Should they really see this? The depiction of alcohol in movies and series targeted at children

Autor(en)

Jörg Matthes, Alice Binder, Sofie Vranken, Raffael Heiss, Jaroslava Kanková

Abstrakt

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(en)

Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen (FWO), MCI Management Center Innsbruck

Journal

Mass Communication and Society

Band

29

Seiten

326-340

Anzahl der Seiten

15

ISSN

1520-5436

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2025.2610666

Publikationsdatum

01-2026

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Communication

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/e4344d94-dd15-4717-8a86-9c609a372930