Children's direct fright and worry reactions to violence in fiction and news television programs.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
To examine whether violence in fictional and news television content frightens and worries children.

STUDY DESIGN:
Mixed factorial. Type of reaction (fright, worry) and television programming (violent news, violent fiction) were within-subjects factors, whereas age, sex, and television viewing frequency were between-subjects factors. Participants included 572 children (47% boys), aged 8 to 12 years, from 9 urban and rural primary schools in the Netherlands. The main exposure was to descriptions of 8 threats frequently depicted in fictional and news programs (eg, murder, war, house fires). Children reported whether they were frightened or worried by these threats.

RESULTS:
Violent threats increased both fright and worry. These 2 reactions could be distinguished from one another in a factor analysis. When violent content was described as news, it produced more fear reactions than when it was described as fiction. Fright and worry were greater in girls than in boys, in younger children than in older children, and in light television viewers than in heavy television viewers.

CONCLUSIONS:
Pediatricians should inform parents, educators, policy makers, and broadcasters about the potentially harmful effect of violent programming on children's emotions, especially in the case of news programming.

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Author information

Author/s: van der Molen, Juliette H Walma (JH); Bushman, Brad J (BJ);

Affiliation: Department of Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The Journal of pediatrics (J Pediatr), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Sep; vol 153 (issue 3) : pp 420-4

Dates: Created 2008/08/22; Completed 2008/09/09;

PMID: 18534207, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Advertising as Topic - statistics & numerical data
Aggression - psychology
Awareness
Child
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans

Male
Multivariate Analysis
Questionnaires
Risk-Taking
Television - statistics & numerical data
United States - epidemiology
Violence - psychology

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