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Parents likely to approve gun violence in movies when justified
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Parents are more likely to allow their children to view gun violence in PG-13 movies when they perceive the violence is justified, according to findings published in Pediatrics.
“The PG-13 rating is designed to give parents some warning about content that might be objectionable for children,” Daniel Romer, PhD, from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Popular movies in this category have increasingly featured gun violence to the point where it exceeds what is present in R-rated movies.”
“Our study finds that intense gun violence in PG-13 movies is seen as objectionable by many parents for children younger than 15 years and not 13 as the rating suggests,” he added. “This suggests that adolescents may be exposed to violence in movies that their parents think is OK given the PG-13 rating but that parents might not feel comfortable about if they saw the film.”
To examine how parents’ judgment for allowing their children to view extensive gun violence in films is affected by the justness of the violence depicted, Romer and colleagues conducted a study that included 610 parents of children aged 6 to 17 years located within the United States. All parents viewed four 90-minute video clips that the researchers pulled from popular films that were identified as having justified and unjustified gun violence and removed the graphic consequences of the associated gun violence to frame the scenarios as if they were placed in a PG-13 movie.
Once viewed, parents provided their perceived justification for the gun violence and the emotional reaction while watching the clip. Additionally, the researchers collected parental judgments on what the minimum age should be for watching each film and whether they would let their child watch this film.
When data were collected, the researchers used growth curve modeling to determine how experimental condition, viewing order, the age of the child being considered and recent viewing of movies affect intercepts and slopes of viewing order.
According to Romer and colleagues, parents who viewed justified clips of gun violence described more justification for the violence (B = 2.27; 95% CI, 2.05-2.44). The researchers also observed a steeper slope as they viewed more justified gun violence (B = 0.32; 95% CI, 0.003-1.27). Age did not influence justification, but the number of movies viewed was positively related to gun violence justification (B = 0.06; 95% CI, 0.004-0.120).
When gun violence was justified in the clips, parents reported a less negative emotion regarding the violence (B = –1.26; 95% CI, –1.49 to –1.03). This emotion became more negative as viewing increased for both justified and unjustified gun violence (B = 0.17; 95% CI, 0.010-0.476). A positive relationship was observed between the number of movies viewed and emotion (B = 0.08; 95% CI, 0.002-0.152), and this change decreased as parents viewed more movies (B = –0.04; 95% CI, –0.070 to –0.023).
Parents were more likely to consider justified gun violence as appropriate for their child than unjustified gun violence (B = –0.85; 95% CI, –1.22 to –0.481). As parental viewing increased, this association became stronger (B = 0.17; 95% CI, 0.010-0.476). Parents also were more willing to allow older children to view justified gun violence when the parents themselves viewed more movies.
“If families have questions about the media they consume, pediatricians can inform parents that the PG-13 rating may not always be informative about movies with a lot of violence and that they might want to learn more about such movies before allowing their children to view them,” Romer said. “There are alternative guides to movies that provide suggestions for the appropriate age of viewing, and these may well suggest that such movies are more appropriate for older adolescents.” – by Katherine Bortz
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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