title: Watching and drinking: expectancies, prototypes, and friends' alcohol use mediate the effect of exposure to alcohol use in movies on adolescent drinking.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the psychological processes that underlie the relation between exposure to alcohol use in media and adolescent alcohol use.
  
  
  METHODS
  The design consisted of a structural equation modeling analysis of data from four waves of a longitudinal, nationally representative, random-digit dial telephone survey of adolescents in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  The main outcome measures were adolescent alcohol consumption and willingness to use alcohol. Tested mediators were alcohol-related norms, prototypes, expectancies, and friends' use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Alcohol prototypes, expectancies, willingness, and friends' use of alcohol (but not perceived prevalence of alcohol use among peers) were significant mediators of the relation between movie alcohol exposure and alcohol consumption, even after controlling for demographic, child, and family factors associated with both movie exposure and alcohol consumption.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Established psychological and interpersonal predictors of alcohol use mediate the effects of exposure to alcohol use in movies on adolescent alcohol consumption. The findings suggest that exposure to movie portrayals may operate through similar processes as other social influences, highlighting the importance of considering these exposures in research on adolescent risk behavior.
authors: Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. sdalcin@umich.edu
authors: Sonya
authors: S
authors: Dal Cin
authors: Keilah A
authors: KA
authors: Worth
authors: Meg
authors: M
authors: Gerrard
authors: Mike
authors: M
authors: Stoolmiller
authors: James D
authors: JD
authors: Sargent
authors: Thomas A
authors: TA
authors: Wills
authors: Frederick X
authors: FX
authors: Gibbons
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009040:Motion Pictures; D010379:Peer Group; D012932:Social Facilitation; D014481:United States