EFFECTS OF TELEVISION VIOLENCE ON CHILD BEHAVIOR: A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction: Statement of the Research Problem
Several studies have reported a high correlation between exposure to violent television programming and violent behavioral tendencies among children (Lazar, 1994, pp. 3-19; Ridley, Surdy, & O'Laughlin, 1991, pp. 63-71; Clark, 1995, pp. 1019-1021). In spite of these findings and others, however, the causal link between viewing violence on television and imitative child behavior continues to be a controversial issue (Tulloch, 1995, pp. 96-115).
This research develops a proposal to examine the relationship between viewing by children of television programming with violent content and manifestations of violent or aggressive behavioral tendencies by those children. The proposed research is important because criminal activity generally and violent behavior particularly committed by children in the United States is increasing as the overall rates of both violent and non-violent crime in this country is declining to some extent (Centerwall, 1992, p. 3059).
The problem will be studied through a survey of the behaviors of a sample of children from six years old through 16 years old. Behavioral information about the children included in the sample will be collected from teachers and parents of the children. Behavioral relationships between television viewing habits and manifestations violent, non-violent, aggressive, and non-aggressive behaviors will be measured and compared.
Children begin to imitate adult behaviors at the earliest ages (Block & Newman, 1995, pp. 273-274). The ability to imitate behavior is both useful and necessary for child development. While children have an instinctive desire to imitate, however, children do not possess an instinct for determining whether a specific behavior should be imitated. Young children, as a consequence, will imitate any behaviorùincluding behavior that most adul...