Why Watching Drinking in Films Could Make You an Alcoholic

Watching alcohol abuse on the big screen may have more of an effect on you than you think – young adults who had watched more films that had alcohol in them are 1.7 times more likely to binge drink.

A recent study in the journal Pediatrics came out that revealed that over 70% of movies that have been released within the past 20 years have featured alcohol abuse. The study discovered that the more exposure adolescents had to alcohol in films, then the more likely there were to abuse alcohol later on in life.

The study focused on about 5,000 teenagers around the age of 15. From that focus group, it was revealed that those who had an excessive amount of exposure to movies that featured a copious amount of drinking were almost 1.2 times more likely to have already tried drinking – as well as were 2.4 times more likely to drink on a weekly basis.

Another link was made to adolescents who are exposed to alcohol at a younger age – young adults who reported having sleep issues were more likely to have problems with alcohol later on in life. Maria Wong, director of experimental training in the department of psychology at Idaho State University, attested that those adolescents with sleep problems had higher rates of “alcohol-related interpersonal problems, binge drinking…driving under the influence, getting into a sexual situation one later regretted due to drinking…and drug-related problems at the second wave.”

Moreover, those with sleep issues such as insomnia had higher rates of relapse when receiving treatment for substance abuse.