Should they really see this? The depiction of alcohol in movies and series targeted at children
- Author(s)
- Jörg Matthes, Alice Binder, Sofie Vranken, Raffael Heiss, Jaroslava Kanková
- Abstract
Expectations and norms about the consumption of alcohol are built during childhood and are shaped by children’s media environment. Nevertheless, we lack insights into how alcohol is presented in children’s movies and series, particularly in comparison to healthy/mixed, as well as unhealthy beverages such as soft drinks. We conducted a content analysis of 114 movies and 133 series named by n = 648 children aged between 5 and 11 years, and n = 559 of their parents when asking them about the movies/series consumption during the last six months. Results show that alcohol is placed more often verbally as well as in interaction with a character, and is consumed more frequently by a character compared to soft drinks and a summary category of healthy/mixed beverages. Moreover, alcohol is more often associated with villains. Overall, our findings suggest a problematic depiction of alcohol in movies and series targeted at children.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), MCI Management Center Innsbruck
- Journal
- Mass Communication and Society
- Volume
- 29
- Pages
- 326-340
- No. of pages
- 15
- ISSN
- 1520-5436
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2025.2610666
- Publication date
- 01-2026
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/e4344d94-dd15-4717-8a86-9c609a372930