NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Parents may help prevent the early use of cigarettes and alcohol by their preteen kids by outlawing R-rated movies. Many parents don't, however.
The findings come from a study by Dr. Madeline A. Dalton of Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire and colleagues, who looked at the role of parents in monitoring and limiting children's exposure to R-rated movies and whether this was associated with a lower risk of teen drinking and smoking.
Evidence suggests, the investigators point out in the medical journal Pediatrics, that portrayals of cigarette smoking and drinking in the movies, particularly R-rated movies, may fuel tobacco and alcohol use among children and adolescents who may see it as okay or cool.
Between 2002 and 2003, the team surveyed 2,606 child-parent pairs. The children were between 9 and 12 years old.
Less than half of the children (45 percent) were prohibited from watching R-rated movies, the researchers found. Among children permitted to watch R-rated films, one third always watched them with a parent and two thirds sometimes watched them without a parent.
Children prohibited from watching R-rated movies were less likely to have experimented with smoking and drinking or to say they would do so, the study found. Parental co-viewing of R-rated movies was also associated with a reduced likelihood of smoking but not drinking.
"There are very specific strategies parents can use to monitor their children's movie viewing, which may lower their risk for smoking and possibly drinking," Dalton told Reuters Health.
Parents of pre-teens, she said, "should always accompany their child when renting or choosing a movie; check the rating of a movie before deciding if it is appropriate for their child to watch; check to make sure the movies their child watches at friends' houses are appropriate; and, most importantly, restrict them from watching R-rated movies."
In the study, "children were less than half as likely to be at risk of smoking or drinking if their parents used all of these strategies to limit and monitor their movie viewing," Dalton said.
She also emphasized that standard movie ratings do not provide enough information for parents to determine how much smoking and alcohol might be portrayed in a movie, "but we do know that R-rated movies contain more smoking and drinking than movies in any other rating category."
Dalton encourages parents who want to know more about a movie before deciding whether it is appropriate for their child to check out www.screenit.com or www.kids-in-mind.com.
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