Favorite Movie Stars Influence Teen Smoking
Favorite Movie Stars Influence Teen Smoking
Young Fans of On-Screen Smokers More Likely to Start Smoking
June 29, 2004 -- Young fans of movie stars who smoke on screen may be much more likely to pick up the habit than fans of nonsmoking actors, a new study shows.
Researchers found teenage girls who have never smoked were 86% more likely to start smoking if their favorite movie star smoked often in films.
"We've heard for years that big-screen movies influence kids to smoke, and we wanted to know if that is true," says researcher John Pierce, PhD, director of the cancer prevention and control program at the University of California, San Diego, in a news release. "Our results were very strong, showing that if the movie stars smoke, especially in romance films, they are effectively encouraging young girls to smoke."
Researchers say adolescents watch an average of three movies per week, and on-screen smoking may be undermining public health efforts to curb teen smoking.
The results of the study appear in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers based the study on interviews with more than 2,000 adolescents in California who were between the ages of 12 and 15 years old in 1996 when the California Tobacco Survey began. None of the participants had ever smoked at the start of the study, and a follow-up interview was conducted in 1999.
The adolescents were asked to name their favorite movie stars in the first interview, and researchers reviewed the films the stars appeared in from 1994 to 1996. The stars were considered as smoking on screen if he or she smoked in two or more separate movies during the three-year period.
The study showed that one-third of the adolescents nominated a star who smoked on screen as their favorite. After the follow-up interview, researchers found those who were fans of smoking stars were much more likely to start smoking than the others.
This effect was particularly strong among young girls. Girls whose favorite star smoked on screen were 86% more likely to smoke three years later than those whose favorite star did not smoke.
Favorite Movie Stars Influence Teen Smoking
Young Fans of On-Screen Smokers More Likely to Start Smoking
June 29, 2004 -- Young fans of movie stars who smoke on screen may be much more likely to pick up the habit than fans of nonsmoking actors, a new study shows.
Researchers found teenage girls who have never smoked were 86% more likely to start smoking if their favorite movie star smoked often in films.
"We've heard for years that big-screen movies influence kids to smoke, and we wanted to know if that is true," says researcher John Pierce, PhD, director of the cancer prevention and control program at the University of California, San Diego, in a news release. "Our results were very strong, showing that if the movie stars smoke, especially in romance films, they are effectively encouraging young girls to smoke."
Researchers say adolescents watch an average of three movies per week, and on-screen smoking may be undermining public health efforts to curb teen smoking.
The results of the study appear in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
On-Screen Smoking Linked to Teen Smoking
Researchers based the study on interviews with more than 2,000 adolescents in California who were between the ages of 12 and 15 years old in 1996 when the California Tobacco Survey began. None of the participants had ever smoked at the start of the study, and a follow-up interview was conducted in 1999.
The adolescents were asked to name their favorite movie stars in the first interview, and researchers reviewed the films the stars appeared in from 1994 to 1996. The stars were considered as smoking on screen if he or she smoked in two or more separate movies during the three-year period.
The study showed that one-third of the adolescents nominated a star who smoked on screen as their favorite. After the follow-up interview, researchers found those who were fans of smoking stars were much more likely to start smoking than the others.
This effect was particularly strong among young girls. Girls whose favorite star smoked on screen were 86% more likely to smoke three years later than those whose favorite star did not smoke.
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