2/18/2013 @ 12:58PM
Alice G. Walton, Contributor
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s no revelation that violence is everywhere in the media: In TV and video games, it’s practically a given. In fact, according to a new study, on average, TV programs feature about eight violent incidents per hour, and in children’s programming the violence is even more prevalent. Trailers for upcoming shows also condense the violent scenes to give them preference. Past studies have suggested a link between watching violent content and aggressive or violent behavior, though the connection has been somewhat murky – it’s hard to show whether the one actually leads to the other. But the new study goes further in illustrating the potentially causal connection between “excessive” TV-watching in childhood and antisocial and criminal behavior in adulthood.
The new study, published in Pediatrics, followed over 1,000 kids born in 1972 and 1973. They tracked the amount of TV the kids watched in childhood at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15. Their behavior as adults was measured in a number of ways. The authors looked at the total conviction records of the participants once they were young adults, between 17 and 26 years old. Violent convictions were singled out, and included “aggravated robbery, manslaughter, assault with intent to injure, rape, using an attack dog on a person, and disorderly behavior likely to cause violence.” They also measured the prevalence of aggressive behaviors, negative emotions, and antisocial personality disorder among the kids when they were between 21 and 26.
The results were somewhat startling: For every hour of TV the kids watched on an average weeknight, their risk of criminal convictions increased by almost 30%. This “dose-response relationship” is similar to what you’d see with a medication, where the more drug you administer, the more of a given response there is.
More TV-watching in childhood was also linked to a greater likelihood for aggressive behaviors, negative emotions, and antisocial personality disorder. These connections held true even when other factors during childhood, like parenting, antisocial behavior early on, and socioeconomic status were taken out of the equation. Interestingly, the link between TV-watching and violent convictions fell away after other variables were removed, which suggests that the relationship between TV and adult behavior is “more complicated than a simple violence-begets-violence model.”
While the study couldn’t “prove” that TV-watching causes violent or aggressive behavior, the authors say that this study is the closest one has ever gotten to illustrating causation. And the possibility of reverse-causation – i.e., that existing violent or aggressive behavior might lead to more TV watching in kids – is unlikely, given the number of childhood variables that were controlled for.
There are a number of reasons why TV-watching might lead to these behaviors. Kids might be internalizing and imitating what they’re seeing on TV (a.k.a. observational learning theory), they might be emotionally desensitized by the content their viewing, or they may be developing certain cognitive biases based on “repeated exposure to violence.”
“Antisocial behaviour is a major problem for society,” said lead author Bob Hancox. “While we’re not saying that television causes all antisocial behaviour, our findings do suggest that reducing TV viewing could go some way towards reducing rates of antisocial behaviour in society.” The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one to two hours of quality – keyword: quality – television watching per day for kids. The authors say that while some may consider this connection between TV and antisocial behavior to be modest, at a population level it’s nothing to sneeze at, and reducing the amount of TV our kids watch could have far-reaching effects on their behavior as adults.
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