TV VIOLENCE & CHILDREN Introduc

TV VIOLENCE & CHILDREN AT DIFFERENT AGES

Research studies report that television and the media are one of the most important influences on children and adolescents. Television effects many aspects of health and behavior, a matter of particular concern is the effect of TV violence on children. Cross-sectional studies, naturalistic studies, longitudinal studies, and meta-analyses all demonstrate a cause and effect relationship has been found between media violence and real-life aggression. The Surgeon General's Report (1972) and the National Institute of Mental Health (1982) also confirmed these findings. The effect size for media violence is computed to be 5% to 15%. With this confirmation of detrimental effect, research focuses more on the factors involved (Strasburger & Donnerstein, 1999, p. 129-130).

One of these factors is the age of the child viewing the TV violence. Previous research findings are not consistent regarding specific effects for different ages. Some researchers find no particular effects associated with different age groups, however, many have reported otherwise. The different findings concerning effects of TV violence for different ages, will be looked at in this review.

The Parents Television council recently reported results of their study which found that sex, violence, and bad language on TV has increased by 31% (Albiniak, 1999, p. 18). It is estimated that 99% of all American households have at le

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example, it has been shown that one exposure to TV violence may result in immediate effects, however, it is not clear how long the exposure needs to be, or how much violence needs to be viewed, or what the effect is of multiple exposures (pp. 228-229). TV Effects at Different Ages TV violence has been found by some to effect children differently at different ages. Beginning with the infant, no research has focused on the effects of TV violence. At six-months, infants can direct their attention to the TV and remain attentive for up to 16 minutes. Some infants can imitate TV behavior, however it must be simple and instructional in nature, and this does not characterize TV violence. By one year of age, the child does copy visual activities like hand-clapping, and TV violence does include this feature. It is concluded that parents may need to limit the infants' exposure to actions that might be dangerous to imitate, but beyond that, effects are not detrimental (Josephson, pp. 6-8). By the age two and a half, children are able to pay attention up to four times as much as younger children, which is around half of the time the TV is on. They are more able to represent objects or actions internally and extract meaning from TV co

Category: Psychology - T