Does Your Teen Display Aggressive Behavior? This Might Be Why…
By Movieguide® Contributor
A new study found that preschool boys who are exposed to violent screen content at an early age are more likely to exhibit violent and antisocial behavior in their teenage years.
The study describes screen violence as anything “characterized by physical aggression, verbal aggression, and relational aggression […] depicting situations that intentionally attempt or cause harm to others.” Children “are attracted to fast-paced, stimulating violent content, which often features appealing characters like superheroes who commit and are rewarded for aggressive acts, thus increasing the likelihood of exposure.”
Linda Pagani, Professor at the Université de Montreal’s School of Psychoeducation, led the study. It took over ten years to publish, as Pagani examined boys’ behavior from their preschool years to their teens.
The exposure to violent screen content predicted later behaviors like hitting, beating, stealing, threatening, using weapons and saying insults, with or without a motive or reason. It also predicted involvement in gang fights.
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“Our study provides compelling evidence that early childhood exposure to media violence can have serious, long-lasting consequences, particularly for boys,” Pagani said. ” This underscores the urgent need for public health initiatives that targets campaigns to inform parents and communities about the long-term risks and empower them to make informed choices about young children’s screen content exposure.”
Movieguide® founder, Dr. Ted Baehr, talks about how on-screen violence influences behavior extensively in his book, The Culture-Wise Family. An excerpt reads:
In the wake of the Columbine High School massacre, CBS president Leslie Moonves put it quite bluntly: “Anyone who thinks the media has nothing to do with this is an idiot.”5 The major medical associations have concluded that there is absolutely no doubt that those who are heavy viewers of violence demonstrate increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and aggressive behavior. Of course, media is only one part of the problem—a problem that could be summed up with the sage biblical injunction, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character’” (1 Cor. 15:33). As the results of thousands of studies on youth violence prove, watching media violence causes violence among children. Bad company corrupts good character—whether that bad company is gangs, peer pressure or violent television programs.
On-screen violence can also cause kids to identify with characters inciting violence, become numb to the horror of violence, and accept violence as a solution to problems.
As the time children spend on screen devices only increases year over year, it’s imperative that parents exercise media discernment and guard what their children see and hear.
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