TY  - JOUR
T1  - PArental attitudes about cigarette smoking and alcohol use in the motion picture association of america rating system
AU  - Longacre MR, Adachi-Mejia AM, Titus-Ernstoff L, Gibson JJ, Beach ML, Dalton MA
Y1  - 2009/03/02
N1  - 10.1001/archpediatrics.2008.550
JO  - Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
SP  - 218
EP  - 224
VL  - 163
IS  - 3
N2  - Objective 
    To evaluate whether parents want smoking and alcohol use to be considered in movie ratings.Design 
    Data were collected as part of a longitudinal study of adolescent health behavior involving 2564 parent/child dyads from northern New England. Parents (n = 2401) were surveyed at wave 2 about movie ratings. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of parents (n = 62) 15 months later.Setting 
    Participants were surveyed by telephone.Participants 
    Most parents (94.9%; n = 2279) were mothers, 52.5% were younger than 40 years, and 90.6% were white, and children were aged 9 to 15 years.Main Outcome Measures 
    Whether cigarette and alcohol use should be included as movie ratings criteria and if movies with cigarette or alcohol use should be rated R.Results 
    About 52% (n = 1242) and 66% (n = 1579) of parents believed cigarette or alcohol use, respectively, should be used as movie ratings criteria; 28.9% (n = 693) supported an R rating for movies with smoking and 41.9% (n = 1003) supported R ratings for alcohol. In adjusted models, parents were more likely to support adding cigarette and alcohol use as ratings criteria if they believed the current ratings were not useful, they restricted their children from watching R-rated movies, and they were nondrinkers. Nonsmoking parents were more likely to support an R rating for smoking. Interviews revealed that parents may underestimate the impact of movie smoking and drinking.Conclusions 
    Although a majority of parents supported including smoking or drinking in ratings criteria, fewer favored R ratings. Parental support could be a key factor in determining the impact of modifications to the Motion Picture Association of America rating system.
SN  - 1072-4710
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2008.550
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2008.550
ER  -