Rated R for Nudity, Language And... Cigarettes?

CHICAGO - White teenagers who were allowed unrestricted access to television shows or frequently watch R-rated movies are more likely than black teenagers in similar circumstances to start smoking, a study has found.

White teenagers who watch a lot of R-rated movies were more than seven times more likely to have started smoking than peers who did not have the exposure. Even when controlling for factors like doing poorly in school or having friends who smoke, the movie-watching adolescents were more than three times more likely to have started smoking, the study found.

But for black teens in similar circumstance, there was little correlation between movie watching habits and smoking.

"These findings imply that parental interventionscan protect children from the adverse effects of observing actorssmoking in movies, which is a leading modern contributor toadolescent smoking," the researchers wrote.

The study, published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Association of Pediatrics, was based on a survey of 12- to 14-year-olds that asked about recent movies they had seen and how closely their parents control what they watch on TV and at the movies. The students came from 14 randomly selected schools in New Hampshire and Vermont and the sample was almost 94 percent white, which could also explain the racial disparities.

The reasons for the racial difference are mysterious, researchers said, but suggested that one possible explanation is that viewers prefer characters who are similar to themselves and that the majority actors in the movies included in the survey were white.

The survey asked questions about whether or not students smoked as well as about their relationships with their parents, including how much their mothers listen to or encourage them and how much their mothers know about their after-school activities. Students were also asked whether or not they smoked. A follow-up survey a year to two years later then asked the students whether they had started smoking during the interval.