Children learn from other people's behavior, even when the people they are watching are on TV and are being portrayed as doing bad things. "Many studies show that the observation of violence in the media is associated with aggression in viewers," according to "Understanding Psychology," a textbook. Children have reacted to violence on TV by hitting classmates, committing copycat crimes and ignoring others' fights. However, parents can affect children more than TV.
Younger Children
Observational learning is "a major part of human learning," according to "Understanding Psychology." In one experiment, most preschool children who watched an adult on TV hit a 5-foot-tall toy mimicked the adult when given the same toy. A different group of preschoolers who watched a man on TV hit a doll with a mallet were as violent afterward as classmates who saw a real person do the same thing and more violent than children who watched the incident in a cartoon. Children who witnessed no violence were the least violent.
Older Children
Older children also are more violent after watching violence on TV because "research on modeling shows that people frequently learn and imitate the aggression that they observe," reports "Understanding Psychology." The textbook cites the case of two teenagers who repeatedly watched "Natural Born Killers," a fictional movie about teenagers who murdered strangers for fun, on TV and killed one stranger and left another paralyzed a few days later. In a formal study, violence in a remote Canadian village increased 160 percent within two years after TV was introduced, according to the Media Awareness Network.
News
Fictional and real-world violence can inspire copycat crimes, according to "An Invitation to Health." The college textbook states that children watching "sensationalized" news reports might want the "intense attention" that murderers received and might view the crimes as daring rather than horrific. In the late 1990s, several incidents of boys murdering classmates at school received widespread TV coverage and were followed by more incidents. TV coverage of these incidents might have contributed to the rash of incidents, according to the book "Essentials for Health & Wellness."
Attitudes
Children who watch a lot of violent TV shows are more likely to "tolerate aggressive behavior" in their lives and be less sympathetic to victims of violence, according to the Media Awareness Network, citing several studies. Consequently, children desensitized to violence will often not intervene to prevent classmates from being harmed. In one study, boys who watched at least 25 hours of TV weekly were significantly more likely to ignore fights than boys who watched less than an hour daily.
Parents
Parental behavior and income is a more accurate predictor of youth violence than hours of violent TV programming watched, according to the Media Awareness Network. A study of at-risk boys found that parents can curtail their teen children's violence by regulating what TV programs they watch, but exposure to real-world and TV violence is a combustible combination. Poorer children are more exposed to real-world violence. TV violence is "a significant but weaker predictor" of youth violence, a Norwegian study concludes.
References
- "Understanding Psychology"; Robert S. Feldman; 2002
- Media Awareness Network: Research on the Effects of Media Violence
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2003
- "Essentials for Health and Wellness"; Gordon Edlin, Eric Golanty and Kelli McCormack Brown; 2000
