A recent Dartmouth University study claims that deterring kids from watching R-rated movies will help steer them away from alcohol and drugs and "a lot of other things that parents don't want them to do." The study, which involved New England middle school kids, meanwhile found no link between such movies and their consumption of clam chowder.
The Dartmouth team came to their conclusions after identifying thousands of middle-schoolers who'd never drunk alcohol. In re-interviews with roughly 2,000 of these children 1-2 years later, nearly 15% had started secretly drinking. Cross-referencing this with their parents' leniency in allowing R-rated films revealed that kids who were allowed to watch adult movies represented the greatest increase in alcohol use. By the way, nearly a quarter of the kids interviewed reported having parents who let them watch R-rated movies "all the time."
Using research methods far above my understanding, the researchers say that the direct connection between movie-watching and drinking is apparent even when you take into account different parenting styles (not including Charlie Sheen). The researchers even refer to the movies as "media parenting."
While it's hardly shocking that kids mirror the behavior of movie stars who drink and smoke, I had five other instantaneous reactions:
1) What kind of parents lets kids see R-rated movies all the time? It seems like you'd have to go out of your way to allow that to happen. Mom: "Kids, I'm so sick of SpongeBob! How about we watch Basic Instinct again?"
2) It's hard to control the media our kids are exposed to, but parental behavior is another story. I'd like to hear more about what happens when parents themselves drink in front of kids. Personally, I just don't do it.
3) Who's studying the effect of university researchers asking kids about drinking and R-rated movies on the rates of kids drinking and watching R-rated movies?
4) Given how kids model behavior of their screen idols, what can we do to put the brakes on what seems like an inevitable Miley-to-Britney transformation?
5) Note to self: Never go to an R-rated movie in New England. Kids will ruin it.
Joel Schwartzberg is an award-winning humorist and author of "The 40-Year-Old Version"
Follow Joel Schwartzberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joeljest
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Some psychologists have suggested the possibility that, in large part, people gravitate toward things they're genetically inclined toward. I was not inclined to watch violent/horrific films. It just happened to be in my environment. Now that I am in an environment I control, I don't watch them. I do realize that people can become desensitized toward violence, but I don't believe I have been.
If we want to talk about real horror, how about the Milgram experiment and what it is about our psychology and our socialization that explains that immorality? If there is anything that society can do to ameliorate the craven worship of authority, let's work on it. Perhaps it's related to the binge drinking problem on college campuses as well as the hazing and peer pressure that often goes with it? Perhaps it's related to the sexual repression that sublimates into such drinking?
You know, it may not be the best thing to let kids watch some R movies, but that doesn't mean that a law should be passed to address it. Quit trying to nanny everyone else with legislation. It's unamerican and unconstitutional. Your time would be much better spent fighting to get rid of the thousands of bad laws on the books.
There are already many similar restrictions on parenting and speech. It's illegal, for instance, for parents to show their children X-rated films, even though there is no evidence that I know of that explicit sexual content is more damaging than explicit violence (common in R-rated films). It's worth asking why, as a culture, we consider love-making more damaging for children to see than murder/mayhem.
why don;t we just legalize pot, and save a whole lot of lives?