Washington, July 03: Experts suggest that it is ‘alluring’ even for well-behaved children to emulate ‘bad’ characters on a film screen”.
But the study also shows that movie characters who smoke, regardless of whether they are a ‘goodie’ or a ‘baddie’, overall influence teens’ smoking tendencies.
Susanne Tanski, the lead author on the study, and an assistant professor of paediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School in the US, said: “It’s true that ‘bad guys’ are more often smokers in the movies, but there really are not that many ‘bad guys’ compared to ‘good guys’.
“Episode for episode, youths who saw negative character smoking were more likely to start smoking, but since overall there is so much more exposure to ‘good guy’ smoking, the net effect is similar.
“But with regards to low-risk teens the study does suggests that it’s alluring for ‘good’ kids to emulate the ‘bad’ characters on the movie screen.”
Dr Tanski and her team, which published their research in the Journal of the American Medical Association, have studied the connection between popular culture and risky behaviour in teens and have suggested that less adolescents are smoking because there are less smoking movie characters.
Dr James Sargent, a professor of paediatrics at the Cancer Control Research Program at Dartmouth, said: “Movie smoking represents only one of several factors that contribute to youth smoking trends, including the marketing of tobacco and price of cigarettes.
“Nonetheless, the downward trend in movie smoking is consistent with an influence on downward trends in adolescent smoking.”
Dr Tanski said that although there is a downward trend, smoking still occurs in many movies that teens watch, particularly given the popularity of movie channels and video rentals providing access to older films.
“Parents should limit movie viewing and specifically restrict access to age-restriced movies, which tend to contain more smoking.
“When teens do see movies or TV shows that contain smoking, parents should talk with them in an effort to discourage initiation of smoking.”
–Agencies