A new study has found that kids who are not allowed to watch R-rated movies are much less likely to start drinking alcohol at an early age.
HealthDay News reports that researchers questioned nearly 3,600 middle-school children in New England and followed up about two years later. In that time, 3% of those who said their parents never allowed them to watch R-rated movies said they had started drinking alcohol, compared with 19% of those who were sometimes allowed to watch R-rated movies and 25% who said they were allowed to watch R-rated films “all the time.”
The findings are reported in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The new findings supplement the work of previous studies that have linked exposure to R-rated movies and shows with adult content to early drinking, early smoking, sex at a young age and violent behavior, an author of the study noted.
