This is really interesting to me. I found an article on the US News website (http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/071105/tv-violence-may-spur-aggression-in-boys.htm) that says that TV may spur aggression in boys, but not girls. University of Washington professor of pediatrics, Dr. Dimitri Christakis, said the link between TV violence and violence in boys appears solid. "If parents are really interested in their kids' behavior, they have to be very selective and thoughtful about what their children watch," Christakis said. "That requires a fair amount of education on their part. They can't think, 'It's a cartoon, and it's harmless.' They have to be more thoughtful."
Christakis reviewed data from 8000 US families and focused on the television habits of 184 boys and 146 girls. He found that for each hour a day spent watching violent TV during their preschool years, boys were three times more likely to develop behavioral problems at age 7.
I find this study very interesting because there has always been questions about whether TV really does effect how kids act. Something as little as watching Power Rangers, or even Superman, or Batman, promotes violence. These are really common for all kids and parents should take this into consideration when their young kids sit in front of the TV for their Saturday morning cartoons.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/209651/saturday-night-live-laser-cats-1
This is an example of something that seems innocent and funny, but for kids, they take in a lot of information and it's hard for adults to think like kids at their age. They don't realize that kids can role play this, or this gets kids eager to be more violent.
This last clip is just another example of cartoons, that are rated G, that promote violence and even murder. You may find some of these very surprising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oceyNYLoUCc
This is extremely interesting, especially the fact that these studies are measuring violence in young boys versus young girls rather than children as a whole. I wonder that since typically boys and girls don't always watch the same shows, for example boys tend to migrate towards Power Rangers rather than Barbie or something of that nature, that this difference could be causing the disparity in these research findings. Of course not all boys strictly watch one kind of show while girls watch another, but maybe that could be a simple reason for the study focusing mainly on aggression stirring in boys.
This sort of finding is really interesting and it makes a lot of sense, but I always wonder if the watching of such shows produces such behaviors or if the kids who are violent just seek out such shows.
It's that whole correlation vs causation deal and though the information is really solid I'm still skeptical.
I think this is really interesting- but also, it makes a lot of sense! Boys are generally known to be more "violent" in nature. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's easier to find a guy who goes hunting, plays paintball, or goes to the gun range than it is to find a girl who does all those things. A little 4 year olf boy that I babysit is always asking to wrestle, while 2 little girls (ages 3 and 5) I babysit are always asking to play house or school. Interesting study and post!
The study doesn't descirbe long term correlation however. I want to know if the children who watched violent TV shows have higher aggression ratings in adulthood or show more violent or even sociopathic tendencies in adulthood. I believe that a study has been done regarding something similar to this and there is a low correlation between violent TV in childhood and violent behavior in adulthood.
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I wonder if the different types of shows affect the aggression as boys and girls may watch different shows, but there are many shows that seem to appeal to both genders of children. This makes me think back to the video we watched in class of the toddlers watching power rangers and how they were mimicking them!
Wow these findings seem very unlikely, but there has been many reasonable studies and most of them point to video games causing problems. Just looking at my own childhood, I was not particularly violent for watching power rangers. I did pretend to fight invisible bad guys, but never attacked another kid. But analyzing just my own situation, a case study, doesn't help. My memory, and other biases could be clouding my judgment on this as well.
I struggle to believe many of the assertions people have on children and T.V.
It is true that guys tend to be more violent than girls but is that really from T.V.? or is it just human nature and societal roles. If a girl is being harassed on the side of a road a guy would be a lot more likely to help her out than another female and I don't think this violence is because he viewed batman as a child. I think a lot of it has to do with human nature rather that what we watch on a daily basis and can also deal with the parents attitudes towards violence.