|
Abstract
|
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this paper by Centerwall was to examine the effects of television violence upon normal childhood development.
METHODOLOGY:
The author employed a non-experimental exploratory design to discuss the effects of television in the context of normal development, to examine the role of television in aggressive and violent behaviors and to recommend future courses of action.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The author began with a discussion of television in the context of normal childhood development. Children are born with an innate capacity and even desire to imitate other behaviors, and infants as young as 14 months old have been observed to imitate behaviors that they see on television. However, they do not differentiate between those behaviors that are good to imitate, and those that really ought not be copied. The average child of age 2 to 5 years in the United States was watching more than 27 hours of television each week in 1990. Unfortunately, up until the age of 3 or 4 years, children do not understand what they are watching, and can therefore not differentiate between fact and fantasy. For these children, television is a factual portrayal of the world, with violence as a common occurrence that is also usually an exciting and efficient means to achieve desired goals. In particularly stressful situations in adolescence or adulthood, people may revert to their earliest impressions of violence and its role in society, most of which will have come from early television experiences. Natural exposure to television violence has also been the subject of many studies. One study in Canada of a community which had just received television found that, after two years, rates of physical aggression among children had increased by 160%. Another longitudinal study found that boys' viewing of television violence at the age of 8 could significantly predict the serious of crimes for which they had been convicted by age 30. A retrospective study of male felons and of men without a history of violent crimes found an association, approaching statistical significance, between childhood exposure to television violence and adult criminal behavior. Most studies in the United States and Canada have shown a significant positive relationship between childhood exposure to television violence and subsequent physical aggression and violence. The most important phase of this early exposure is just before adolescence, as later exposure does not have any additional direct effects upon the development of subsequent violence. In adolescence and adulthood, television violence acts to enhance aggressive tendencies that have already been developed. Thus intervention strategies should be aimed at preadolescent children and their families, rather than at adult populations. These studies have confirmed what many Americans already believed, that television plays a role in making America the violent nation that it is perceived to be.
The author examined the effects of natural exposure to television upon the entire population of South Africa, which first received television broadcasting in 1975. As well as examining homicide rates in South Africa, the author compared rates in Canada and the United States. Data about white homicide rates were obtained from government statistical registries. After the introduction of television to the United States, homicide rates increased by 93% from 1945 to 1974. The same conditions were found in Canada, with rates increasing by 92% over the same years. From 1943 to 1974 in South Africa, before television was introduced, homicide rates actually decreased by 7%. For Canada and the United States, the doubling of the homicide rates occurred over a ten to fifteen year period, after the introduction of television. This is to be expected, since the effect of television that initially occurs upon children would take a good 10 to 15 years to manifest itself in adult violent behavior. From 1975 to 1987, after the introduction of television, the South African homicide rates increased by 130%. In contrast to these rates, those in Canada and the United States did not increase from 1974, due to a saturation of television throughout these countries by the 1960s, which led to a saturation point of the effects of television after the 10 to 15 year time lag. The author concluded that childhood exposure to violence might act as a predisposing factor in as much as half of the violence in the United States today.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author claimed that appeals to the television industry to curb levels of television violence have fallen on deaf ears, as issues of social responsibility have been secondary to concerns about maximizing audience size and therefore advertising revenue. He thus believed that to make recommendations directed at the television industry would be futile. Other recommendations, however, could be more constructive. Parents should be advised to limit their children's viewing hours to one or two each day. By having signs declaring television-free areas in physicians' rooms, discussion about the effects of television can be broached in a clinical setting. Public health policy agendas should include the issue of television exposure, becoming part of a long-term campaign that suggests that less television is better. Alternatives to this form of child-care should be suggested, and parents should be educated in monitoring the programs that their children are watching, perhaps via use of a time and channel lock on the television that allows the set to be turned on only at preprogrammed times and for preset channels that are chosen by the parents. All television sets should eventually have to be manufactured with this type of lock built into them, so that all families, regardless of economic status, could afford to make the most of this technology. However, parents cannot make these decisions unless they are accurately informed about each program. As a final recommendation, the author suggested that programs be given a violence rating so that parents can make well-informed choices regarding the programs that their children can watch.
EVALUATION:
The author presents an excellent discussion about the effects of television violence upon childhood development, and also provides a thorough examination of some of the possible intervention and prevention strategies that could be useful in reducing the amount of television to which American children are exposed. A more detailed review of previous studies and research in the field might have been helpful, but overall the paper provides a good basis for future planning in the prevention of violence. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Child Aggression
KW - Aggression Causes
KW - Child Development
KW - Youth Development
KW - Television Violence
KW - Television Viewing
KW - Media Violence Effects
KW - Media Factors
KW - Imitation
KW - Exposure to Violence
Language: en |