PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 5 May 2007, pp. e1167-e1176 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-2897)
ARTICLE |
Exposure to Movie Smoking Among US Adolescents Aged 10 to 14 Years: A Population Estimate
Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire
BACKGROUND. Several studies have linked seeing smoking in movies with adolescent smoking, but none have determined how much movie smoking adolescents see.
OBJECTIVE. Our aim was to determine exposure to movie smoking in a representative sample of young US adolescents.
METHODS. We surveyed 6522 nationally representative US adolescents aged 1014 years. We content analyzed 534 contemporary box-office hits for movie smoking. Each movie was assigned to a random subsample of adolescents (mean: 613) who were asked whether they had seen the movie. Using survey weights, we estimated the total number of US adolescents who had seen each movie and then multiplied by the number of smoking depictions in each movie to obtain gross smoking impressions seen by adolescents.
RESULTS. The 534 movies were mainly rated PG-13 (41%) and R (40%), and 74% contained smoking (3830 total smoking occurrences). On average, each movie was seen by 25% of the adolescents surveyed. Viewership was higher with increased age and lower for R-rated movies. Overall, these movies delivered 13.9 billion gross smoking impressions, an average of 665 to each US adolescent aged 1014 years. Although this sample's R-rated movies contained 60% of smoking occurrences, they delivered only 39% of smoking impressions because of lower adolescent viewership. Thirty popular movies each delivered
100 million gross smoking impressions. Thirty actors each delivered >50 million smoking impressions, such that just 1.5% of actors delivered one quarter of all character smoking to the adolescent sample.
CONCLUSIONS. Popular movies deliver billions of smoking images and character smoking depictions to young US adolescents. Removing smoking from youth-rated films would substantially reduce exposure from new box-office hits. Furthermore, the popular actors who frequently smoke in movies could have a major impact on adolescent movie smoking exposure by choosing not to portray characters who smoke.
Key Words: movie smoking adolescent smoking reach gross smoking impressions population-based survey
Abbreviations: MPAAMotion Picture Association of America
Accepted Nov 27, 2006.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Technorati
Twitter What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
J. F. Thrasher, J. D. Sargent, L. Huang, E. Arillo-Santillan, A. Dorantes-Alonso, and R. Perez-Hernandez Does Film Smoking Promote Youth Smoking in Middle-Income Countries?: A Longitudinal Study among Mexican Adolescents Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., December 1, 2009; 18(12): 3444 - 3450. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. R. Longacre, A. M. Adachi-Mejia, L. Titus-Ernstoff, J. J. Gibson, M. L. Beach, and M. A. Dalton Parental Attitudes About Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Use in the Motion Picture Association of America Rating System Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, March 1, 2009; 163(3): 218 - 224. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. Hanewinkel Cigarette Smoking and Perception of a Movie Character in a Film Trailer Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, January 1, 2009; 163(1): 15 - 18. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. D. Sargent, M. Stoolmiller, K. A. Worth, S. Dal Cin, T. A. Wills, F. X. Gibbons, M. Gerrard, and S. Tanski Exposure to Smoking Depictions in Movies: Its Association With Established Adolescent Smoking Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, September 1, 2007; 161(9): 849 - 856. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. Pupillo Hot Air: AAP experts skeptical of movie industry's commitment to curb smoke-filled images in youth-rated films or add R-ratings AAP News, July 1, 2007; 28(7): 16 - 17. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||








