting that seems necessary in this complex, media-saturated world. Adult children of alcoholics, who often fear that their children will inherit their gene pool, can take comfort in the research, which suggests that there are some things parents can do to influence their children’s future drinking habits. Or are there?
As a side note, I’ve found Commonsense Media helpful in filtering media, even if they do tend to be a bit strict.
What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear them.
