14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at the Oregon State University have learned that classroom-based interventions on children who watch a lot of violent shows and movies on TV are very successful in reducing the amount of time these kids spend in front of the television sets. The results of the paper, which will appear in a future issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, show that the period of TV time for children in the first to fourth grade dropped by more than 18 percent following the interventions, and that the results appeared to be holding steady in a follow-up test conducted 8 months after the original experiment.
“We have a significant body of research now that shows that children who watch violent TV tend to be more violent, to overestimate the threat of crime, and to think that the world is a more dangerous place than it is. So, if there is a connection between violent TV and violent behavior – and research shows that there is – then it is in society's interest to reduce the viewing of violence,” OSU Department of Human Development and Family Sciences expert Sharon Rosenkoetter, who has also been one of the co-authors of the yet-unreleased study, explained.
In addition to obtaining such a significant reduction of violent TV-viewing habits, the team also noted that children also exhibited a lower tendency of identifying themselves with evil super villains or with the more violent of superheroes, which, as far as the research goes, is a large gain. Previous studies have undoubtedly linked violence in the media with individual violent behavior later on in life, during the teenage and the early adulthood years.
“We did a follow-up eight months after the intervention, and our results held. These findings mean that we have been able to show that it is possible to guide kids to choose to watch less TV violence. That had not been demonstrated before. Getting children to watch less violent television is crucial. We compare it to the kids eating junk food versus eating healthy food that makes you grow strong. They really grasp that comparison. We tell them, there is junk TV and nutritious TV, and here is how you tell the difference,” Lawrence Rosenkoetter, the lead author of the paper and also a retired professor in the Department of Psychology at the Oregon State University, said.
“We ask them questions like 'What could you do instead of sitting in front of the television set?' 'How might you help someone in your neighborhood?' 'Did you ever read the book that suggested that TV show?' The students come up with really creative answers, and it appears from the data that they are acting on those answers,” Sharon Rosenkoetter concluded.