Television and Media Violence - Is Aggressive Behavior Linked to TV Violence?

Is Aggressive Behavior Linked to Television Violence?

According the Centerwall (1992), the average child aged 2-5 in 1990 watched 27 hours of

television per day, or almost 4 hours per day. When much of what is on television, including

cartoons and television shows targeted at children, contains violence, it becomes important to

know whether watching televised violence can lead to or increase aggressive behavior. Social

learning theory tells us that children model their behavior after those they see. It is reasonable,

then, to infer that watching violence on television will lead to behaving violently, due to the

modeling effect. The present study reviews some relevant prior research, and then investigates

the hypothesis that children who view violent television behave more aggressively than children

who view less violent television do.

Centerwall (1992) performed an intriguing study that strongly suggests a positive

correlation with television viewing and aggressive, violent behavior. This study looks at the effect

that the introduction of television had on the populations of three countries: the United States,

Canada, and South Africa. Centerwall compared the homicide rates in these three countries

during the years of 1945, 1974, and 1987. In 1945, the US and Canada were blessed with

television, so the homicide statistics from 1945 were the last statistics that did not have the

influence of television. South Africa, in contrast, did not receive television until 1975. Before

1975, South Africa had introduced other media radio and cinema for example so these

statistics isolate the effect of television as a cause of increased homicide rates. Center...

... middle of paper ...

...on

cartoons on emotionally disturbed children. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 12:413-427

Huston-Stein, A., Fox, S., Greer, D., Watkins, B. A., & Whitaker, J. (1981). The effects

of TV action and violence on children's social behavior. Journal of Genetic Psychology 138:183-191

Wiegman, O., Kuttschreuter, M., & Baarda, B. (1992). A longitudinal study of the effects

of television viewing on aggressive and prosocial behaviors. British Journal of Social Psychology

31:147-164

Centerwall, B. S. (1992). Television and violence: the scale of the problem and where to

go from here. The Journal of the American Medical Association 267:3059-3063

Singer, M. I., Miller, D. B., Guo, S., Flannery, D. J., Frierson, T., Slovak, K. (1999).

Contributors to violent behavior among elementary and middle school children. Pediatrics

104:878