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TELEVISION VIOLENCE:
A REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS ON CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT AGES
WENDY L. JOSEPHSON, PH.D.
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The Department of Canadian Heritage gratefully acknowledges
the assistance of Health Canada in the printing of this document.
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect federal government policy or opinion.
Additional copies in English or French, as well as additional resource
materials, are available from:
National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
Health Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1B4
Tel.: 1-800-267-1291
Fax: 1-613-941-8930
* TDD line: 1-800-561-5643
* Telecommunications device for the Deaf
© Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1995
Cat. No. CH4-1/8-1995E
ISBN 0-662-23229-1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE VIEWING PATTERNS CHILDREN ESTABLISH AS TODDLERS WILL
INFLUENCE THEIR VIEWING HABITS THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES.
At different ages, children watch and understand television in
different ways, depending on the length of their attention span,
the way in which they process information, the amount of mental
effort they invest, and their own life experiences. These variables
must all be examined to gain an understanding of how television
violence affects children at different ages.
Infants (children up to 18 months old) can pay attention to an
operating television set for short periods of time, but such attention
demands a great effort, and infants are usually more interested
in their own daily activities. Even when they do direct their attention
to the television, infants are likely missing most of what adults
consider to be program content, experiencing it primarily as fragmented
displays of light and sound, which they are intermittently able
to group into meaningful combinations such as recognizable human
or animal characters.
No research has focused specifically on how violent content affects
infants, but there is some evidence that infants can imitate behaviour
from television when that behaviour is presented in a simple, uncluttered
and instructional manner.
Children do not become full-fledged "viewers" until around
the age of two-and-a-half. As toddlers, they begin to pay more attention
to the television set when it is on, and they develop a limited
ability to extract meaning from television content. They are likely
to imitate what they see and hear on television.
The viewing patterns children establish as toddlers will influence
their viewing habits throughout their lives. Since toddlers have
a strong preference for cartoons and other programs that have characters
who move fast, there is considerable likelihood that they will be
exposed to large amounts of violence.
At the preschool age (three to five years old), children begin
watching television with an "exploration" approach. They
actively search for meaning in the content, but are still especially
attracted to vivid production features, such as rapid character
movement, rapid changes of scene, and intense or unexpected sights
and sounds.
Because television violence is accompanied by vivid production
features, preschoolers are predisposed to seek out and pay attention
to violence - particularly cartoon violence. It is not the violence
itself that makes the cartoons attractive to preschoolers, but the
accompanying vivid production features. With this preference for
cartoons, preschoolers are being exposed to a large number of violent
acts in their viewing day. Moreover, they are unlikely to be able
to put the violence in context, they are likely to miss any subtlety
conveyed mitigating information concerning motivation and consequences.
Preschoolers behave more aggressively than usual in their play after
watching any high-action exciting television content, but especially
after watching violent television.
Elementary school age (ages six to eleven) is considered a critical
period for understanding the effects of television on aggression.
At this stage, children develop the attention span and cognitive
ability to follow continuous plots, to make inferences about implicit
content, and to recognize motivations and consequences to characters'
actions. However, they are also investing increasingly less mental
effort overall in their viewing, and it is mental effort that determines
whether children will process television information deeply or merely
react to it in an unfocused, superficial way.
By age eight, children are more likely to be sensitive to important
moderating influences of television content, and will not become
more aggressive themselves if the violence they see is portrayed
as evil, as causing human suffering, or as resulting in punishment
or disapproval. However, they are especially likely to show increased
aggression from watching violent television if they believe the
violence reflects real life, if they identify with a violent hero
(as boys often do), or if they engage in aggressive fantasies.
At ages 6 to 11, elementary school children still watch cartoons
but also begin watching more adult- or family-oriented programming
than they did when they were younger. They also develop a surprising
taste for horror movies, perhaps deliberately scaring themselves
in an attempt to overcome their own fears. However, to the extent
that they are desensitizing themselves to fear and violence, they
are also very likely becoming more tolerant of violence in the real
world.
During adolescence (age 12 to 17), the middle school to high school
years, children become capable of high levels of abstract thought
and reasoning, although they rarely use these abilities when watching
television, continuing to invest little mental effort. They watch
less television than they did when they were younger, and watch
less with their families. Their interests at this age tend to revolve
around independence, sex and romance, and they develop a preference
for music videos, horror movies, and (boys particularly) pornographic
videos, which deal with these topics, although usually in negative
ways.
Adolescents in middle school and high school are much more likely
than younger children to doubt the reality of television content
and much less likely to identify with television characters. The
small percentage of those who continue to believe in the reality
of television and to identify with its violent heroes are the ones
likely to be more aggressive, especially if they continue to fantasize
about aggressive-heroic themes.
Their superior abstract reasoning abilities and their tendency
at this age to challenge conventional authority make adolescents
particularly susceptible to imitating some kinds of television violence,
crime and portrayals of suicide. However, these imitative acts affect
only a small percentage of adolescents.
In a world in which violent television is pervasive and children
are susceptible to its effects, parents are the best mediators of
their children's viewing.
There are a number of ways parents can limit their children's exposure
to violence. Restricting the amount and types of programs children
watch is probably the most effective and common means of mediation
for children of all ages. However, there are also strategies that
are specifically appropriate for children at different ages.
Under normal conditions, parents probably do not need to worry
too much about their infants being negatively influenced by television,
although they might want to limit their exposure to violence or
other portrayals it might be dangerous for an infant to imitate.
Limiting exposure to this kind of TV content is especially wise
with toddlers, who are even more prone to imitating what they see
on television. Another highly influential action parents can take
for toddlers is to examine and regulate their own viewing behaviour,
since toddlers are highly influenced by their parents' viewing habits.
Parental mediation to reduce a preschooler's aggression (as well
as fears from what they see on television) can include viewing with
the child, commenting on content, providing distraction or comfort
if the child is frightened, and encouraging or discouraging behaviour
they see preschoolers imitating from television.
While restricting viewing is an effective form of parental mediation
for younger elementary school aged children, for older children
it is more useful for parents to discuss, explain, and challenge
television. By doing so, parents can help their children to interpret
television material and overcome the effect televised violence has
on their attitudes and behaviour. Another positive effect of these
strategies is that children invest more mental effort in their watching,
becoming more critical and analytical viewers.
Encouraging adolescents to express their opinions and to analyze
and question television content is a parental strategy that has
been found to reduce adolescents' fears and aggressiveness, as well
as to improve their critical approach to the medium.
There is an unfortunate lack of non-violent educational and entertaining
programming specifically geared to children. It would not be a difficult
challenge to come up with non-violent programming, since it is not
the violence itself that attracts viewers. The television industry
would do well to create programming specifically aimed at child
audiences, taking into account the various approaches to watching
television and the interests of each age group.
Although toddlers do not understand a great deal of program content,
creating educational programming using such features as animation,
children's or women's voices on the sound track, and simplified
movements and camera work will likely win them as loyal viewers.
A habit of watching educational programs (as opposed to cartoons)
will reduce their exposure to violent content and make it more likely
that they will watch and benefit from educational television later
on, as preschoolers.
For preschoolers, effective programming would include the use of
vivid production features and "child-directed speech"
(simple sentences spoken slowly, referring to objects that are actually
being shown on the screen, and with repetition). These features
will improve their attention and understanding and can be used to
highlight important features of program content, such as critical
plot events.
The elementary school-aged audience has been called the "almost
forgotten group" when it comes to targeted programming. Such
programming could easily avoid violence, since children at this
age are still more attracted to variability and tempo than to violence.
Although boys, particularly, seek out male heroes who tend to be
violent, it is actually the hero's power (not the violence) that
is the attraction. Strong, yet positive, counterstereotypical television
characters could be created to fit the bill, since these have proven
to equally attract their interest, as effectively as violent heroes.
Programming for adolescents should avoid promoting rape myths and
portraying violent behaviour that promises fun, "kicks,"
or instant notoriety. It might lessen the number of horror and pornographic
videos that adolescents watch if television programming were provided
that addresses their particular needs and interests.
It is certainly true that television violence does not account
for all the causes of children's aggression, and it is also true
that some children are a great deal more likely to be affected by
television violence than others, and that it is these children who
are likely to be potentially more aggressive anyway. But the effect
of television violence leads these "at-risk" children
to be even more aggressive than they would otherwise be. And although
the group especially at risk might be a minority of viewers, they
are likely to be the majority of aggressors. This fact makes them,
and the violent content of television, worthy of our attention.
INTRODUCTION
CHILDREN WHO ARE EXPOSED TO TELEVISION VIOLENCE MAY BECOME
DESENSITIZED TO REAL-LIFE VIOLENCE, MAY COME TO SEE THE WORLD AS
A MEAN AND SCARY PLACE, OR MAY COME TO EXPECT OTHERS TO RESORT TO
PHYSICAL VIOLENCE TO RESOLVE CONFLICTS.
Psychological research has found that televised violence has numerous
effects on the behaviour of children of different ages. These include
the imitation of violence and crime seen on television (copycat
violence),1 reduced inhibitions against behaving aggressively,2
the "triggering" of impulsive acts of aggression (priming),3
and the displacing of activities, such as socializing with other
children and interacting with adults, that would teach children
non-violent ways to solve conflicts.4 Television violence
has also been found to have emotional effects on children. Children
may become desensitized to real-life violence,5 they
may come to see the world as a mean and scary place,6
or they may come to expect others to resort to physical violence
to resolve conflicts.7 Although some early research8
suggested that televised violence might allow viewers to vent destructive
impulses through fantasy instead of acting them out against real-life
targets, later findings have not supported this so-called "catharsis"
hyphothesis.
Most social concern, and therefore most research, has focused on
children, although virtually all of the effects mentioned above
have also been found in older adolescents and adults. None of the
effects is believed to be specific to a certain age. That said,
an analysis of almost 300 studies in 1986 9 found that
preschoolers; tend to demonstrate more physical aggression and other
anti-social behaviour as a result of watching violence on TV than
do older children up to about 9 or 10 years old. During adolescence,
the effect of violent television (especially on physical aggression)
increases for boys and decreases quite dramatically for girls.
An examination of how television violence affects children who
are of different ages must also look at other differences among
these children. Children differ in the content they watch, the context
in which they watch it, the way in which they watch it, and the
meaning they find in it. They also differ in their experiences of
the world and of television as a medium. It is in looking at all
these differences that we can gain a true understanding of the effects
of television violence upon young viewers.
Endnotes
1for example, Bandura, 1965.
2for example, Bandura, 1973.
3for example, Josephson, 1987.
4for example, Joy, Kimball and Zabrack, 1986.
5for example, Thomas, Horton and Lippincott, 1977.
6for example, Singer, Singer and Rapaczynski, 1984
7for example, Leifer and Roberts, 1972.
8Feshback and Singer, 1971.
9Hearold, 1986.
INFANTS
(children up to 18 months)
INFANTS OFTEN DO HAVE SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING TO DO
THAN WATCH TELEVISION. MORE COMPELLING ACTIVITIES INCLUDE FEEDING,
CLIMBING FURNITURE, AND HAVING THEIR DIAPERS CHANGED.
Extent of Attention Span for Watching Television
By the time infants are three months old, they can pay attention
to an operating television set for short periods of time, if an
adult physically directs them toward the television set. But paying
attention seems to demand a great effort. Almost all of the infants
in one study who looked at a television for at least half of a six-minute
cartoon presentation later showed signs of tiredness, such as crying,
fussiness, and yawning.1
By six-months old, infants can direct their own attention to the
TV and maintain that attention for as long as 16 minutes, if they
are placed in a play pen near the set with nothing interesting to
do.2 But infants often do have something more interesting
to do than watch TV. More compelling activities include feeding,
climbing furniture, and having their diapers changed.3
American studies have shown that although infants are exposed to
television for about two hours a day,4 they pay attention
to the set for less than 10 percent of that time5 and
orient their bodies toward the screen very infrequently.6
Infants in Japan appear to be more attentive TV viewers than infants
in the United States. (Comparable studies have not been done in
Canada.) Exposure of American infants seems to be largely "incidental,"
occurring only because the infant is in the same room as other family
members who are watching the TV. In contrast, according to a survey
in Japan, mothers there make an effort to ensure that their infants
watch educational television during its scheduled broadcast times.
It has been found that Japanese infants, like American infants,
are exposed to television programming for about two hours a day.7
But these infants are reported by their mothers to be regular viewers
of With Mother, a popular broadcasting program for preschoolers.
Almost 80 percent of the mothers surveyed reported evidence of involved
viewing, such as imitating hand clapping. Such loyal and involved
TV viewing is in sharp contrast to the low levels of attention reported
by some U.S. researchers,8 but quite consistent with
observations of parents who deliberately watch Sesame Street and
other children's programming with their infants.9 Unlike
infants merely exposed to other family members' choices, these children
showed signs of program knowledge and involvement, such as pointing
at familiar characters on the screen, as early as 10 months of age.
What benefit are infants getting from television? A study in Japan
that tracked children's eye movements found that one-year-olds pay
visual attention to parts of a program segment that feature music
and frequent changes of scene or character, but not to the parts
of the segment that portray plot events.10 Three-year-olds,
in contrast, actively search the screen for information during program
segments that contain plot information. This comparison suggests
that when one-year-olds "watch" television they likely
miss most of what adults consider to be the program content, experiencing
it primarily as fragmented displays of light and sound. With effort,
they may occasionally group simple combinations of these displays
into a meaningful image, such as a speaking or moving character.
When Japanese mothers report that their infants copy such actions
as hand clapping and calisthenics from television programs, it suggests
that children will imitate television characters almost as soon
as they are able to distinguish these characters from the surrounding
background. Of course, it is also possible that many of these infants
were responding to or imitating their parents' or siblings' actions,
since the reports are based on observations of infants watching
television in naturalistic settings with other family members.
Another study provides further reason to take seriously parents'
reports of infant learning from television.11 Slightly
older infants of 14 months were found to pay attention to and imitate
a televised demonstration of an adult using a toy in a novel way
that was a relatively complex sequence of actions. (No parental
direction was possible in the study.) It is worth mentioning that
the demonstration was done with black and white film, with no background
music and with a live actor - a format not usually attractive to
children. It did have the advantage of being extremely simple in
its presentation, with no other movement on the screen, and it was
shown to children in a laboratory setting where there was little
else the infants could do. Remarkably, these 14-month-olds imitated
the behaviour they had seen on the screen even if they had to delay
their imitation (because the toy was not available) until a day
later. It appears that infants can imitate behaviour from television
when the behaviour is presented in a simple, uncluttered, and instructional
manner.
SINCE INFANTS CAN IMITATE SIMPLE BEHAVIOURS FROM TELEVISION,
PARENTS MIGHT WANT TO LIMIT THEIR EXPOSURE TO TELEVISION VIOLENCE
OR OTHER PORTRAYALS OF ACTIONS THAT WOULD BE DANGEROUS FOR AN INFANT
TO IMITATE.
Potential Effects of Television Violence
No research has focused on the specific effects of television violence
on infants. Since infants show so little interest in what adults
consider to be content, it might be argued that violence is largely
irrelevant to them. It has been shown that infants can imitate televised
behaviour, but only with material that is simple, uncluttered, and
presented in an instructional manner. Violence on television does
not have these characteristics. On the other hand, infants have
been found to copy highly visual activities such as hand-clapping
and calisthenics, and television violence does include features
like these that seem to attract the attention and interest of the
otherwise undiscriminating one-year-old viewer (i.e., high levels
of activity, changes of position, scene or character, and noise).12
Suggestions for Parents
Since there is some possibility that infants will imitate what
they see on television parents might want to limit their infants'
exposure to television violence or other portrayals of actions go
would be dangerous for an infant to imitate. However, under normal
conditions of exposing infants to television, parents probably do
not need to worry much about their infants being negatively influenced.
In fact, older infants may enjoy educational programming do is designed
for preschoolers, and watching children's television may be a way
for parents and children to have fun together and to share language,
much like reading a picture book together.13 It has been
found that parents who actively watched children's educational television
with their infants and toddlers were frequently directing their
child's attention to characters, actions, objects, and other features
on the screen.14 They may well have been teaching these
young viewers their very earliest lessons in how to watch television.15
Endnotes
1Mizukami and Ishibashi, 1990.
2Hollenbech and Slaby, 1979.
3Lemish, 1984.
4Anderson, Lorch, Field, Collins and Nathan, 1986;
Hollenbech, 1978.
5Anderson et al., 1986.
6Anderson and Levin, 1976.
7Kodaira, 1990, 1992.
8Anderson et al., 1986; Anderson and Lorch, 1983.
9Lemish, 1984.
10Takahashi, 1991. The program segment was specifically
developed for children aged two and under, i.e., shorter and simpler
than programs developed for preschoolers.
11Meltzoff, 1988.
12Takahashi, 1991.
13Lemish and Rice, 1986.
14Lemish and Rice, 1986.
15Wartella, 1986.
TODDLERS
(children 18 months to 3 years old)
TODDLERS WILL IMITATE WHAT THEY BOTH SEE AND HEAR ON TELEVISION,
AS EVIDENCED BY THE CHILDREN UNDER AGE TWO WHO COULD RECITE COMPLETE
PHRASES FROM SOFT DRINK ADVERTISEMENTS.
Approach to Watching Television
At about the age of two and a half, children dramatically change
their approach to television. Although they spend about the same
amount of time near an operating set as younger children, I they
pay attention three or four times as much, to the point where they
are paying attention for almost half the time the set is a children
also begin physically orienting themselves toward the set when it
is on, even when they are playing or doing other activities. The
change appears to be part of a more general development in children's
ability to represent objects and actions internally as thoughts,
words and memories. It is this developing ability that allows children
to extract meaning from television content at this age.2
With this development, children rather abruptly become established
television viewers. By the time they are three years old, most children
have a favourite program.3 They watch an average of two
hours of television a day and show significant loyalty to particular
types of programs, such as children's educational programs, action-adventure
shows, situation comedies and game shows.4 Like older
viewers, their program choices are based on program scheduling,5
but they also have strong preferences for cartoons and other programs
that have characters who move fast.6 They are particularly
likely to watch children's educational programs.7
Potential Effects of Television Violence
Despite the lack of research on the specific effects of television
violence on toddlers, we do know that they are capable of learning
verbal and non-verbal behaviours from television. Toddlers will
imitate both what they see on televisions and what they hear, as
evidenced by the children under age two who could recite complete
phrases from soft drink advertisements.9
At this age, children may establish television viewing patterns
that will expose them to high levels of violent content throughout
the rest of their childhood. It has been found that viewing patterns
(both amount of watching and program type) established at the toddler
stage persist into the preschooler age,10 as viewing
patterns established at the preschooler stage persist into and through
elementary school age years.11
Suggestions for Parents
Children are highly influenced by their parents' viewing habits
as they establish their own viewing patterns.12 One highly
influential action parents can take, then, is to examine and regulate
their own viewing behaviour. Because toddlers imitate what they
see and hear on TV, it might also be wise for parents to prevent
their children from being exposed to content that portrays actions
(violent or otherwise) that might lead toddlers to harm themselves
or others.
Suggestions for the Television Industry
University and industry researchers in Japan have conducted research
to find out ways of improving toddlers' attention to and understanding
of educational programming of the time they are becoming full-fledged
television viewers (at around age two and a half).13
The results suggest that it is relatively easy to produce content
that attracts two-year-olds, but difficult to present such content
in a way that two-year-olds understand.
Features that attracted the attention of two-year-olds included
using animation, using children and large animals as characters,
having children's voices on the sound track, and using a great deal
of "active stationary movement" (activity done while remaining
in the same part of the screen, such as waving the arms or jumping
on the spot, Without the use of panning or zooming in the camera
work.)
Techniques that appeared to improve two-year-olds' understanding
of television content were simplifying the backgrounds, including
more repetition, and making the main characters larger than the
secondary characters. However, only 20 percent of two-year-olds
demonstrated any comprehension of the material they were shown,
and they were usually "older" two-year-olds (i.e., two
years and seven months to just under three years old).
Since so few toddlers seem to understand what is being broadcast,
even in simplified form, there would seem to be little direct educational
gain from developing new programing especially for them. However,
the availability of educational programming using the suggested
features and techniques will likely win them as loyal viewers.14
Thus they will be more likely to watch these programs later, when
the educational content becomes meaningful to them. A pattern of
viewing educational television, as opposed to commercial cartoons,
would reduce their exposure to violent content as well.
Endnotes
1Anderson et al., 1986; Kodaira, 1990, 1992.
2Anderson and Lorch, 1983; Kodaira, 1990; Takahashi,
1991.
3Lyle and Hoffman, 1972.
4Singer and Singer, 1981; Kodaira, 1992; Lemish and
Rice, 1986. 5Singer and Singer, 1981; Huston, Wright
et al., 1990.
6Huston and Wright, 1983.
7Huston, Wright et al., 1990; Kodaira, 1992; Lemish,
1984; Winick and Winick, 1979.
8Kodaira, 1992; Lemish, 1984; McCall et al., 1977;
Meltzoff, 1988.
9Lemish and Rice, 1986.
10Singer and Singer, 1981.
11Huston, Wright et al., 1990; Tangney and Feshbach,
1988; Williams and Boyes, 1986.
12, Huston, Wright et al., 1990; St. Peters et al.,
1991.
13Kodaira, 1990; Akiyama and Kodaira, 1987.
14Kodaira, 1990; Lemish and Rice, 1986.
EARLY CHILDHOOD OR PRESCHOOL AGE
( children ages 3 to 5 )
PRESCHOOLERS FOCUS ON THE MOST PHYSICALLY OBVIOUS FEATURES
OF TELEVISION PROGRAMS, PARTICULARLY WHEN THE CONTENT IS OUTSIDE
THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE. IN ONE VISUALLY VIVID BUT INCIDENTAL SCENE
FROM AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM ABOUT THE USES AND CONSTRUCTION OF CANALS,
CANAL BOAT OPERATORS COVERED THEIR HEADS TO AVOID HAVING SPIDERS
LAND ON THEM AS THEY WENT THROUGH A TUNNEL. PRESCHOOL VIEWERS WERE
MOST LIKELY TO DESCRIBE THIS SHOW AS BEING ABOUT SPIDERS JUMPING
DOWN ON PEOPLE AS THEY WENT THROUGH TUNNELS.
A great deal of the research on the effects of television violence
has been directed at preschoolers. Relatively strong effects of
televised violence for both girls and boys in this age group have
been reported,1 especially when the violence is in cartoon
format. There are a number of reasons that preschoolers may be an
especially vulnerable audience.
Approach to Processing Information and Watching Television
Preschoolers demonstrate a strong tendency to focus on the most
physically obvious features of their environment. They are also
highly centred in their attention, focusing on a single feature
of their environment at a time, often not noticing other aspects
of a given situation. By the beginning of preschool age, children
are able to use symbolic processes like thought and mental imagery,
which allow them to begin developing organized expectations about
what things are like, what features and events regularly go together
and are in the same category, and what events are likely to follow
each other in sequence. (These are called "schemas.")
As they develop, children gradually become more capable of telling
the difference between aspects of pictures, images and events that
are important and those that are merely vivid. By using event schemas
(sometimes also called "scripts"), preschoolers also become
increasingly able to recognize that a series of events is all part
of a single process, rather than an unconnected array of separate
characters and events.2 Since their ability to form schemas
depends upon their accumulated experience, as well as on their cognitive
development, preschoolers remain quite dependent on physically obvious
features while their own personal guiding schemas are developing.
This style of processing information leads preschoolers to watch
television with an "exploration" approach.3
Although they actively search for meaning in the television content,4
they are still especially attracted to vivid production features
(the "formal features" of television programs), such as
rapid character movement, rapid changes of scene and character,
varied settings, intense or unexpected sights and sounds, loud music,
and peculiar or nonhuman voices. These formal features of production
are, in fact, an expanded list of the features that attract the
attention of toddlers and even infants.
CARTOONS, IN PARTICULAR, MAY BE A SOURCE OF NEGATIVE
STEREOTYPES ABOUT MINORITY GROUP MEMBERS OR PEOPLE FROM
OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA, SINCE CHARACTERS TAKING THE ROLE OF THE "ENEMY"
ARE FREQUENTLY PORTRAYED AS HAVING FOREIGN ACCENTS AND NON-CAUCASIAN
FEATURES.
Preschoolers are not responding mindlessly to these physical features.
Just as they are beginning to develop scripts and other schemas
that help them organize and make sense of their experience with
real life, it seems that preschoolers are also developing schemas
related to the formal features of television, and can use them to
explore the medium. They appear to use these features as signals
that something interesting is going to happen. It has been found
that they may not notice or remember important or central aspects
of the television content unless these aspects are signalled by
the most obvious formal features of the production.5
This is especially true when the material presented is outside the
child's experience, and the child therefore has no way to understand
the portrayed events.
An example of preschoolers focusing on formal features in a program
presenting content outside their previous experience involves an
educational program about the uses and construction of canals.6
In one visually vivid but incidental scene from this program, canal
boat operators covered their heads to avoid having spiders land
on them as they went through a tunnel. Preschool viewers were most
likely to describe this show as being about spiders jumping down
on people as they went through tunnels. They did not mention the
intended educational content of the program.
Another example involves a three-year-old watching a children's
educational program about preparing to go on a dog sled race in
the Arctic.7 Having no experience against which to compare
dog sledding, the child came up with a synopsis apparently based
on a feature of the program with which he did have some experience:
"They have sunglasses. I have sunglasses. Mommy bought me sunglasses."
Vivid production features are especially important as attention-getters
for preschoolers, because at this age they are still watching an
operating screen in the same room only about half the time the set
is on.8 During the time they are not watching, they appear
to keep listening,9 and will frequently turn their visual
attention back to the screen in response to an obvious feature such
as loud music or sound effects.10 They are probably keeping
an ear tuned more for signals that they should look at the screen
to see what is going on, rather than as a way to keep up with plot
events in the program by listening to the sound track. (Note that
preschool-age children understand visual material on television
more easily than auditory material,11 although they can
learn from auditory material if it uses dialogue that matches the
preschooler's own vocabulary.12)
By the time children are at the preschool age, they have developed
considerable sophistication in their understanding of formal features
of programming, but they still miss the meaning of more subtle features.
For example, they readily recognize the format of animation (cartoons)
as a signal that the content is meant for them.13 They
expect to understand it, and they will attend to even quite difficult
material if it is presented to them in this format.14
By age four, most children also understand that camera "zooms"
in and out depict approaching and moving away from an object. Some,
but not all, four-year-olds understand that moving away from or
toward an object can also be signaled by showing an edited sequence
of camera shots taken at different angles.15
Preschoolers, even older ones, rarely understand instant replays16
or dissolves and cuts to flashback that signal the passage of time,17
time leaps,18 or dreams.19 They also do not
understand less obvious formal features used to mark changes between
parts of a program or to mark a change from program content to advertising
content. They may therefore incorporate an advertisement into their
recounting of program plots, or may misunderstand the plot in other
ways, especially if the program is longer than eight minutes.20
However, with experience, even quite young children can catch on
to the meaning of more subtle formal features. One researcher found
that children who watched a lot of television were among the first
in their age group to acquire an understanding of zooms and edits.21
A PRESCHOOLER SURPRISED HER FAMILY BY SUDDENLY EXPRESSING
FEAR AND HOSTILITY TOWARD "BLACK PEOPLE" AFTER SEEING
ROOTS ON TELEVISION WITH HER FAMILY. SHE DESCRIBED THE SCENE THAT
HAD FRIGHTENED HER WHERE A BLACK SLAVE WAS REPEATEDLY WHIPPED. SHE
CONCLUDED THAT THE CHARACTER MUST BE A VERY BAD PERSON TO BE SO
SEVERELY PUNISHED, AND THEREFORE MUST BE VERY SCARY. SHE JUDGED
HIM ENTIRELY BY THE IMMEDIATE AND MOST OBVIOUS PHYSICAL FEATURES
IN THAT SCENE, WHICH MADE HIS DARK SKIN AND PAIN-CONTORTED FACE
APPEAR BOTH EVIL AND SCARY.
Children who regularly watch a particular program can pick up on
the formal features used specifically in that show. For example,
three-year-olds who were regular viewers of a magazine-style children's
program called Playschool consistently returned their visual attention
to the screen at the program's segment switchpoints - a very subtle
formal feature, indeed.22 Most preschoolers will also
respond quite consistently to the subtle formal feature of a child's
or woman's voice on the sound track a feature that signals material
that is likely to be interesting and comprehensible to them.23
The motivations of television characters or their emotional reactions
to plot events are usually accompanied by quite difficult and subtle
formal features.24 This may be why preschoolers rarely
seem to attend to or remember information about television characters'
emotions, particularly if those characters are in animated or puppet
form.25 Nevertheless, they can quite readily divide characters
into "good" and "bad" characters based on their
appearance.26 Children are likely to classify as "bad"
and "scary" a vividly ugly character, or one who has startling
physical features such as a segmented body or green skin, even if
that character is portrayed as behaving kindly or as having good
intentions.27 Cartoons, in particular, may be a source
of negative stereotypes about minority group members or people from
outside North America,28 since characters taking the
role of the "enemy" are frequently portrayed as having
foreign accents and non-Caucasian features.29
Attraction to Television Violence
Preschoolers are predisposed to seek out and pay attention to televised
violence because such violence is accompanied by formal features
such as loud music, rapid movement, rapid scene changes, and sound
effects that attract the attention of preschoolers.30
The violent content itself is conveyed visually, making it especially
likely that preschoolers will learn it easily. Furthermore, preschoolers
are unlikely to pick up on more subtly conveyed mitigating information
such as negative motivations, punishing consequences that occur
at another point in time, or the suffering of victims, making it
unlikely that they will be able to put the violence in context.31
The Committee on Social Issues Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry
has described a case example of a preschooler who surprised her
family by suddenly expressing fear and hostility toward "black
people" after seeing Roots on television with her family.32
She described the scene that had frightened her as one in which
a black slave is repeatedly whipped. She concluded from this scene
that the character being whipped must be a very bad person, to be
so severely punished, and therefore must be very scary.
Although there is no reason to believe that this particular reaction
was typical of preschoolers who viewed Roots, it is certainly consistent
with the way preschoolers watch television. This scene was highly
visual, marked by the loud and repeated sounds of the lash and rapid
camera cuts between the victim and the violent aggressor. The action
and background were otherwise relatively simple, and the scene focused
on only two characters. These features would likely attract the
preschooler's attention and keep it. Other events in the plot, of
course, revealed to adult and older child viewers that this whipping
was undeserved, excessively cruel, and carried out by a character
whose motivations and past behaviours were immoral, against a character
whose motivations and past behaviour were admirable.
IT IS NOT THE VIOLENCE ITSELF THAT MAKES CARTOONS ATTRACTIVE
TO PRESCHOOLERS, BUT THE VIVID PRODUCTION FEATURES OF CARTOONS,
SUCH AS RAPID CHARACTER MOVEMENT, SOUND EFFECTS AND LOUD MUSIC.
The preschooler likely missed all of this, since the information
was presented in earlier scenes that she likely did not realize
were connected to the whipping scene, and since the information
was largely conveyed in adult dialogue, which she wouldn't understand.
She may not even have recognized that the people in those earlier
scenes were the same people who were in the whipping scene, since
in the earlier scenes the characters had different clothes on and
different expressions on their faces, were in different settings,
and behaved differently. She therefore would not have understood
this scene in the same way that adults and older children would,
as one eliciting great empathy for the victim of the beating. She
would have judged him entirely by the immediate and most obvious
physical information in that scene, making his dark skin and pain-contorted
face appear both evil and scary. Her lack of recognition of and
empathy with his pain are also quite consistent with a preschooler's
lack of response to emotional reactions of television characters.
This scary character would seem especially threatening to her in
light of her view of television as a "window on the world"
(i.e., as giving an accurate, unaltered representation of the world).
The fact that the series was performed by actors, portraying events
that happened in the distant past, would have no meaning for her.
Preference for Cartoons
Preschoolers overwhelmingly prefer and pay close attention to cartoons,33
- a format that is particularly violent. Saturday-morning cartoons,
for example, have 20 to 25 violent acts per hour compared with five
violent acts per hour in prime time programming.34 With
their preference for cartoons, preschoolers are therefore being
exposed to large numbers of violent acts in their viewing day. Based
on their viewing patterns, it has been estimated that, by the time
they start school, children will have seen an average of 8,000 murders
and 100,000 assorted other acts of violence and destruction on television.35
Analysis of children's viewing preferences and attention to television
has revealed that it is not the violence itself that makes cartoons
attractive to preschoolers,36 but the formal features
of cartoons, such as rapid character movement, sound effects, and
loud music. Children are just as attracted to nonviolent cartoons37
and to live action shows that have these formal features. (For example,
this is the age group with the highest preference for children's
educational television.38)
Although it may be reassuring to know that preschoolers
are drawn to the action of violent television rather than to the
violent content itself, watching high levels of TV action may also
make children more aggressive. Preschool-age children have been
found to behave more aggressively than usual in their play after
watching high-action television with no violence in it at all.39
It has been found that high excitement level alone is sufficient
to increase their aggression, and that vivid formal features produce
such levels of excitement. It has also been demonstrated that violent
content produces substantial effects over and above those brought
about by excitement alone.40
Extent of Ability to Distinguish Reality from Fantasy
Because the programs preschool children watch are mostly cartoons,
it might be argued that the violence they see is relatively harmless
because they know it is just fantasy. Knowing that television content
is fantasy does make a difference in the behaviour and emotions
of older children and adults.41 In studies that specifically
compared the effects of live-action violence with those of cartoon
violence, the live-action violence was found to have a substantially
larger effect on aggressive behaviour than the cartoon violence.42
These comparison studies have not been carried out with preschool-age
children. Studies that used only cartoons for measuring the effects
of violent television did include preschoolers, and they showed
increases in aggression. An Australian study found the combination
of violent cartoons and toys related to the cartoon violence to
be particularly potent: both boys and girls were more likely to
be physically and verbally aggressive with another preschooler if
they had just watched a violent cartoon together; this was especially
true if they also had toys related to cartoons in their play area.43
A KINDERGARDEN STUDENT IS QUOTED AS SAYING, "I KNOW
BIG BIRD ISN'T REAL. THAT'S JUST A COSTUME. THERE'S JUST A PLAIN
BIRD INSIDE."49
When asked, preschoolers can usually identify cartoons as "not
real" or as "pretend."44 They also tend
to call programs about ghosts, monsters, vampires, witches, and
genies "not real."45 However, preschoolers
cannot usually explain what they mean by "real,"46
and more open-ended questioning usually reveals that they treat
even cartoons as part of television's "magic window,"
which reveals an accurate, unaltered representation of the world.47
Preschoolers probably do not mean the same thing as adults do when
they call things "real" or "pretend." Kindergarden
boys who were asked to describe what happens after the Superman
program is over responded that in his "real" life, the
character goes home and takes off his cape, or turns into "Dick
Clark" (presumably "Clark Kent" was meant).48
Another kindergarden student is quoted as saying, "I know Big
Bird isn't real. That's just a costume. There's just a plain bird
inside."49 Kindergarden children also didn't understand
the difference between puppet, animated, and human characters in
programs they typically watched.50 In fact, the reality
versus fantasy distinction may be quite irrelevant to preschoolers
in their judgement of television content.51
Nor does the fact that cartoons are a fantasy stop preschoolers
from identifying with cartoon characters. It has been found that
the more unrealistic a character is, the more preschoolers both
want to be like that character and think they are like that character.52
An analysis of children's heroes from 1900 to 1980 and a survey
of adults who grew up before and after television53 confirmed
that preschoolers today (but not children in middle childhood) are
more likely to choose fantasy heroes over real-life heroes in their
play, more likely to engage in more heroic adventure play, and more
likely to learn about heroes and play themes from television rather
than from friends, siblings or parents.
Television Content that Preschoolers Find Scary
About 50 percent of preschoolers report having been scared by something
on television,54 and even highly improbable creatures
or events can scare a preschooler.55 Preschoolers may
not show as much fear watching cartoons as they do watching other
violent programs. A study found that preschoolers showed physical
signs of fear from watching cartoon violence, as opposed to cartoon
or realistic programs that weren't violent. However, they showed
even more physical signs of fear and more often described a program
as "scary" after watching realistic violence featuring
human actors than after watching cartoon violence.56
That said, realism is certainly not a prerequisite for scaring
a preschooler. In fact one of the most frightening television segments
found for preschoolers is the highly fantastic transformation of
David Banner into The Incredible Hulk in the children's television
series of that name.57 Preschoolers find the Hulk himself
terrifying and think he is evil as a result of his physical appearance,
because they do not understand that things can remain the same while
looking different and that the Hulk is, in fact, the same benevolent
character as David Banner.
PERHAPS ADULTS MISUNDERSTAND WHAT CHILDREN MEAN WHEN THEY
USE THE WORDS "REAL" AND "PRETEND." ONE CHILD
IN A STUDY OF CHILDREN'S FEARS DESCRIBED THE SCARY ANIMALS IN HER
NIGHTMARES: "I TOLD THEM THEY WERE A DREAM, BUT THEY WOULDN'T
GO AWAY."
The most common ways parents try to help their young children cope
with fears about what they see on television are cognitive strategies
such as talking to the children about the program or explaining
that the scary parts are not real.58 Although these strategies
work well with older children, they do not with preschoolers. Preschoolers
who were given verbal explanations in an educational program about
snakes actually showed more fear when they later saw the snake-pit
scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark than preschoolers did who were
shown the education program without explanatory narration.59
In another example, virtually all the preschoolers in a 1984 study
were able to answer correctly that the wicked witch in The Wizard
of Oz was not real, if they had previously been given that information.
However, these children were just as frightened as children who
had not been told to remember that the witch was not real when both
groups viewed the witch threatening Dorothy on the TV screen.60
One possible explanation is that preschoolers distracted by fear
cannot reconceptualize a frightening stimulus; another explanation
is perhaps that adults misunderstand what children mean when they
use the words "real" and "pretend." One child
in a study of children's fears described the scary animals in her
nightmares: "I told them they were a dream, but they wouldn't
go away."61
Suggestions for Parents
Rather than trying to comfort a frightened preschooler with logical
explanations, parents would do better to provide distraction such
as a snack, or physical comfort such as letting the child sit close
to them or giving the child a blanket or a toy to hold.62
Besides providing distraction or comfort, parents of preschoolers
may be able to prevent their children from having high levels of
general fear from television by mediating their viewing in some
way. Children whose parents do not use any means of mediation have
been found to be likely to adopt a view of the world as "mean
and scary."63
Children whose parents do provide mediation have been found to
be not only less fearful, but also less aggressive.64
Parental mediation to reduce a child's fears and aggression can
include limiting the amount of programming the child watches (especially
violent or scary content), watching with the child, encouraging
or discouraging behaviour children are imitating from television,
commenting on violent or scary content, and encourage the viewing
of prosocial programs.65 In addition, they can reduce
the effect of television violence considerably if they refuse to
provide their preschoolers with toys related to violent television.66
PARENTS CAN REDUCE THE EFFECT OF TELEVISION VIOLENCE CONSIDERABLY
IF THEY REFUSE TO PROVIDE THEIR PRESCHOOLERS WITH TOYS RELATED TO
VIOLENT TELEVISION.
The extent to which parents mediate their children's television
viewing varies from country to country. In Japan, mothers report
frequently using television as a "babysitter" for young
children.67 By age three or four, Japanese preschoolers
were found to spend more than half their viewing time watching alone
or with other children. In sharp contrast, American preschoolers
spend about 75 percent of their viewing time in the company of one
or both parents.68 However, the programs they are watching
are most likely to be those intended for an adult audience and chosen
by the adults.69 It is therefore likely that these parents
are probably increasing their children's exposure to content that
is violent, frightening, or, at least, incomprehensible.
The American pattern does not appear to be duplicated in Canada.
Research done by the Centre for Media and Youth Studies reveals
that well over 80 percent of the programs that preschoolers are
watching in Canadian urban areas are programs intended for children.70
On the other hand, it is not known to what extent Canadian parents
use television as a "babysitter" for their preschoolers.
It has been suggested that parents may be more likely to let young
children view alone if they are watching children's educational
programs.71 Such a tendency is understandable, since
children are most likely to need information and reassurance from
their parents when they are watching adult programming.72
Recent evidence suggests that even if children are watching alone,
they are still learning new vocabulary - from Sesame Street at least.73
But parents who do not watch children's shows with their preschoolers
are losing out on an opportunity to maximize the child's learning
by discussing the material and doing follow-up activities that elaborate
on what has been learned from the programs.74
Suggestions for the Television Industry
If would be a good idea for the television industry to avoid the
use of violence in programming for preschool-age children, since
violence is not necessary to attract their attention and has been
shown to increase their level of aggression. There is not much point
in using television violence to teach preschoolers lessons about
the negative aspects or consequences of violence, since their ability
to comprehend these concepts from television portrayals is extremely
limited.
Canadian children watch programs that are especially intended for
children if such programs are available, but unfortunately they
are frequently not available.75 Children therefore end
up watching a great deal of television that is intended for an older
audience. Canadian television stations could improve the situation
by offering a Wider variety of children's programming (rather than
the cartoon fare that currently makes up the majority of children's
programs) and scheduling it at the times preschoolers are likely
to be viewing: in the morning, after three o'clock in the afternoon,
and in the early evening.76
CANADIAN CHILDREN WATCH PROGRAMS THAT ARE ESPECIALLY INTENDED
FOR CHILDREN IF SUCH PROGRAMS ARE AVAILABLE, BUT UNFORTUNATELY THEY
ARE FREQUENTLY NOT AVAILABLE.
The research into how preschoolers watch and understand television
points to ways of providing more appropriate programs for them.77
For example, obvious formal features can be used to direct
preschoolers' attention to the most important features of the program's
content, such as critical plot events. Sound effects may be more
effective than visual inserts.78 Inserting random bursts
of vivid formal features or humour can increase children's general
attention to television material. Such insertions will not interfere
with the child's understanding of the material, as long as the form
of humour used does not appear to convey things that are not true
(for example, irony, which might be taken as meaning the opposite
of what is intended).79
Fast pacing is another formal feature that seems to improve children's
attention and comprehension,80 although fast pacing may
also make the child more aggressive. Rather than hectic pacing,
programs can use narration and dialogue in women's and children's
voices and "child-directed speech." ("Child-directed
speech" involves using a slow rate of speech, simple sentences,
repetition, and references to events and objects that are actually
being shown on the screen.81) These methods have also
been found to improve children's attention and comprehension.82
Emotion is a difficult concept for preschoolers to understand from
television. To teach about emotions on television, it might be more
effective to use human, rather than animated or puppet characters.83
Suggestions for drawing the child's attention to the emotion being
presented include using attention-getting formal features; inserting
pauses in the flow of events after the material is presented, to
allow the child to think about the event; providing narration about
the emotion; or extending the period during which the emotion is
expressed. Such efforts are worth investigating, but may have limited
effect. Attempts to train preschoolers to recognize the emotions
of others have resulted in only short-term success.84
Endnotes
1Hearold, 1986. 2Keating, 1984; Schank and
Abelson, 1977; Hawkins and Pingree, 1986.
3Wright and Huston, 1983.
4See, for example, Takahashi, 1991; Lorch et a]., 1987.
5Calvert and Gersh, 1987.
6Choat, 1988.
7Winick and Winick, 1979, p. 40.
8Anderson and Lorch, 1983.
9Hawkins, Kim and Pingree, 1991, Rolandelli et al., 1991.
10Anderson and Lorch, 1983.
11See, for example, Choat, 1988; Hayes and Birnbaum,
1980; Hayes et al., 1981.
12Jacobvitz et al., 1991; Peracchio, 1993; Rolandelli,
1989.
13Huston and Wright, 1983.
14Campbell et al., 1987.
15Abelman, 1989.
16Huston and Wright, 1989.
17Calvert, 1988.
18Abelman, 1990.
19Wilson and Weiss, 1993.
20Huston and Wright, 1989; Kunkel, 1988; Stutts and Hunnicutt,
1987; Van Evra, 1990; Wilson and Weiss, 1992.
21Abelman 1989; 1990.
22Duck et al., 1988.
23Huston and Wright, 1983.
24Collins, 1982.
25Hayes and Casey, 1992,
26Liss, Reinhardt and Fredriksen, 1983.
27Hoffner and Cantor, 1985; Liss et al., 1983.
28Dietz and Strasburger, 1991.
29Hesse and Mack, 1991.
30Rice, Huston and Wright, 1982.
31Collins, 1982, 1983.
32Committee on Social Issues Group for the Advancement
of Psychiatry, 1982.
33See, for example, Argenta, Stoneman and Brody, 1986;
Caron and Croteau, 1991; Caron, Nardella, et al., 1993; Huston,
Wright et al., 1990; Jaglom and Gardner, 1981; Kodaira, 1992.
34Huston, Donnerstein et al., 1992.
35Huston, Donnerstein et al., 1992.
36See, for example, Potts, Huston and Wright, 1986.
37See, for example, the "mesmerized" preschoolers
in Argenta, Stoneman and Brody's 1986 study. The discovery that
cartoons' formal features may "mesmerize" preschoolers
may in itself be a cause for concern. Preschoolers have a tendency
to look more at the screen the longer they have been looking - a
pattern of visual attention termed "attentional inertia"
(Anderson and Lorch, 1983; Krull, 1983). Preschoolers tend to stop
watching television when the content becomes incomprehensible to
them, but their "attentional inertia" keeps their attention
beyond the first indication of incomprehensibility, allowing them
to "venture into unknown cognitive territory" (Anderson
and Lorch, 1983, p. 25). Cartoons probably do not have too much
"unknown cognitive territory," but attentional inertia
may be sufficient to keep the child's attention on the screen in
the relatively short portions of cartoon programs in which there
are not vivid formal features that would otherwise draw the child's
attention back to the screen - hence the apparent state of being
"mesmerized." This may be a phenomenon unique to preschoolers.
Although Anderson and Lorch (1983) have reported attentional inertia
in older children and adults, as well, Krull (1983) notes that it
accounts for little of the variance in television viewing after
the preschool age. He estimates that up to 50 percent of preschoolers'
attention to television is the result of "attentional inertia,"
but that this inertia accounts for only about 10 percent of the
attention of seven and eight-year olds.
38Jaglom and Gardner, 1981; Lemish, 1984; Winick and
Winick, 1979; Huston, Wright et al., 1990.
39Huston-Stein et al., 1981; Greer et al., 1982.
40Potts, Huston and Wright, 1986; Josephson, 1987.
41See, for example, Feshbach, 1976; Hapkiewicz and Stone,
1974; Huesmann, Eron et al., 1983.
42Hearold, 1986.
43Sanson and DiMuccio, 1993.
44Dorr, 1983; Downs, 1990; Jaglom and Gardner, 1981.
45Dorr, 1983.
46Dorr, 1983.
47Flavell et al., 1990; Lurcat, 1991; Nikken and Peeters,
1988; Potter, 1988; Watkins Sprafkin, et al., 1988.
48Fernie, 1981.
49Morison and Gardner, 1978.
50Quarforth, 1979.
51Flavell et al., 1990; Morison and Gardner, 1978.
52Fernie, 1981.
53French and Pena, 1991.
54Wilson, Hoffner and Cantor, 1987.
55Huston, Donnerstein et al., 1992.
56Osborn and Endsley, 1971.
57See, for example, Sparks and Cantor, 1986.
58Wilson and Cantor, 1987.
59Wilson and Cantor, 1987.
60Cantor and Wilson, 1984.
61Jersild and Homes, 1935, cited in Cantor and Wilson,
1984, p. 443.
62Wilson and Cantor, 1987; Wilson, Hoffner and Cantor,
1987; Wilson and Weiss, 1993.
63Singer et al., 1988.
64Singer and Singer, 1981; Singer et al., 1988
65Huston, Wright, et al., 1990.
66Dorr, 1986; Huston and Wright, 1989; Sanson and DiMuccio,
1993. 67Kodaira, 1990, 1992.
68Huston, Wright et al., 1990.
69St. Peters et al., 1991; Singer and Singer, 1981.
70Caron, Frenette et al., 1992; Caron, Nardella et al.,
1993.
71Singer and Singer, 1981.
72Singer and Singer, 1981.
73Rice, Huston, Truglio and Wright, 1990.
74See, for example, Choat, 1988; Cook et al., 1975; Salomon,
1977.
75Caron, Nardella et al., 1993.
76Caron, Nardella et al., 1993; Luke, 1988; Kodaira,
1992.
77See, for example, Keating, 1984.
78Calvert and Gersh, 1987.
79Zillmann and Bryant, 1988.
80Calvert and Scott, 1989.
81Rollandelli, Wright et al., 199 1.
82Rollandelli, 1989; Rolandelli, Wright et al., 1991.
83Hayes and Casey, 1992.
84Feshbach and Cohen, 1988.
MIDDLE CHILDHOOD OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGE
( children ages 6 to 11 )
THE AGE OF EIGHT IS CRITICAL IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
TELEVISION VIOLENCE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGGRESSION, BECAUSE OF
THE COGNITIVE AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS THAT OCCUR AT THIS AGE.
Television-viewing Habits
When children start school, they watch less television, since they
have less time available for day-time viewing. By grade two or three,
they start watching more TV again, since they are able to stay up
later in the evening. From this time, the amount of television that
children watch increases gradually until adolescence.1
At elementary school age, North American and Japanese children watch
more often without their parents than they did when they were preschoolers;2
Swedish children however, are much more likely to watch with their
parents than without them.3 At this age, children begin
to watch less educational television and more cartoons, situation
comedies, and action-adventure programs.4
Middle childhood is considered to be an especially important period
for understanding the effects of television on aggression. Some
researchers focus on children between the ages of nine and twelve
because of the large amount of television they watch (and hence
their potential to be immersed in violent content).5
Other researchers believe that the age of ten to twelve is most
important because it is at this age that children's long-term interests
and behaviour patterns emerge.6 Most researchers, however,
agree that the age of eight is critical in the relationship between
television violence and the development of aggression. This is because
of the cognitive and emotional developments that occur at this age.
Perhaps the most important of these is the shift from relying primarily
on perceptual information to relying on conceptual information to
understand the world.7
Approach to Processing Information and Watching Television
Between the ages of six and seven, children develop a memory or
expectation for how stories (conveyed through any medium) are structured.8
They become more efficient at processing information about a story
(including the plots of television programs) because they are now
able to anticipate and direct their attention to important story
content, store information in their memories according to its importance,
and match the information presented with their expectations of what
will happen.
By about age seven, children's visual attention to television increases
to about 70 percent of their viewing time and then levels off.9
Although children of this age are still attentive to vivid formal
features, they can more readily ignore them in favour of content
features that are important to the plot or to the child's own personal
reasons for viewing. By age eight, children can interpret most complex
formal feature codes of television, such as dissolves and cuts to
denote time leaps, flashbacks and dreams, and the perspective information
conveyed by edited compilations of multiple camera angles.10
Elementary school-aged children can identify formal features that
distinguish real from fantasy television content. For example, children
in one study said they knew the televised event of the Challenger
space shuttle explosion was real because of the poor-quality video,
disjointed speech by the announcers, printed words on the screen,
and absence of close-ups.11
BY AGE EIGHT, CHILDREN ARE LESS LIKELY TO BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE
THEMSELVES IF THE VIOLENCE THEY SEE IS PORTRAYED AS EVIL, AS CAUSING
HUMAN SUFFERING, OR AS RESULTING IN PUNISHMENT OR DISAPPROVAL.
At this age, children develop the ability to recognize unchanging
properties of apparently changing objects and become capable of
using more complex systems of classifying objects and events. This
allows them to understand more subtle formal features and content
and to make reliable inferences in the absence of concrete events.
They can therefore understand story plots more fully and interpret
them in light of the emotions and motivations of TV characters.12
Children will use stereotypes to classify characters as good or
bad if no information about a character's past behaviour or motivation
is given, but when such information is provided, they will attend
to it and incorporate it in their assessment of the character.13
By age eight, children are more likely to be sensitive to important
moderating influences of television content, and they will not become
more aggressive themselves if the violence they see is portrayed
as evil, as causing human suffering, or as resulting in punishment
or disapproval.14
Although children at this age have a truly impressive ability to
make sense of the television world, they do not always use it. It
is the amount of mental effort children invest that determines whether
they will use their cognitive abilities and critical skills to process
television information deeply, or merely react to it in an unfocused,
superficial way.15 While preschool-age children invest
a great amount of mental effort if they think they will be able
to understand the material,16 children of elementary
school age invest increasingly less mental effort overall in watching
television.17 Those children who watch television for
information do invest more mental effort and learn more, but it
is more common for children to watch for relaxation, amusement or
just to pass the time18 and hence process the information
superficially and uncritically.
IN CULTURES WHERE CHILDREN CONSIDER TELEVISION TO BE AN
EASY MEDIUM TO WATCH, SUCH AS IN NORTH AMERICA, IT MAY BE NECESSARY
FOR ADULTS TO REMIND CHILDREN TO USE THE PERCEPTUAL AND CRITICAL
SKILLS THEY HAVE DEVELOPED.
The amount of mental effort children invest when watching television
varies from culture to culture. For example, compared with American
children their age, Israeli children consider television a less
"easy" medium to understand, so they invest more mental
effort and learn more from it when they watch.19 In cultures
where children do consider television to be an "easy"
medium, it may be necessary to provide reminder cues20
or for adults to initiate discussion21 that will remind
children to use the perceptual and critical skills they have developed.
Particular Susceptibility to the Effects of Television
Violence
The age of eight has been identified as a watershed period for
the effects of television violence on children.22 There
are a number of reasons for this.
"REAL" TO AN EIGHT YEAR OLD APPEARS TO MEAN PHYSICALLY
EXISTING IN THE WORLD. THEY MAY REGARD POLICE DRAMA TO BE REAL BECAUSE
POLICE OFFICERS DO EXIST. ONE GRADE TWO STUDENT IN A STUDY EXPLAINED
THAT THE BRADY BUNCH WERE REAL BECAUSE of THEY HAVE A REFRIGERATOR,
AND THERE ARE SUCH THINGS AS REFRIGERATORS."
Ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. By age eight, children
are more likely to become aggressive after watching violent television
if they believe the violence they have seen reflects real life.23
"Real" to an eight-year-old appears to mean physically
existing in the world.24 They see characters with superhuman
powers as not real, because they recognize that their activities
are physically impossible in the real world. However, they may regard
police drama as real because police officers do exist. One grade
two student in a study explained that The Brady Bunch were real
because "they have a refrigerator, and there are such things
as refrigerators."25
By age ten, "real" is more likely to mean "possible
in real life."26 Children at this age in one study
tended to consider the British police drama The Bill "real"
because they thought that it portrayed events that could happen,
even though they knew its gory injury scenes were produced with
make-up or paint. One twelve-year-old even went so far as to say
that actors in The Bill "have to be policemen for about a month
or something - they have to join it and see what happens."27
Some eight-year-old children in this study used the dimension of
violence itself as a criterion for the reality of a show. They described
The Bill as real "because it's about robbers," or "because
it's all about handcuffing and police and blood."28
For children who equate violence with reality, all violent content
is considered real and therefore a potentially useful guide for
how to behave in real life. The belief that violence is inherently
realistic is not common, even among eight-year-olds, but there is
some evidence that it may persist beyond middle childhood for those
who do subscribe to it. In other studies, some twelve-year-old boys
(but only those who were delinquents with lower IQs) also shared
this belief,29 as did some adults interviewed in both
the United States and Britain,30 in spite of the fact
that violence is vastly more prevalent on prime time television
than it is in even the most violent North American cities.31
FOR CHILDREN WHO EQUATE VIOLENCE WITH REALITY, ALL VIOLENT
CONTENT IS CONSIDERED "REAL" AND THEREFORE A
POTENTIALLY USEFUL GUIDE FOR HOW TO BEHAVE IN REAL LIFE.
Tendency to identify with aggressive heroes and engage in aggressive
fantasies. When asked who they wanted to be like, eight- to ten-year-olds
in one study named unrealistic characters from television much more
often than characters whom they knew to be more like real people.32
The common theme in the reasons for their choice was that the unrealistic
characters were powerful, brave, and strong. Unfortunately, the
characters tended to express these qualities primarily through violent
action.
Bravery, strength, and power are themes that have run strongly
through the fantasy play of six- to eleven-year-olds, even long
before television entered children's lives in the 1950s. When children
in one study chose to emulate and dramatize fantasy heroes (as opposed
to heroes from real life), they almost always described those heroes
as brave or courageous.33 The theme of "power"
has been found to be one the most frequently expressed themes by
children of this age group while watching or discussing television.34
This theme no doubt arises because children of this age are struggling
to achieve competence and independence in their own personal and
social development.35 Nevertheless, it is surprising
to find children adopting such one-dimensional heroes, given how
much more complex and sophisticated their perceptions and mental
processes are supposed to have become by this age. One explanation
may be that television provides children with rather narrow and
stereotypical characters, so that they have relatively little opportunity
to express their increased sophistication if they choose television
characters as heroes.36 In one study, children who chose
family members or other real people as their heroes did show a more
sophisticated understanding. The children described real-life heroes
as having a much wider range of human qualities,37 such
as "helpful," "kind," and "gentle,"
in addition to "strong."
CHILDREN WHO CREATE VIOLENT OR HEROICALLY AGGRESSIVE FANTASIES
AND WHO IDENTIFY WITH AGGRESSIVE HEROES ARE THE ONES MOST LIKELY
TO BE AFFECTED BY VIOLENT TELEVISION, BECAUSE THESE FANTASIES SERVE
AS REHEARSALS FOR VIOLENT RESPONSES TO REAL-LIFE EVENTS.
Although they may be rather one-dimensional, television heroes
of action drama and violent cartoons embody the dimensions that
may be the most important to children at this age especially boys.
These heroes are unusually admirable, powerful, and successful in
their aggression.38 No wonder children identify with
them! The heroes' victims are portrayed as dangerous, vicious, deserving
of their fate, and as not suffering any pain with which the viewer
might empathize.39 In fact, the concept of justification
is one area in which children of this age have shown they do make
relatively complex judgements about television characters. Children
in grades five and six have drawn distinctions between justified
and unjustified violence in cartoons, and have consequently found
the comic violence of The Pink Panther more violent and less acceptable
than the action adventure violence of Dick Tracy.40
It appears that watching violence on television makes it more likely
that children will later create violent fantasies. Children in grades
one and two have a strong tendency to reenact the content of televised
cartoons in their play immediately after they see it, especially
if program-related toys are available.41 Eight-year olds
who watch a great deal of violent programming have been found to
create more aggressive-heroic fantasies when they are ten.42
Children who do create violent or heroically aggressive fantasies43
and who identify with aggressive heroes44 are the ones
most likely to be affected by violent television.45 The
reasoning is that fantasies serve as rehearsals for violent responses
to real-life events. Children who do not dwell on the televised
violence in their personal fantasies and play are less likely to
have their behaviour affected by these violent images, perhaps because
they see it as irrelevant to their real lives or self-image.
Expectations about gender-related reactions to violence. At elementary
school age, there appears to be a growing recognition by girls that
aggression is not appropriate for them, which may account for both
lesser interest in viewing violence on television and less likelihood
of using aggression in real-life situations.46 At this
age, girls seem increasingly to recognize that violent content and
the cartoon format is "for boys."47 Some researchers
have noted that children entering middle childhood recognize the
formal features (such as more obvious features, male narrators,
and noise) that signal content for boys and those (such as fades,
dissolves, background music, female dialogue, and female narrators)
that signal content for girls.48 Elementary school-age
boys continue to report enjoying vivid formal features and continue
to watch lots of cartoons and action adventure programming (which
are both violent and full of "boy typed" formal features).
Girls this age do not report watching a lot of cartoons, and thus
their favourite programs - mostly comedies - contain less violence.49
Girls are less likely to identify with the violent heroes that most
attract boys, and they seem less interested in the power or strength
of their chosen heroes.50 While girls are just as confident
as boys are that they could effectively carry out aggressive activities,
they are significantly more likely than boys are to believe that
such behaviour would meet with social disapproval.51
Girls also expect to feel more guilty if they are aggressive, and
they have a stronger expectation that they will cause suffering
to victims. Boys of this age who are not very aggressive also feel
guilt about aggression and empathy for the suffering of others.52
For these reasons some researchers have concluded that television
violence has a greater effect on boys than on girls, from about
age eight to ten onwards. Nevertheless, girls who do watch violent
television are likely to become more aggressive than girls who do
not and girls who prefer masculine activities during their elementary
school years are especially affected by watching violent television.53
Perception of the World from Watching Television
Since the 1970s, researchers have known that children who watch
a great deal of television see the world as a meaner, scarier, and
more dangerous place than children who do not watch a lot of television.54
Similar patterns have been found with adults.55
Do children come to believe the world is a violent, dangerous place
because television portrays it that way, or do we just find a relationship
between heavy viewing and a perception that the world is mean because
fearful children take refuge in television rather than going out
to face the world they fear? Evidence has been found that adults
who live in dangerous neighbourhoods are especially likely to watch
a lot of television, and if children follow the same pattern, this
might account for the finding that children who watch a lot of television
see the world as a mean place.56 On the other hand, experimental
evidence57 shows that heavy exposure to "slasher"
movies like Friday the 13th series actually does increase
young adults' fears and their tendency to see the world as a meaner,
scarier place, so this might be the case with violent television
and younger children, too. It is quite conceivable that both of
these things are happening.
HEAVY EXPOSURE TO "SLASHER" MOVIES INCREASES
YOUNG ADULTS' FEARS AND THEIR TENDENCY TO SEE THE WORLD AS A MEANER,
SCARIER PLACE.
Unfortunately, if fearful children are seeking out television as
a refuge, they are unlikely to find much there to reassure them.
The message children are likely to receive about themselves from
television is one of devaluation and danger, especially if they
are girls.58 When children are featured as characters
in North American prime-time and weekend day-time television, they
are even more likely than adults are to be depicted as victims of
violence and ill-health.59 Adolescents are portrayed
as being not only frequently victimized by others, but also as engaging
in self-destructive behaviours such as smoking and drinking.60
Elementary school-age children in one study were even more likely
than were preschool children to say that they had been scared by
something on television.61 This pattern may be more than
sheer accumulation of scary experiences over time. Another study
found that children in grade six reported feeling deeper, more emotional
fears than did children in grade two after having seen The Day After,
a dramatization of what would happen after a nuclear explosion.62
It is also possible that girls may feel this deeper fear sooner
than boys. Following the televised coverage of the Challenger explosion,
girls in grades four to six showed a more intense and emotional
reaction than boys, who reported a more impersonal regret.63
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE AFRAID
OF TELEVISION PORTRAYALS IF THE DEPICTED SCARY EVENTS SEEM POSSIBLE
AND ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE SHOWN IN CIRCUMSTANCES THAT RESEMBLE
THE CHILD'S OWN.
Television Content that Children Find Scary
Elementary school-aged children do not necessarily find televised
violence frightening.64 At this age, children are more
likely to be afraid of television portrayals if the depicted scary
events seem possible65 and especially if they are shown
in circumstances that resemble the child's own.66 The
Day After was particularly frightening to the sixth graders not
only because it was portrayed so realistically, but also because
its heroes and heroines were children like themselves who suffered
and died in a context that was otherwise very much like the viewers'
own.67 With their capacity to identify with others, to
empathize, and to imagine transformations that maintain their essential
identity in different circumstances, elementary school children
are apparently highly vulnerable to such presentations.68
Children may enjoy rather than fear violence at a distance violence
that happens to people unlike themselves and in circumstances different
from their own. After in-depth interviews with Toronto children
in grades four and five, one researcher elaborated:
What the children describe as scary are those incidents when the
familiar and safe, like the home and parents and loved one, are
negatively transformed. Home becomes a killing ground, parents are
powerless to protect, dolls become killers.69
ONE BOY HAS DESCRIBED A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO REDUCE HIS
OWN FEAR BY USING IDENTIFICATION, THE FIRST TIME HE SAW NIGHTMARE
ON ELM STREET: "IT WAS EASY. I PRETENDED I WAS FREDDY KRUGER.
THEN I WASN'T SCARED. NOW THAT'S WHAT I ALWAYS DO AND I AM NEVER
SCARED." SINCE IDENTIFYING WITH AN AGGRESSIVE HERO HAS A STRONG
INFLUENCE ON INCREASING AGGRESSION, THIS TACTIC FOR REDUCING FEAR
IS CHILLING, INDEED.
It is when children identify with the victim of television violence
that they become frightened.70 But, as previously noted,
most boys, at least, identify with the strong, powerful heroes of
television programs, not with the victims.71 By doing
so, they may avoid the fear and worry that have been found, in one
study at least, among children who watch a lot of television.72
For example, one boy has described a deliberate attempt to
reduce his own fear by using identification, the first time he saw
Nightmare on Elm Street: "It was easy. I pretended I was Freddy
Kruger. Then I wasn't scared. Now, that's what I always do and I
am never scared."73 Since identifying with an aggressive
hero has a strong influence on increasing aggression, this tactic
for reducing fear is chilling, indeed.74
Attraction to Horror Movies
A taste for horror movies is one of the more surprising developments
in elementary school-aged children.75 This is the genre
that is probably the most likely to frighten children.76
Besides a great deal of graphic and gory violence, horror movies
have formal features that make them especially scary. Close-up shots,
for example, elicit a more intense response to startling or gory
events. Sudden cuts into scenes and abrupt reorientation of the
camera angle are used to startle and disorient the viewer. Close-ups
and camera shots from the perspective of the victim increase the
likelihood that the viewer will identify with the victim. Cuts to
black are used to heighten suspense.77
Why do children deliberately scare themselves with horror movies?
(Or, as one research team has put it, "How can this formula
work for nonmasochistic audiences?"78). We do not
know for sure, but a number of explanations have been offered. One
is that suffering so intensely with the victimized protagonist makes
the relief of the happy ending more enjoyable.79 The
reasoning is that the viewer is likely to experience a leftover
physiological arousal from all the uncertainty and distress that
precedes the final resolution of the plot. This leftover arousal
adds to the power of the positive emotions experienced at the happy
ending, creating a feeling of greater heartiness and euphoria. This
effect can be compared with the greater joy experienced by fans
after their home team wins a tense and difficult game than after
an easily won game.80
A second explanation is that children at this age are so preoccupied
with overcoming their state of vulnerability and dependence that
they actively seek out opportunities that might provide them with
more information about fearfulness and the things they fear.81
A somewhat related explanation is that children may be deliberately
trying to conquer their fears of vulnerability and victimization
by desensitizing themselves through repeated exposure to horror
movies.82 Desensitization has been found to be quite
effective in reducing the fears of children at this age.83
In contrast to preschoolers, children of elementary school age experienced
less fear during the snake pit scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark
when they were previously shown an educational program about snakes,
even if there was no accompanying narration.84
CHILDREN MAY BE DELIBERATELY TRYING TO CONQUER THEIR FEARS
OF VULNERABILITY AND VICTIMIZATION BY DESENSITIZING THEMSELVES THROUGH
REPEATED EXPOSURE TO HORROR MOVIES. BUT TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY
DESENSITIZE THEMSELVES TO VIOLENCE AND FEAR, THEY ARE ALSO VERY
LIKELY BECOMING MORE TOLERANT OF VIOLENCE IN THE REAL WORLD.
When people see the same television program repeated, they experience
the same pattern of physical response that they did when they saw
it the first time but at a reduced level.85 Perhaps,
the popularity of horror movie sequels (for example, the apparently
endless series of Freddy videos86) stems from this effect.
Each time they are exposed to a familiar horrifying character or
predictable event, children may feel they are coming closer to conquering
their fear of what used to terrify them. It may be particularly
gratifying to children of this age to successfully overcome their
fears, in light of their overall concern with developing personal
competency and independence. Mastering frightening situations may
be especially important for boys, who see it as an expectation for
their gender.87 For example, one of the sixth graders
who saw The Day After had this reaction to the prospect of a nuclear
attack: "... If it's going to happen, I should get ready for
it ... like think of some way not to be scared when it does happen."88
It has been reported that people who are apprehensive about being
victimized (and presumably this could include children) seek out
action drama for its reassuring and comforting theme of the restoration
of social justice.89 While there is a great deal of violence
in such programs, the benevolent authorities are better at it than
the villains are, and they put an end to criminal victimization,
at least until the next episode. Young adults who have been made
to feel apprehensive seek out such dramas more often than usual,
and the theme of social justice is a more important determinant
of their choice than is the level of violence in the program (especially
for women).90
It is possible that children seek out horror movies for the same
reasons, but it is unlikely that horror movies are going to reassure
them that the world is just.91 For one thing, there are
so many scenes of victimization, and the victims are usually so
innocent and suffer so much, that most of the scenes actually depict
unjust victimization, not the restoration of justice. At best, the
message of horror movies might be that justice is eventually restored,
but often too little and too late. Moreover, the need to keep the
horrifying villain around for sequels means that evil cannot usually
be resoundingly and permanently defeated. Children, then, are not
likely to find watching horror movies a very successful strategy
in assuring themselves that the world is just. To the extent that
they desensitize themselves to violence and fear, they are also
very likely becoming more tolerant of violence in the real world.92
Suggestions for Parents
Parents can influence their child's viewing by modifying their
own viewing, since parental habits continue to be an important determinant
of the amount and types of programs children are watching at this
age.93 Fathers become more important influences than
mothers, perhaps because at this age children watch more often during
the times when men watch most, in prime time.94
One recommendation, especially for younger school-aged children,
is that parents restrict the amount and types of programs children
watch, in order to reduce their children's fears and aggressiveness.
This restriction is like an announcement that the parents
"and not the TV - will raise their children."95
One hour a day for preschoolers and two hours a day for early school-aged
children is one recommendation for the amount to let children watch.96
Of course, if parents limit television time, it means they should
provide alternative activities for their children.97
Constructive learning and play will not necessarily just happen
because the television is turned off." In one study, first
graders who had their television viewing time decreased and replaced
by more time with their parents showed improvements in their reading
and cognitive skills.99
IT HAS BEEN FOUND THAT WHEN PARENTS DO WATCH VIOLENT PROGRAMS
WITH THEIR CHILDREN BUT DO NOT DISCUSS THE CONTENT WITH THEM, THEIR
CHILDREN MAY ACTUALLY BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE.
Parents are much less likely to restrict their older school-aged
children's television watching,100 and restriction may
be relatively ineffective for these older children anyway.101
What is more likely to help is for parents to help children to understand
and evaluate the content that they are watching. This is because
at this age the meaning (both factual and emotional) of the violence
is an important mediator of the effect such violence will have.
At the beginning of this stage, parents can also help children to
decode some of television's more difficult formal features, since
children at this age are still just learning how to interpret these
more sophisticated aspects of the medium.102
Discussing, explaining, and challenging television communication
have been found effective in helping children to understand and
interpret television material103 and in overcoming the
effect televised violence has on their attitudes and behaviour.104
It has been found that when parents do watch violent programs with
their children but do not discuss the content with them, their children
may actually become more aggressive.105 It may be that
children are exposed to more televised violence if they are watching
television with the parents, or it may be that their parents appear
to be endorsing violent activities if they watch such actions on
the screen and do not comment on their inappropriateness.
PARENTS OUGHT TO DISCUSS AND EXPLAIN NOT ONLY THE MEANING
OF TELEVISED EVENTS, BUT ALSO THE REASONS FOR RESTRICTING THEIR
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN'S WATCHING. THESE STRATEGIES WILL HELP
CHILDREN INVEST MORE MENTAL EFFORT IN THEIR WATCHING, BECOMING MORE
CRITICAL AND ANALYTICAL VIEWERS OF TELEVISION.
It is advisable for parents to discuss and explain even the reasons
for restricting their elementary school children's watching, in
order to help the children learn the intellectual and moral concerns
that guide their parents' decisions.106 It is also recommended
that parents discuss the meaning of televised (and of course real-life)
events with their child before the child is actually faced with
them, and then again after the event has happened. In this way parents
are helping their child to develop a framework for understanding
and evaluating those events.
Another positive effect of these strategies is that children invest
more mental effort in their watching, becoming more critical and
analytical watchers of television.107 For parents, watching
television with their children, answering their questions and providing
commentary can become another way of furthering their child-rearing
goals, even if they are only watching together because they like
the same programs and not because the parents are deliberately using
the occasion for teaching.108 Parents are more likely
to discuss television content with their children if the children
are intellectually gifted, probably because they recognize their
children's relatively high ability to understand parental commentary.
However, even children who are not unusually advanced appear to
benefit from this approach.109
In helping children overcome their fears, parents might be tempted
to tell their elementary school-aged children to cover their eyes
or just to turn off the television if they are scared, but this
strategy will not help much. In fact, turning off the television
has not been found to be an effective strategy even for preschoolers.110
Elementary school-age children can effectively reduce their fear
by using a cognitive strategy, such as emphasizing the unrealistic
nature of a scary television event or talking to their parents about
it.111 Non-cognitive strategies do not work as well for
them, except for "sitting close to Mom or Dad," a strategy
that works well for both preschool and elementary school children.
As for horror movies, parents are right to be concerned about their
potential negative effects. Fortunately, horror movies are not widely
accessible to children of this age, except on a few cable channels
and through video rentals.112 But children need an opportunity
to discuss and deal with the fears they face at this age,113
and parents can provide this opportunity in ways that are more helpful
and direct than through horror movies. Parents can, for example,
discuss their own experiences and set an example of successful coping,
help children to reinterpret and challenge fears that are not based
in reality, and help them develop the confidence and skills that
they need to deal with the real-life challenges that cause realistic
fears.
Suggestions for the Television Industry
Probably the greatest challenge for the industry is to provide
entertainment programming in which life's problems are not simply
and quickly solved with either violent action or hostile humour.114
Elementary school-aged children (especially boys) watch a grew number
of cartoons and action-adventure dramas, and in their preoccupation
with power, competence, and independence, they may be especially
affected by television's simplistic and often violent portrayal
of problem solving and conflict resolution.
Creating program that have no violence or violent heroes but are
still popular with children (and with the likely intended adult
audience) is not the impossible challenge it might seem to be. Children
of this age are more attracted to variability and tempo than to
violence,115 and adult ratings are affected very little
by the amount of violence in a program.116 While it is
true that boys seek male heroes117 and sometimes reject
counter stereotypical male characters on television,118
there are strong and positive male models (such as Bill Cosby in
The Cosby Show) who are popular and who have influenced boys to
adopt a variety of less sex-stereotyped behaviours.119
Girls benefit even more from televised portrayal of less sex-stereotyped
behaviours. It is important to remember that it is power, not violence
or conformity with sex, stereotypes, per se that boys identify with.
Boys have been found to accept highly counterstereotypical behaviour
from male television characters who were powerful and had high status.120
The elementary school-aged audience has been called the "almost
forgotten group" when it comes to targeted programming, even
in American public television, which does emphasize programming
for children.121 A recent Canadian report has suggested
that Canadian children of this age group may have adopted a preference
for cartoons and programs intended for adults because there is little
specifically for them in Canada either.122 Given the
important cognitive and social developments children experience
at this age, the need to create programming that meets the needs
and interests of this audience segment seems well justified.123
The types of programs that would be valuable include programs that
demonstrate the way in which television's special effects (especially
those intended to provoke fear) are made, since children at this
age are developing a more sophisticated understanding of how the
medium works. Children at this age appear very interested in such
matters,124 and this kind of programming has been found
effective in helping them to overcome their fears of scary television
content.125
IT IS POWER, NOT VIOLENCE OR CONFORMITY WITH SEX STEREOTYPES,
THAT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-AGED BOYS IDENTIFY WITH. BOYS HAVE BEEN FOUND
TO ACCEPT HIGHLY COUNTERSTEREOTYPICAL BEHAVIOUR FROM MALE TELEVISION
CHARACTERS WHO WERE POWERFUL AND HAD HIGH STATUS.
A number of techniques have been identified to help younger elementary
school children (ages six and seven) make the transition from perceptually
based to conceptually based understanding. These include using previews
of the main plot features, to help children to attend to and recall
important features of a story;126 inserting synopses
of program events after advertisements, to improve their later comprehension
of the program;127 and narration, to improve their understanding
of off-screen plot events and other implicit content.128
Obvious and stylized formal features such as dreamy visual dissolves
are more effective than camera cuts to help young viewers understand
such concepts as flashbacks.129 Humour can be used to
improve both children's attention and their comprehension of television
material, as long as irony and misinformation are avoided.130
It is best to avoid fast, melodic background music, while it attracts
the attention and interest of first and second graders, it actually
interferes with their comprehension of the content it is accompanying.131
Endnotes
1Luke, 1988, in Canada;
Rosengren and Windahl, 1989, in Sweden; Kodaira, 1992, in Japan;
Utamachant and Kodaira, 1991, in Thailand; St. Peters et al.,
1991, in the United States.
2Dorr, Kovaric and Doubleday, 1989; Kodaira, 1992;
Lawrence and Wozniak, 1989; St. Peters et al., 1991.
3Schyller et al., 1986.
4Caron, Frenette et al., 1992; Caron, Nardella
et al., 1993; St. Peters et al., 1991; Winick and Winick,
1979.
5van der Voort, 1986; Eron et al., 1983.
6Winick and Winick, 1979.
7For example, Cantor, Wilson and Hoffner, 1986.
8Meadowcroft and Reeves, 1989.
9Huston, Donnerstein et al., 1992.
10Abelman, 1989; 1990; Calvert, 1988; Wilson and
Weiss, 1993.
11Wright, Kunkel et al., 1989.
12Collins, 1983; Huston and Wright, 1983; Knowles
and Nixon, 1989, 1990.
13Hoffner and Cantor, 1985.
14Collins, 1982, 1983; Comstock, 1980; Hearold,
1986.
15Salomon, 1981, 1983.
16See, for example, Hawkins, Kim and Pingree,
1991; Pingree, 1986.
17Bordeaux and Lange, 1991; Fowles, 1992.
18See, for example, Rubin, 1977; Atkin, 1985.
19Salomon, 1983.
20Brucks et al., 1988.
21Watkins, Calvert, et al., 1980.
22See, for example, Eron et al., 1983; Huesmann
and Eron, 1984; Huesmann, Lagerspetz and Eron, 1984.
23Eron et al., 1983.
24Kelly, 1981.
25Kelly, 1981; Buckingham, 1993.
26Kelly, 1981; Doff, 1983.
27Buckingham, 1993, p. 224.
28Buckingham, 1993.
29Chaney, 1970.
30Messaris, 1986, in the United States and Docherty,
1990, in Britain.
31Gerbner, Gross, Morgan and Signorielli, 1986.
32Fernie, 1981.
33French and Pena, 1991.
34Winick and Winick, 1979.
35For example, Owens, 1993.
36French and Pena, 1991. See also Babrow et al.,
1988.
37French and Pena, 1991.
38See, for example, Luke, 1988; Selnow, 1986;
Gerbner, Gross, Morgan and Signorielli, 1986.
39See, for example, Meyrowitz, 1986.
40Haynes, 1978.
41Greenfield, Yut et al., 1990.
42Valkenburg et al., 1992-93.
43Huesmann and Eron, 1984.
44Huesmann et al., 1983.
45A similar pattern has been found among Finnish
children, especially among boys (Viemero,
and Paajanen, 1992).
46Eron et al., 1983.
47Buckingham, 1993.
48Huston and Wright, 1983.
49Kent, Nixon and Rendell, 1986; Huston, Wright
et al., 1990. 50Reeves and Miller, 1978.
51Perry, Perry and Rasmussen, 1986.
52Perry and Bussey, 1977.
53Eron et al., 1983.
54See, for example, Gerbner, Gross, Eleey et al.,
1977, and Singer, Singer and Rapaczynski, 1984, in the United
States; McIlwraith and Schallow, 1982, in Canada.
55Gerbner, Gross, Eleey et al., 1977; McIlwraith
and Josephson, 1985.
56Doob and Macdonald, 1979.
57See, for example, Ogles and Hoffner, 1987.
58Signorielli, 1987.
59Signorielli, 1987.
60Signorielli, 1987.
61Wilson et al., 1987.
62Palmer, 1986.
63Wright, Kunkel et al., 1989.
|
64Campbell, 1992; Cullingford,
1984.
65Wilson et al., 1987.
66Campbell, 1992, in Canada; Cullingford, 1984,
in Britain; Cantor and Hoffner, 1990, and Palmer, 1986, in
the United States.
67Palmer, 1986.
68See, for example, Cantor, Wilson and Hoffner,
1986.
69Campbell, 1992, p. 24.
70Cantor and Wilson, 1984.
71See, for example, Fernie, 1981; DeAngelis, 1993.
72McIlwraith and Schallow, 1982.
73Campbell, 1992.
74Campbell, 1992.
75Campbell, 1992.
76See, for example, Cantor, Wilson and Hoffner,
1986.
77Meyrowitz, 1986.
78Zillmann and Bryant, 1986, p. 315.
79Zillmann and Bryant, 1986.
80Zillmann and Bryant, 1986.
81cf. the "perceptual readiness explanation"
in Fenigstein and Heyduk, 1985.
82cf. Zillmann and Bryant, 1985.
83Wilson and Cantor, 1987.
84Wilson and Cantor, 1987.
85Tannenbaum, 1985.
86Caron, Meunier et al., 1990, have documented
the popularity of these videos.
87Zillmann and Bryant, 1986.
88Palmer, 1986.
89Zillmann and Wakshlag, 1985.
90Zillmann and Wakshlag, 1985.
91Zillmann and Bryant, 1986.
92Drabman and Thomas, 1974, 1976.
93St. Peters et al., 1991.
94Webster et al., 1986.
95Desmond et al., 1990.
96Desmond et al., 1990; Fosarelli, 1986.
97See, for example, Jason, 1987.
98Mutz et al., 1993.
99Gadberry, 1980.
100Austin, 1992; van der Voort, Nikken and van
Lil, 1992; Weaver and Barbour, 1992.
101Sarlo et al., 1988.
102Collins et al., 1981; Desmond et al., 1990.
103Austin et al., 1990; Collins et al., 1981;
Corder-Bolz, 1980; Desmond et al., 1990; Watkins, Calvert
et al., 1980.
104Abelman, 1990; Desmond et al., 1990; Grusec,
1973; Vooijs and van der Voort, 1993a, 1993b.
105Wright, St. Peters and Huston, 1990.
106Desmond et al., 1990.
107Singer et al., 1988.
108Dorr et al., 1989.
109See, for example, Abelman, 1987.
110Cantor and Wilson, 1988; Wilson, 1989.
111Cantor and Wilson, 1988.
112Campbell, 1992; Caron, Nardella et al., 1993;
Caron, Meunier et al., 1990.
113Campbell, 1992.
114See, for example, DeAngelis, 1993; Luke, 1988;
Selnow, 1986.
115Huston and Wright, 1989.
116Diener and DeFour, 1978.
117Reeves and Miller, 1978.
118See, for example, Calvert and Huston, 1987;
Wroblewski and Huston, 1987.
119Rosenwasser et al., 1989.
120Jeffery and Durkin, 1989.
121Palmer, 1988.
122Caron, Nardella et al., 1993.
123See, for example, Hall et al., 1990.
124See, for example, Buckingham, 1993.
125Cantor, Sparks and Hoffner, 1988.
126Calvert et al., 1987; Neuman et al., 1990.
127Kelly and Spear, 1991.
128Calvert et al., 1987.
129Calvert, 1988.
130Weaver et al., 1988.
131Wakshlag, 1985.
|
ADOLESCENCE
( children ages 12 to 17 )
FOR ADOLESCENTS, WATCHING TELEVISION IS A PASSIVE, RELAXING
ACTIVITY REQUIRING LOW CONCENTRATION, AND THEY ARE MOST LIKELY TO
DO IT WHEN THEY ARE BORED OR LONELY
Television-watching Habits
Adolescents in middle school and high school watch less television
than they did when they were younger, since they begin to spend
more time away from home, do more things with peers, and listen
more to the radio.1 For many adolescents, this change
in media use marks the transition between childhood and adolescence.2
Popular music becomes the medium most appropriate to the developmental
concerns of adolescents - independence romance and sexuality - themes
that are featured prominently in the lyrics of popular music. Adolescents
listen to music alone and with their friends. When they do watch
television, they are most likely to watch it with members of their
family, since television is the medium of the mainstream culture
of their parents.3
In one study, American and Italian adolescents who continued to
watch television at their preadolescent rate also continued to spend
more time with family and less with friends and to have a preference
for spending time with family.4 A similar pattern has
been reported for Swedish adolescents.5 Watching television
may be one of the few activities that adolescents do with their
parents. Out of 1000 "time samples" of adolescents' daily
activities, only ten found them spending time alone with their fathers;
five out of these ten were times watching television.6
Adolescents also watch different programs than they did when they
were younger. They still like comedies, but watch fewer cartoons,
with the exception of "adult-oriented" animated programs
such as The Simpsons (possibly in part because adolescents are sleeping
in on Saturday mornings!). Dramas become popular, especially those
featuring adolescent characters, such as Beverly Hills 90210 and
Blossom. Girls at the end of adolescence start including soap operas
in their lists of favourites, and many adolescents include sports
fairly often, as well as music programs and science fiction. Crime
adventure is a popular choice with American adolescents, but is
not often chosen as a favourite by Canadians at this age.7
Approach to Processing Information and Watching Television
Adolescence is the period during which young people become capable
of abstract reasoning, extracting principles from concrete instances,
taking on complex and multiple roles of others, integrating contrasting
and contradictory aspects of people and experiences, and extracting
what is personally relevant from a complex array of situations.
They are no longer so rooted in the immediate present, and can think
more about future or hypothetical possibilities.8
By early adolescence (i.e. in middle school), children are often
adopting multiple meanings of the word "real." ("Real
in what way?" is sometimes a counter question when they are
asked if something is real.9) They can fully articulate
what they mean by "real,"10 one meaning being
"plausible" or "probable." The Brady Bunch,
while possessing a physically possible refrigerator and even being
a possible blending of two families, would be considered "unreal"
by this definition if the show didn't portray relationships and
human behaviour in a way that is consistent with the viewer's expectations
about human nature. Adolescents have considered television families
to be "unreal" when, for example, they were too nice to
each other, had too few or too many problems, or had surroundings
that were too beautiful to be true.11 There is also a
sense, though, of "real" being relative to the adolescents'
own lives. As one adolescent said of the Australian soap opera,
Neigbbours, "It's probably realistic in Australia."12
Another definition of "real" used at this age is really
an aesthetic judgement about the acting and sets, referring to high
technical quality that does not draw attention to the fake or constructed
nature of the content.
FOR ALL THEIR NEW COGNITIVE AND EMPATHIC ABILITIES, ADOLESCENTS
RARELY USE THEM WHEN THEY'RE WATCHING TELEVISION.
Yet, for all these new abilities, adolescents rarely use them when
they're watching TV. For adolescents, watching television is a passive,
relaxing activity requiring low concentration, and they are most
likely to do it when they are bored or lonely (much the same way
adults do).13 When adolescents do make use of their more
mature cognitive and empathic abilities while watching television,
it may have either a positive or a negative influence on the effect
that television has on them. For example, they may use these abilities
to dismiss what they see on television as unrealistic; conversely,
they may use these abilities to improve upon a crime that they have
seen on television and are considering committing themselves.
Susceptibility to Imitating Television Violence and Crime
Adolescents are much more likely than younger children to doubt
the reality of television content14 and much less likely
to identify with television characters.15 Those who continue
to believe in the reality of television and to identify with its
violent heroes are the ones likely to be more aggressive, especially
if they continue to fantasize about aggressive-heroic themes.16
Although concerns about imitative violence most often focus on
preschoolers, with their lack of life experience and their belief
in television's reality, it is actually copycat crimes or other
acts of violence committed by adolescents that most often come to
public attention.17 Programs adolescents are likely to
copy are those that demonstrate, in detail, the method of committing
a crime. With their superior abstract reasoning ability, adolescents
are capable of imagining and planning a real-life reenactment, including
detecting and correcting the gaps or flaws that may have caused
the television crime to fail.18 In addition, their newfound
appreciation of the relativity of rightness and wrongness, along
with their tendency to challenge conventional authority, probably
makes this the only group of viewers with a significant tendency
to admire the wrongdoer.19
The steps that appear to be necessary for imitation of violent
crimes from television and films are:
1)strong identification with the movie/program or its hero,
2)perseverance through extensive and elaborative fantasy about
the program, and
3)the capacity to commit the physical act.20
An example of an imitated scene in film is the Russian roulette
scene from The Deer Hunter, which may have caused an unusually large
number of adolescents to identify with it because of its effective
portrayal of a warm and committed peer group of young people. The
scene was portrayed in a vivid way, using camera techniques (close-ups
and shots from the protagonist's point of view) that likely increased
identification by the viewer. In addition, the scene was relatively
easy for American adolescents to recreate because of their ready
access to guns.
WHEN ADOLESCENTS INVEST MENTAL EFFORT WHEN WATCHING TELEVISION,
IT MAY HAVE EITHER A POSITIVE OR A NEGATIVE EFFECT. FOR EXAMPLE,
THEY MAY DISMISS WHAT THEY SEE ON TELEVISION AS UNREALISTIC, OR
THEY MAY IMPROVE UPON A CRIME THAT THEY HAVE SEEN ON TELEVISION
AND ARE CONSIDERING COMMITTING THEMSELVES.
In this example, the guns may have contributed more than just the
means to commit the act. Sometimes the leap from thoughts to violent
actions can be triggered by some cue common to both the adolescent's
immediate environment and the "script" of the televised
violent events.21 For some imitators of this scene, the
presence of guns in their environment may have brought The Deer
Hunter scene to mind. Recent research in the United States suggests
that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to imitating televised
portrayals of suicide,22 especially if these portrayals
are of real-life events.23
Perception of the World from Watching Television
Parents of adolescents are just as worried about the effects of
television content on their children's fears as they are about effects
on aggression.24 About 80 percent of adolescents watch
horror movies or other material that scares them.25 Watching
violent content contributes to adolescents' sense of the world as
a mean place,26 although even adolescents who watch only
a little television appear to feel much more vulnerable to crime
than do young adults.27 However, it appears that adolescents
who do not consider the televised violence to be real will not see
the world as a mean and scary place or feel an exaggerated sense
of personal vulnerability to crime from watching violent or other
scary content on television. In addition, adolescents who have been
victims of crime or who know someone who has been a victim tend
not to rely on television as their source of information about the
likelihood of being victimized.28
THERE IS SOME DISAGREEMENT ABOUT THE PLEASANTNESS GIRLS
EXPERIENCE FROM WATCHING HORROR MOVIES ON VIDEO. IN ONE STUDY, ADOLESCENT
GIRLS REPORTED A MUCH LESS POSITIVE REACTION THAN BOYS DID FROM
WATCHING VCR MOVIES, POSSIBLY BECAUSE OF THE HIGH FREQUENCY WITH
WHICH WOMEN WERE VICTIMIZED AND DEVALUED IN THE MOVIES THEY WATCHED.
Attraction to Horror Movies, Music Videos and Violent Pornography
Horror movies take on a new importance in the context of adolescents'
concerns about sex, romance and further definition of sex roles.
One study has found that young men seem to enjoy horror movies more
when they are with a visibly frightened woman of the same age, and
that young women enjoy horror movies more when they are in the company
of a young man who is apparently not frightened.29 Watching
horror movies together, then, may provide an opportunity for boys
to comfort (and demonstrate their mastery of frightening situations)
and for girls to be comforted, a ritual that is meaningful and pleasing
to both in a dating context.
There is, however, some disagreement about the pleasantness of
this experience for girls.30 In another study, adolescent
girls reported a much less positive reaction than boys did while
watching VCR movies, possibly because of the high frequency with
which women are victimized and devalued in the movies (especially
horror movies) that adolescents most often watch. Adolescent girls
have been reported to be more likely than boys to regret having
seen horror movies.31
As might be expected, children begin watching more music programming
during adolescence, although television is not the preferred medium
for popular music.32 One study of American cable subscribers
found that 41 percent of younger adolescents included MTV in the
repertoire of channels they used (compared with only 16 percent
of their parents, whose average age was in the mid-thirties).33
In a study of older American adolescents, 80 percent were
MTV viewers.34 As with VCR movies, girls have less positive
experiences than boys do from watching music programming (both broadcast
and videotape).35 It has been argued that the high levels
of violence toward women and the sexist imagery make music videos
less attractive to adolescent girls. However, although both music
videos and music television contain well documented sexist and racist
imagery36 and violence,37 reviews of their
content38 indicate that they are not more violent than
prime time TV and that - unlike violent TV - they do not portray
women more often than men as the targets of their violence.
A SURVEY OF CANADIANS IN THE 1980S FOUND THAT ADOLESCENTS
AGED 12 TO 17 WERE THE AGE GROUP MOST LIKELY TO REPORT VIEWING SEXUALLY
EXPLICIT VIDEO MATERIAL. ABOUT 38 PERCENT OF THESE ADOLESCENTS SAID
THAT THEY WATCHED SUCH MATERIAL ON TELEVISION, IN MOVIE THEATRES,
OR ON VIDEOCASSETTES, AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH.
A survey of Canadians in the 1980s found that adolescents aged
12 to 17 were the age group most likely to report viewing sexually
explicit video material39. About 38 percent of these
adolescents said that they watched such material on television,
in movie theatres, or on videocassettes, at least once a month.
Canadians in this age group expressed the highest rate of acceptance
(35 percent) for sexually violent or degrading material. (The next
highest acceptance rate was 12 percent, among Canadians aged 18
to 34.)
The effects of violent pornography on male viewers are indeed worthy
of concern. These effects include increased acceptance of violence
against women, increased belief in rape myths (for example, that
women really want to be raped), and increased tendency to use painful
means of punishing women.40 The effects on girls of watching
violent pornography have not been much studied, although one study
has found that young women's belief in rape myths was not affected
by a film that served to increase those beliefs in young men.41
It would be reasonable to expect that exposure to violent pornography
would increase girls' fears and reduce their self-esteem.
For ethical reasons, most investigations of violent pornography
have been done with adults (usually university students). However,
it has been argued42 that adolescents are even more likely
than adults to be affected by exposure to violent pornography because
1)even among adults, younger people seem to be more influenced
by violent and dehumanizing pornography,
2)their relative lack of experience and strong interest in sexual
relationships may mean that pornography is their first exposure
to detailed information about man sexual behaviours and
3)sex education in Canadian schools tends to deal primarily with
narrowly biological matters, so that adolescents may turn to media
portrayals to learn about the social or interpersonal aspects of
sexual relationships.
FOR ETHICAL REASONS, MOST INVESTIGATIONS OF VIOLENT PORNOGRAPHY
HAVE BEEN DONE WITH ADULTS. HOWEVER, IT HAS BEEN ARGUED THAT ADOLESCENTS
ARE EVEN MORE LIKELY THAN ADULTS TO BE AFFECTED BY EXPOSURE TO VIOLENT
PORNOGRAPHY.
Suggestions for Parents
Parents impose few restrictions on the amount and types of programs
their adolescents watch as they grow older.43 It may,
however, be wise for parents to continue to impose some rules, since
adolescents who have no such restrictions are more likely to be
fearful and to endorse the stereotypes portrayed on television.
This is especially true of adolescents whose relationships with
their parents lack warmth and closeness.44 However, merely
maintaining warm and close relationships (a challenge worth pursuing
in its own right!) is not necessarily an effective strategy for
modifying the influence of television on adolescents.
DIFFICULT THOUGH IT MIGHT BE FOR PARENTS AND ADOLESCENTS
TO DISCUSS MATTERS SUCH AS SEXUAL VIOLENCE, IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT
DEBUNKING RAPE MYTHS EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER EXPOSURE TO "SLASHER"
FILMS AND VIOLENT PORNOGRAPHY REDUCES THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF THOSE
FILMS ON BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES.
While watching television together has positive benefits, it has
been found that when parents build their family cohesion around
television viewing, the negative effects of television are intensified.45
Under these circumstances, children watch more violence, have more
faith in the reality of television portrayals, and say they learn
antisocial activities (including aggression) from television.46
Rather than just watching together, then, it would also be wise
for parents to encourage adolescents to express their opinions and
to analyze and question television content, since this strategy
has been found to reduce adolescents' fears and aggressiveness.47
Difficult though it might be for parents and adolescents to discuss
matters such as sexual violence, it has been shown that debunking
rape myths either before or after exposure to "slasher"
films and violent pornography reduces the negative effects of those
films on beliefs and attitudes.48
Suggestions for the Television Industry
Little programming is available to Canadians that is intended specifically
for adolescents, although their viewing patterns indicate an interest
in programs that reflect the concerns of adolescents.49
Because of adolescents' particular vulnerability and attraction
to the theme of suicide, programs that deal with this theme should
be handled carefully. The usual pattern of increased incidence of
suicide following the broadcast of programs about suicide did not
occur when community-based educational campaigns were developed
to go along with the televised film about suicide.50
Television content that promotes rape myths should definitely he
avoided, as should portrayals of mischievous, dangerous, or violent
behaviour that seems to promise fun, "kicks," or quick
publicity. Program content should also avoid portraying violent
behaviour as requiring little effort to achieve consequences that
are so awesome and grotesque as to promise instant notoriety or
publicity.51 Rather, television content should portray
the downside risks and consequences of violent behaviour in order
to discourage adolescents from imitating or endorsing such behaviour.
It might lessen the number of horror and pornographic videos adolescents
watch if television programming were provided that addresses the
particular needs and interests of adolescents.
Endnotes
1Caron, Frenette et al., 1992, Caron, Nardella et al.,
1993, in Canada; Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1984, Fine et al.,
1990, and Neumann, 1988, in the United States; and Johnsson-Smaragdi,
1983, and Rosengren and Windahl, 1989, in Sweden.
2Larson et al., 1989.
3Indeed, Lull (1990) calls the social use of television
an extension of the family.
4Larson et al., 1989; Kubey, 1990; Csikszentmihalyi
and Larson, 1984; Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi, 1990.
5Johnsson-Smaragdi, 1983.
6Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1984.
7Caron, Nardella et al., 1993; Hawkins, Reynolds and
Pingree, 1991 Larson et al., 1989.
8Faber et al., 1986.
9Kelly, 1981.
10Dorr, 1983.
11Kelly 1981 and Buckingham, 1993.
12Buckingham, 1993, p. 230.
13Krendl and Lasky, 1989; Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi,
1990.
14Dorr, 1983.
15Johnsson-Smaragdi, 1983.
16See, for example, Huesmann and Eron, 1984, Dominick,
1984.
17See, for example, Stanley and Riera, 1976; Heller
and Polsky, 1976.
18Heller, 1978, cited in Liebert and Sprafkin, 1988.
19Winick and Winick, 1979.
20Wilson and Hunter, 1983.
21Wilson and Hunter, 1983; Huesmann, 1982.
22Phillips and Carstensen, 1986; Gould and Shaffer,
1986; Gould et al., 1988.
23Phillips and Paight, 1987; Kessler and Stipp, 1984.
24Ridley-Johnson et al., 1991.
25Wass, Raup and Sisler, 1989; Cantor and Reilly, 1982.
26Potter and Chang, 1990.
27Potter, 1986.
28Slater and Elliott, 1982; Potter, 1986; Weaver and
Wakshlag, 1986.
29Zillmann and Bryant, 1986.
30Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi, 1990.
31Cantor and Reilly, 1982.
32Larson et al., 1989; Caron, Frenette et al., 1992;
Caron, Nardella et al., 1993; Greenfield, Bruzzone et al., 1987.
33Heeter et al., 1988.
34Sun and Lull, 1986.
35Larson et al., 1989.
36See, for example, Brown and Campbell, 1986.
37See, for example, Sherman and Dominick, 1986.
38See Gerbner, 1988, for a review of American research
and Spears and Seydegart, 1993, for a review of Canadian content.
39Check et al., 1985.
40See, for example, Linz, Donnerstein and Penrod, 1984;
see Malamuth and Billings, 1986, Malamuth and Briere, 1986, and
Malamuth, 1989, for a review.
41Malamuth and Check, 1981.
42Check and LaCrosse, 1989.
43See, for example, Lin and Atkin, 1989.
44Rothschild and Morgan, 1987.
45Rothschild and Morgan, 1987.
46McLeod and Brown, 1976.
47McLeod and Brown, 1976.
48Linz, Fuson and Donnerstein, 1990; Malamuth and Briere,
1986.
49Caron, Frenette et al., 1992;
Caron, Nardella et al., 1993.
50Gould et al., 1988.
51Heller, 1978, cited in Liebert and Sprafkin, 1988,
p. 125.
CONCLUSION
THE EFFECT OF TELEVISION VIOLENCE LEADS "AT-RISK"
CHILDREN TO BE EVEN MORE AGGRESSIVE THAN THEY WOULD OTHERWISE BE,
AND ALTHOUGH THE GROUP AT RISK MIGHT BE A MINORITY OF VIEWERS, THEY
ARE LIKELY TO BE THE MAJORITY OF AGGRESSORS. THIS MAKES THEM WORTHY
OF OUR ATTENTION, EVEN IF WE WERE NOT CONCERNED ABOUT THEM FOR OTHER
REASONS.
There are certainly things that parents can do to influence the
effect that television content has on their children. However, an
entertainment medium that purports to meet the needs of the Canadian
public should not be so saturated with potentially harmful content
that parents are considered negligent if they don't constantly monitor
their children's watching. Children whose parents have the motivation
and resources to be vigilant and active mediators will likely avoid
most of the negative effects of violent content. But not all parents
will do that, and, in fact, the children who are otherwise the most
vulnerable to the effects of television violence may be the ones
whose parents are least likely to be vigilant mediators (for example,
abusive parents and parents of families in distress).
It is certainly true that television violence does not account
for all the causes of children's aggression, and it is also true
that some children are a great deal more likely to be affected by
television violence than others, and that it is these children who
are likely to be potentially more aggressive anyway. But the effect
of television violence leads these "at-risk" children
to be even more aggressive than they would otherwise be. And although
the group especially at risk might be a minority of viewers, they
are likely to be the majority of aggressors. This fact makes them,
and the violent content of television, worthy of our attention.
APPENDIX I:
Effects of television violence on especially vulnerable
groups
ABUSED CHILDREN WATCH MORE TELEVISION THAN OTHER CHILDREN
DO, PREFER VIOLENT PROGRAMS, AND APPEAR TO ADMIRE VIOLENT HEROES.
CHILDREN WHO ARE BOTH ABUSED AND WATCHERS OF A GREAT DEAL OF TELEVISION
ARE LIKELY TO COMMIT VIOLENT CRIMES LATER IN LIFE.
Although it is beyond the scope of this report to discuss the matter
in detail, there are groups of children who may be especially vulnerable
to the effects of violent television, beyond the developmental considerations
that have been raised here. These include:
1)Children from minority and immigrant groups.1 These
children are particularly vulnerable because they tend to watch
a great deal of television. Immigrant children may watch entertainment
programs with the intent of learning more about the culture of their
new country. Children from minority groups may not see many actors
from their own culture represented, and those that they do see may
be presented in a stereotyped or devalued way (for example, a member
of a minority group being presented as the "bad guy").
A particular concern in Canada is the potential of television to
"homogenize" cultures in a way that undermines cultural
values.
2)Children who are emotionally disturbed or who have learning disabilities.2
These children may also watch a great deal of television and may
prefer violent programs. They are more likely than other children
to perceive television content as accurately reflecting the real
world, and they may identify with violent characters.
3)Children who are abused by parents.3 Abused children
watch more television than other children do, prefer violent programs,
and appear to admire violent heroes. Children who are both abused
and watchers of a great deal of television are likely to commit
violent crimes later in life.
4)Families in distress. Children whose families are under high
levels of stress watch more televisions and may receive less parental
mediation of their television viewing and less support from their
parents than other children do.
Endnotes
1See, for example, Berry and Mitchell-Kernan, 1982;
Granzberg, 1985; Greenberg, 1986; and Zohoori, 1988.
2See Sprafkin et al., 1992, for an extensive review.
3See Donohue et al., 1988; and Heath et al., 1986.
4See, for example, Henggeler et al., 1991; Tangney,
1988; and Tangney and Feshbach, 1988.
APPENDIX II:
Responses to common criticisms of research on the relationship
between television violence and aggression
EVEN IF WE CONSIDER ONLY THOSE STUDIES THAT HAVE MOST THOROUGHLY
MET THE STANDARDS OF CRITICS, THE PATTERN OF RESULTS STILL SUPPORTS
THE CONCLUSION THAT TELEVISION VIOLENCE LEADS TO INCREASED AGGRESSION.
There are critics who still do not accept the conclusion that violent
television increases children's aggressiveness and fears.1
The following are some typical criticisms that have been raised
and responses to these criticisms that are usually made.2
1)"The jury is still out on the effects of television: the
research is inconsistent and flawed."
This report has reviewed only the research that is relevant to
the question of how television violence affects children at different
ages. Hundreds of studies have been done that were not reviewed
for this report because they did not provide information on the
effects of violence at different ages. The large majority of scholars
who have studied this body of research have concluded that television
does increase children's aggression and fears. Some scholars are
not convinced, but they are in the minority. There are some studies
that have not shown the effects, but the large majority of them
have.
Although early research (especially from the 1950s and 1960s) was
rightly criticized for being flawed, methods have since steadily
improved. Designs have been improved, new designs have been adopted,
and enough studies have now been done that a consistent pattern
of effect has emerged. In fact, it is largely in response to the
careful scrutiny of critics that the body of research has evolved
to the point where we can now confidently draw the conclusions we
do. Even if we consider only those studies that have most thoroughly
met the standards of critics,3 the pattern of results
still supports the conclusion that television violence leads to
increased aggression.
As a result, there is widespread agreement among credible authorities
that television violence does increase children's aggression and
fears. Reports supporting the conclusion have been circulated by
the United States Surgeon General,4 the Royal Commission
on Violence in the Communications Industry,5 the American
National Institute of Mental Health,6 UNESCO,7
the American Psychological Association,8 the CRTC,9
and the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Communications
and Culture.10
2)"The effect is too small to make much difference."
It is certainly true that, in any study where it has been studied,
television violence does not account for all the variability in
children's aggression. In most studies, television violence usually
ranges somewhere around 10 to 20 percent of the variability.11
Although this amount may seem small, it holds its own with other
important determinants of aggression, such as gender and social
class. Human behaviour is complex and multiply determined. No single
variable is likely to be a "magic bullet" that accounts
entirely for aggression or any other human activity.
3)"We don't even have a clear definition of violence."
It is true that many definitions of violence have been used in
the research, but most of these definitions agree that violence
involves a character doing deliberate harm to another creature.
So we can, in fact, point to the conditions on the screen that are
actually responsible for children's aggressiveness. Most Canadians
are talking about a shared set of instances and examples when they
make statements about television violence.
4)"Violence on TV is just reflecting real life."
The world as portrayed on Prime Time and Saturday morning television
is much more violent than real life. Television crime is about 10
times the real-life rate, and most deaths of television characters
are violent.12
5)"Violence is only on TV because that's what people want
to watch."
As pointed out in this report, even though violent television programs
tend to be popular with children and some adults, it is not the
violence that makes them popular. Other attractive features of programs
could be used to gratify audiences instead. George Comstock has
suggested that it is really the creators of general audience programming
who "welcomed violence as meeting the specifications for the
product - conflict visually portrayable, conventions understood
by all, attention-drawing action, and repeated crescendos of suspense
amenable to punctuation by commercials."13
THE WORLD AS PORTRAYED ON PRIME TIME AND SATURDAY MORNING
TELEVISION IS MUCH MORE VIOLENT THAN REAL LIFE. TELEVISION CRIME
IS ABOUT 10 TIMES THE REAL-LIFE RATE, AND MOST DEATHS OF TV CHARACTERS
ARE VIOLENT.
Endnotes
1See, for example, Duhs and Gunton, 1988; Freedman
1986 and 1988; Locke, 1974; Lande, 1993; and Stipp and Milavsky,
1988.
2See, for example, Comstock and Strasburger, 1990;
Friedrich-Cofer and Huston, 1986;
Rosenthal, 1986; Silver, 1993; and Tan, 1986.
3For example, Turner et al., 1986; and Wood et al.,
1991.
4Cisin et al., 1972.
5Royal Commission on Violence in the Communications
Industry, 1976.
6Pearl et al., 1982.
7Gerbner, 1988.
8Huston, Donnerstein et al., 1992.
9Martinez, 1992.
10Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Communications
and Culture, 1993.
11See, for example, Rosenthal, 1986; and Wood et al.,
1991.
12See, for example, Gerbner, Morgan and Signorielli,
1982.
13Comstock, 1982.
APPENDIX III:
Research on the effects of violent video games
ONE WOULD EXPECT CHILDREN TO BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE FROM
PLAYING VIDEO GAMES THAN FROM WATCHING TELEVISION BECAUSE IN PLAYING
VIDEO GAMES, CHILDREN ARE REWARDED FOR BEING SYMBOLICALLY AGGRESSIVE.
There is little research literature on the effects of violent video
games on aggressive behaviour.1 Although both children
and their parents tend to evaluate video games more positively than
television,2 television violence and video-game violence
are sufficiently similar that one would expect to find children
becoming increasingly aggressive from playing violent video games.
In fact, one would expect children to become more aggressive from
playing video games than from watching television because in playing
video games, children are rewarded for being symbolically aggressive.3
It has been reported that children who play with toy weapons or
play a competitive game become as aggressive as children who have
been exposed to television violence.4
Most studies5 have found no effects of video game violence
on children's aggression, but one study did report that both video
games and violent cartoons made children equally more aggressive
in their play.6
Despite the sparse evidence pointing to the negative effects of
violent video games, there are reasons to be cautious about making
assumptions that they are harmless. It should be kept in mind that
research on televised violence also started out reporting small
and relatively benign effects,7 as well as attracting
criticism for its poor methodology. Once researchers understood
the medium and the target behaviours well enough to design adequate
studies, effects became apparent and were found more consistently.
The same may well be true for research on video games.
SINCE VIOLENCE IS NOT AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE APPEAL OF
VIDEO GAMES FOR CHILDREN, IT WOULD NOT BE IMPOSING UNDUE HARDSHIP
ON EITHER GAME DEVELOPERS OR CHILD CONSUMERS TO PUT RESOURCES INTO
THE DEVELOPMENT OR PURCHASE OF NON-VIOLENT GAMES - AT LEAST UNTIL
SUFFICIENT RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE ON THE EFFECTS OF THE GAMES.
In addition, the video games that have been the subject of the
aggression studies have been fantasy games with nonhuman targets,8
and all but one of these have studied the effects on children of
elementary school age. Games with human or human-like targets may
have much stronger effects, and younger children, who do not distinguish
so clearly between reality and fantasy, may be more affected.9
Finally, it has been pointed out that violence is not an important
part of the appeal of video games for children.10 It
would not be imposing undue hardship on either game developers or
child consumers to put resources into the development or purchase
of nonviolent games - at least until sufficient research has been
done on the effects of the games.
Endnotes
1Ledingham et al., 1993.
2Sneed and Runco, 1992.
3Loftus and Loftus, 1983.
4Huston and Wright, 1989; Turner and Goldsmith, 1976;
and Rocha and Rogers, 1976.
5Three studies reviewed by Ledingham et al., 1993.
6Silvern and Williamson, 1987.
7Himmelweit et al., 1958; Schramm et al., 1961.
8Loftus and Loftus, 1983.
9Berkowitz and his colleagues (for example, Berkowitz
and Geen, 1966) have found that the similarity of real-life and
film targets was an important contributor in increasing children's
aggression after watching violent films.
10Greenfield, 1984.
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