Teenagers who watch movies with scenes depicting alcohol consumption are twice as likely to begin drinking as those who are not exposed to on-screen drinking, according to a study conducted by researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. The study has attracted attention from multiple national news outlets such as Fox News and U.S. News and World Report.
The study began in 2000 as a survey of teens in northern New England, according to James Sargent, a pediatrics professor at Dartmouth Medical School and one of the leading authors of the study.
“The thing that’s striking about our research is how strong the data is across studies and across study designs,” Sargent said.
The study — which surveyed 6,500 participants between the ages of 10 and 14 in the U.S. — regularly quizzed adolescents over a two-year period about levels of alcohol consumption and potential sources of influence, including movies and marketing, home environment, peer pressure and personal rebellion.
The study’s authors randomly selected 50 movies from the top 100 U.S. box office hits in each of the past five years, as well as 32 films that had grossed more than $15 million in the first quarter of 2003, the survey’s first year, according to DHMC’s website.
Coders charted the number of seconds of on-screen alcohol use in each of these movies, as well as alcoholic beverage product placement. The researchers found that the adolescents had viewed approximately 4.5 hours of on-screen alcohol use on average, with many viewing more than eight hours.
The participants who had been exposed to the most on-screen alcohol use were twice as likely as their peers to begin drinking, according to the study. They were also 63 percent more likely to progress to binge drinking.
Product placement in films plays a large role in motivating teens to drink, according to the study.
While product placement for cigarettes has been forbidden in the U.S., it is “legal and commonplace” for alcohol companies to promote their products in films, the study says. Drinking scenes, however, should be subjected to the same scrutiny as cigarette product placement, according to the study’s authors.
Dartmouth psychology professor Todd Heatherton said the researchers’ findings reflect the intentions of marketing, built on the premise that the portrayal of certain behaviors can influence consumers.
“I do think it’s very interesting, though, and a little bit scary, for parents especially to know how much the media can affect a child’s behavior,” Heatherton said.
In addition to documenting the effects of on-screen alcohol consumption, researchers found that teens with friends who drank, felt the need to rebel or owned branded merchandise featuring the name of a beer, wine or spirit company were also more likely to begin drinking and then progress to binge drinking.
The study’s authors also found that parent drinking habits and availability of alcohol in the home were motivators for teens to drink, but did not necessarily cause them to progress to binge drinking.
Students interviewed by The Dartmouth said the results of the study were compelling.
“I think growing up and seeing parents have a glass of wine at dinner encourages kids to have an image of alcohol that leads them to think of drinking as something to be done in an adult, composed situation,” Bridget Shaia said.
Shaia said the results of the study are not surprising given the “powerful” role television and movies can play on influencing young people’s decisions.
The study was published on Feb. 20 in the online medical journal BMJ Open.