Effect of Television on Children’s Behavior: Annotated Bibliography
Dilogini, K., & Shivany, S. (2015). Television Advertisements and Children’s Behavior: Parents’ Experiences Base Study in the Post-War Context.
This article examines the relationship between television advertisements and the behavior of children in Jaffna district while acknowledging that children-parent conflict is a significant issue in Sri-Lanka. The researchers further examined whether the parental behavior and early home environment of the children are affected by the television advertisement. The research involved the exploration of methodical implications by applying a systematic approach. Data collection was undertaken by using a purposive sampling method as of ten Jaffna district parents. They used present questions founded on primary interview questions with the format of open-ended questions. The results indicated that many adverse outcomes concerning children-parent conflict exist in the Jaffna district generated from a television advertisement. The children are attracted much by emotions present in the television advertisement. Of particular note is that unfavorable outcomes associated with conflict result from the request of Jaffna’s children to buy particular products advertised on the television. The researchers concluded that television advertisements play a role in children’s unconstructive behaviors and parent-children conflict outcomes.
Ansari, A., & Crosnoe, R. (2016). Children’s hyperactivity, television viewing, and the potential for child effects. Children and youth services review, 61, 135-140.
Ansari and Crosnoe examine the behavior of children as a predictor of exposure to television over time. The researchers made use of ECLS-B; n=6250 (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to establish whether children exhibiting difficult behaviors in early life stages watch more television. Data were derived from multiple sources such as teacher, caregiver, and parent interviews, and focal analysis conducted. The results of their study demonstrated that the hyperactive, but not hostile, behavior of children was linked to increased television watching over the following year. The effects on the children were embedded in both distal and proximate ecologies. The relationship between the hyperactivity behavior of children and increased television exposure was more robust among those whose parents showed reduced optimal mental health and low socioeconomic status. The association was also stronger among females compared to males. The researchers could not assess whether increased television time reinforced or caused hyperactivity behavior in children after kindergarten.
Coyne, S. M. (2016). Effects of viewing relational aggression on television on aggressive behavior in adolescents: A three-year longitudinal study. Developmental psychology, 52(2), 284.
This study assesses the longitudinal relationship between looking at rational aggression on television and succeeding aggressive behavior. Coyne conducted data collection by issuing questionnaires involving aggressive behavior and media to different participants, including 467 adolescents at three different time points. Recruitment of the participant families was conducted using a telephone survey national database referred to as Polk City Directories that accommodate 82 million households. The results demonstrated future relational behavior had a longitudinal association with viewing relational aggression on television. On the contrary, a bidirectional relationship did not exist between physical aggression and television violence over time. The researcher did not also find longitudinal evidence for a common outcome of viewing television since all major media effects were particular to the kind of aggression viewed. Coyne concludes that her findings contribute to the general aggression model and further suggests that long-term impact on adolescent aggressive behavior can result from looking at relational aggression in the television media.
Coyne, S. M., Stockdale, L., Linder, J. R., Nelson, D. A., Collier, K. M., & Essig, L. W. (2017). Pow! Boom! Kablam! Effects of viewing superhero programs on aggressive, prosocial, and defending behaviors in preschool children. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 45(8), 1523-1535.
This study examines the impact of television media on children’s defending behavior with a focus on three aspects. First is to assess the perception of children and parents of superheroes with emphasis on defending, aggression, or prosocial behavior. The second objective is to understand the association between the verbal, relational, and physical aggression of children and engagement of preschool children with superheroes (entails identifying with superhero characters and viewing them in television media). Lastly, they sought to understand the association between the engagement of preschoolers with superheroes and their general defending and prosocial behavior. The participants comprised of two hundred and forty preschoolers and the parents. Reports were made on child media use and the effect at two distinct time points. Their findings showed that engagement of the preschoolers with superheroes resulted in increased relational and physical aggression one year later. Defending or prosocial behavior was not linked to superhero engagement.
Kostyrka-Allchorne, K., Cooper, N. R., & Simpson, A. (2017). The relationship between television exposure and children’s cognition and behavior: A systematic review. Developmental Review, 44, 19-58.
Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper, and Simpson systematically reviewed the literature that studies the relationship between the children’s language, play, attention, academic performance, and executive function and television viewing. They searched five online databases by using keywords, including cognition, education, language, attention, infants, children, and children. The researchers reviewed 76 studies that met the required inclusion criteria. Their findings indicated that a complex relationship exists between children’s development and television viewing. First, the distinctly possible outcomes of television viewing may depend on the social context, family, and individual characteristics of children. Secondly, the television features, including editing pace and content, and the exposure type (background or foreground) may have an effect on the outcome. Notably, viewing educational content of high quality results in improved academic skills and performance. On the contrary, the researchers conclude that viewing television in infancy causes disruption to play, reduced parent-child interactions and hyperactive or inattentive behaviors, language delay, and lower executive functions.
Padilla-Walker, L. M., Coyne, S. M., Collier, K. M., & Nielson, M. G. (2015). Longitudinal relations between prosocial television content and adolescents’ prosocial and aggressive behavior: The mediating role of empathic concern and self-regulation. Developmental psychology, 51(9), 1317.
This article examines the longitudinal cross-lagged relationship between aggressive and prosocial adolescent behavior and prosocial television (time and content). The researchers then investigated the mediating role of self-regulation and empathic concern. The participants in the study included 441 adolescents reporting on their three favorite television shows at two-time points, about two years apart (Time 3 child age =13.31, SD =1.06, and Time 5 child age = 15.27, SD = 1.06). The findings showed there was a negative association aggressive behavior at the preceding two years with prosocial content at Time 3. There was a positive association between aggressive behavior two years later and Time 3 aggressive content. Also, they found that the prosocial behavior of adolescents towards strangers at Time 3 was related to both self-regulation and empathic concern at Time 4. In their discussion, the researchers emphasize the salient role of adolescence prosocial personality and behavior on media selection and the pertinence of the prosocial behavior target.
Pearce, L. J., & Field, A. P. (2016). The impact of “scary” TV and film on children’s internalizing emotions: a meta-analysis. Human Communication Research, 42(1), 98-121.
Pearce and Field estimate the population impact of “scary” and violent television on the emotional response of children linked to internalizing disorders (sleep problems, sadness, PTSD, anxiety, and fear). Their other objective was to determine whether the media characteristics, methodical details, and the child attributes moderated this impact. Their conceptual assumption was that “scary” television influences the children’s internalizing symptoms. The analysis was restricted to studies that scrutinize the impact of television media such as film and excluded studies testing adult samples. They concluded that a considerable small comparatively small impact between scary television and internalizing emotions of children. The relationship was not appreciably moderated by whether the television material was fictional, factual, or incorporated violence. Children below ten years showed more susceptibility to scary TV. The overall outcome demonstrates disparity with the dramatic effects associated with individual children.
Bahuguna, R., Jain, A., Suryavanshi, D., Chauhan, H., Khan, S. A., & Thakur, R. (2017). Influence of Television Advertising on Behavior of Children across Socioeconomic Backgrounds. The journal of contemporary dental practice, 18(1), 52-56.
This study analyzes the impact of television on the behavior of children coming from rural and urban socioeconomic backgrounds, with a focus on Bhopal city and its surroundings. The method of data collection involved issuing self-designed questionnaires to approximately 400 parents whose children aged between one and eighteen years. The researchers sought information regarding children’s television viewing practices. They noted the varied responses between the subjects in rural and urban areas. They then subjected the data collected to statistical analysis that made use of Pearson’s chi-square test to establish the significance level. From the results, a dominating pattern occurred in terms of the positive television aspects among the urban class. The aspects included better oral health awareness. The urban population, however, had a poor attitude, and their children were more demanding and pleased with products with gifts on television. Generally, rural children showed a deficiency in all aspects. They, therefore, concluded that television has both negative and positive influences on the behavior of children both in the rural and urban classes, but the effect is more apparent among the urban class.