This content analysis examined the 60 most popular teen movies from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s to determine how older people (those over 55) are portrayed. This study found that some portrayals of older people in teen movies were favorable. For example, the most positive finding of the current study was the physical portrayal of older characters. The overwhelming majority of older characters were portrayed as active and healthy and rarely portrayed as sick or ugly. The negative physical stereotypes associated with children's media, such as “toothless/missing teeth" and older characters' reliance on physical aids were mostly absent from teen movies. The marginalization of older characters, their lack of significance to the plot, and the use of negative personality traits and stereotypes, however, were notable in the teen movie sample. Older characters were extremely under represented in teen movies; only 7% of characters in teen movies were old despite those over 55 comprising at least 21% of the total U.S. population. Similarly, older characters were marginalized in terms of plot and were likely to be featured only as background characters. Older characters were often portrayed with negative personality traits and in an overall negative manner. Fewer than 50% of older characters were portrayed positively. About a third of older characters were portrayed negatively overall, while 35% of older characters were portrayed as angry. Older characters were often portrayed in a stereotypical manner and a full 20% of older characters only exhibited negative stereotypes. The stereotypes that adolescents today hold toward older people were reflected in older character portrayals in these popular teen films. Given the negative representations of older people that adolescents are exposed to in their teen years, it is no wonder that they express negative attitudes toward older people. After years of exposure to media that negatively depict older adults, adolescents may have been cultivated to stereotype older people. This has the potential to influence the quality of their interactions with older people, and also influence the way they come to view the prospect of getting old.

The media is littered with various portrayals of aggression. This aggression has been shown to influence the attitudes, beliefs, and subsequent behaviors of its viewers (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). Relational aggression is a newer concern for researchers and has become more prevalent in recent research. Relational aggression is prevalent in the lives of adolescents. Using social cognitive theory (Bandura 2002), information processing theory (Huesmann, 1988), and the general aggression model (Anderson & Bushman, 2002) to justify how adolescents might be developing these relationally aggressive behaviors, this study seeks to expand the literature by evaluating the portrayals of relational aggression in popular teen movies; a genre primarily watched by adolescents. This thesis is a content analysis of the top 30 grossing teen movies for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s for a total of 90 movies. The study examines three types of relational aggression—direct, indirect, and nonverbal. The following variables were coded for each act of relational aggression: initiator and victim age, gender, sociometrics, attractiveness, SES, and role, their relationship to each other, the context, humor, and consequence of the act of relational aggression. Analysis revealed that relational aggression is extremely prevalent (94.4%) in teen movies. Direct relational aggression is more prevalent in teen movies than both indirect and nonverbal relational aggression. Results indicate that females are portrayed as the primary initiators of relational aggression in teen films. Initiators and victims of relational aggression are primarily portrayed as characters of average attractiveness, average popularity, and as having middle class incomes. Acts of relational aggression are portrayed as not justified and not humorous. However, acts of relational aggression were portrayed as rewarded. No significant differences across decade were found for amount of relational aggression shown or for what type of relational aggression was portrayed. Results showed there were more male aggressors in the 1980s than expected and more female aggressors in the 2000s than expected.

American adolescents watch an average of 3.5 hours of television and movies everyday; many attend more than one movie a month. Adolescents as a group watch more movies than any other group of the population, yet little research has been done on what is shown in teen movies. Adolescence is a time when values, beliefs, and opinions are formed and the media has been found to be a place that adolescents find information that can influence the construction of these identities. While there has been a vast amount of research looking at the family as portrayed on television shows, there has been little research done on film families. More specifically, there has not been an examination of the family as seen in movies targeted towards the teen audience. Through the use of a content analysis, this thesis reviews three decades of families as depicted in teen films, focusing specifically on five areas: family structure, ethnicity, occupation and children, socio-economic status, and parental depictions. This thesis includes a sample of the 90 top-grossing teen movies made during the 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s (2000-2007) and includes a total of 139 different families. Results indicate that the typical family as depicted in a teen movie, is a middle-class, Caucasian, dual or single-parent family with one or two children; dad is a working professional and mom stays at home. The parents are adequate in their parenting skills and are authoritative in their parenting style. The results of this thesis are compared to findings of past studies regarding television families and against U.S. census data. The implications of the results of this thesis are discussed through the lens of cultivation theory.