Adolescents who witness alcohol consumption in films are more likely to try it out themselves.
The findings suggest a review of film-rating categories and their link to alcohol could help reduce alcohol consumption among this age group, the University of Bristol reported. Between the years of 1989 and 2008, 72 percent of the most popular box office films in the U.K. portrayed alcohol consumption, but only about 6 percent of these films were classified as adults-only.
"The goal of this study was to investigate whether the association between exposure to images of alcohol use in movies and binge drinking among adolescents is independent of cultural context," the researchers stated in their study abstract.
The recent study looked at 5,000 adolescents around the age of 15, the data was taken from Bristol's Children of the 90s study. The findings showed adolescents who had the highest exposure to boozy movies were 1.2 times more likely to have tried alcohol compared with those who had the lowest exposure and were 1.7 times more likely to binge drink.
The data also showed those with the highest exposure to alcohol in media were 2.4 times more likely to drink weekly and twice as likely to develop alcohol-related problems than those who were least exposed.
"The link between alcohol use in movies and adolescent binge drinking was robust and seems relatively unaffected by cultural contexts," the researchers said.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Pediatrics.
