Kids who watch R- rated movies are more likely to smoke

Reuters HealthDay reported on February 23, 2009 on a study which appears on the Feb. 21, 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Health which found that kids who watch R-rated movies are more likely to smoke.

Here is a snippet from the article:

Children who are allowed to watch R-rated movies are more likely to smoke, say researchers who analyzed data from a four-year study of more than 1,200 Massachusetts youngsters.

"We don't know why this is so. It may have to do with a parenting style that is permissive of activities that are not age-appropriate. Or it may be an outcome of all the smoking scenes in R-rated movies," lead author Chyke Doubeni and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical School said in a news release.