R-rated movies lure white teens into smoking

A new study has found that exposure to R-rated movies and tv could lead teens into smoking....

Researchers say that a white adolescent who watched such movies and had unsupervised tv access was more likely to smoke. However, if other factors were taken into consideration, such as a friend smoking that figure dropped to three times more likely and there was no such trend amongst black teens. One possible reason for the difference is that teens identify with and are more heavily influenced by actors of their own age, sex and race. The researchers interviewed 735 children aged between 12 and 14 and questioned them about what films they had seen and how their access to TV was controlled.