Violent entertainment pitched to adolescents: an analysis of PG-13 films.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the violence content of the top-grossing PG-13 films of 1999 and 2000 to determine what percentage of it had potential for negative effects on young viewers and what percentage of it had potential for prosocial or beneficial effects.

METHODS:
A large, multidimensional analytic instrument was designed for systematic coding of each act of violence and its contextualization by features that have been shown either to enhance or to protect against harmful effects that are associated with violent media exposure:
perpetrators and victims of violence, motivation for violence, presence of weapons, degree of realism, and consequences of violence. Descriptive statistics by genre were performed for each film. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to examine the association between the seriousness of violence and weapons, motive, and genre.

RESULTS:
In the sample of 77 PG-13 films, a total of 2251 violent actions were observed with roughly half (47%) of lethal magnitude. A total of 118 acts contained justified violence that were initiated by major characters and were extremely serious, and approximately two thirds of the films (49 [64%]) were rated PG-13 for reasons other than violence.

CONCLUSIONS:
Violence permeated nearly 90% of the films in our study. Although only a small subset of this content contained violence that was associated with negative effects, only 1 film contained violence that was associated with protective or beneficial effects.

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Author information

Author/s: Webb, Theresa (T); Jenkins, Lucille (L); Browne, Nickolas (N); Afifi, Abdelmonen A (AA); Kraus, Jess (J);

Affiliation: Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA. twebb@ucla.edu

Grants: 5 R49 CE000199-02 (Agency:United States NCIPC)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Pediatrics (Pediatrics), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jun; vol 119 (issue 6) : pp e1219-29

Dates: Created 2007/06/04; Completed 2007/07/09; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 17545355, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Pediatrics. 2007 Jun;119(6):e1398-9. (PMID: 17545366)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Humans
Leisure Activities - classification

Leisure Activities - classification
Motion Pictures as Topic - classification; trends
Violence - classification; trends

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