As many people would think, early exposure to violence on television can led to violent behavior in the future. Huesmann et al conducted a study to find a relationship between the two. The study was done over 3 years and started with gathering data from 557 children around the world. They were observing their “TV-violence viewing, identification with aggressive TV characters, judgments of realism of TV violence, aggressive behavior, and intellectual ability, as well as parents’ socioeconomic status aggressiveness, parenting practices and attitudes, and parent’s TV usage” (Huesmann, 2003). Researchers gathered data from 320 participants ranging form 20-25. They measured adult TV violence viewing and their aggressive behaviors as adults. Comparing that to criminal records and moving violations of the participants the researchers found a relationship between the two. The results showed that exposure to TV violence as a child led to aggressive behaviors in both males and females and early TV viewing aggressions increase aggressions in adulthood.
This study is a perfect example of what we are arguing. The violence in television is doing more than just effecting children right now but will lead to even more aggression in their adulthood. Violent video games, exposure to school shootings and even aggression animated cartoon shows will lead to future problems. This is the problem we are trying resolve. Parents need to do a better job of monitoring what their children are watching. To cut down on future problems especially with children turning into aggressors in their adulthood, we need to look hard at the violence they are viewing on television and fix this before it escalates to a more worse situation.
Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C., & Eron, L. D. (2003). Longitudinal relations between children’s exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992. Developmental Psychology, 39, 201-221.
Banning Violence and Sex on Television (Comm398O) 