Published online June 1, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 6 June 2007, pp. e1219-e1229 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-1319)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Webb, T.
Right arrow Articles by Kraus, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Webb, T.
Right arrow Articles by Kraus, J.
Related Collections
Right arrow Office Practice

ARTICLE

Violent Entertainment Pitched to Adolescents: An Analysis of PG-13 Films

Theresa Webb, PhDa, Lucille Jenkins, MPHa, Nickolas Browne, EdDb, Abdelmonen A. Afifi, PhDa and Jess Kraus, PhD, MPHa

a Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center, UCLA School of Public Health
b UCLA School of Film, Television, and Digital Media, University of California–Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the violence content of the top-grossing PG-13 films of 1999 and 2000 to determine what percentage of it had potential for negative effects on young viewers and what percentage of it had potential for prosocial or beneficial effects.

METHODS. A large, multidimensional analytic instrument was designed for systematic coding of each act of violence and its contextualization by features that have been shown either to enhance or to protect against harmful effects that are associated with violent media exposure: perpetrators and victims of violence, motivation for violence, presence of weapons, degree of realism, and consequences of violence. Descriptive statistics by genre were performed for each film. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to examine the association between the seriousness of violence and weapons, motive, and genre.

RESULTS. In the sample of 77 PG-13 films, a total of 2251 violent actions were observed with roughly half (47%) of lethal magnitude. A total of 118 acts contained justified violence that were initiated by major characters and were extremely serious, and approximately two thirds of the films (49 [64%]) were rated PG-13 for reasons other than violence.

CONCLUSIONS. Violence permeated nearly 90% of the films in our study. Although only a small subset of this content contained violence that was associated with negative effects, only 1 film contained violence that was associated with protective or beneficial effects.

Key Words: violence • film • media • MPAA rating system

Abbreviations: MPAA—Motion Picture Association of America • FTC—Federal Trade Commission • NTVS—National Television Violence Study • OR—odds ratio

Accepted Nov 28, 2006.