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Abstract
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The purpose of this paper has been to determine if there have been any successful interventions to mitigate the effect that observation of television violence has on young children. Only two interventions directly aimed at reducing the effect of violent television have been reported in the literature. Studies attempting to increase prosocial behavior by observation of filmed prosocial sequences are also reviewed to see if they have any relevance to the stated purpose of this paper. There were many more such studies. However, they were primarily laboratory experiments, and even though successful in temporarily encouraging prosocial behavior, no long-term effects on such behavior have been noted. Further, for maximum effectiveness, observation of the prosocial programs had to be accompanied by additional training, e.g., role playing. Interventions designed to teach children and/or their parents essential critical viewing skills are then reviewed in the expectation that development of such skills would limit the effect television has on the subsequent behavior of the viewer. Finally, interventions aimed at reducing aggressive behavior without reference to television are reviewed for possible relevance. It appears that interventions that combine both cognitive and behavioral approaches have the most promise. A major difficulty facing all intervention programs is the intractability of aggression itself. Aggression is a problem-solving behavior learned early in life, usually learned well and therefore quite resistant to change. VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The goal of this research by Eron was to review the available literature in the field of interventions done to mitigate the effect that observation of television violence has on young children.
METHODOLOGY:
A non-experimental review of the literature was the method employed for this study.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
There were two areas in which the author found intervention training done. These were parent training and child training. Overall, it was found that child training was the most effective. Parent training studies, from their results, have suggested that if parents could be trained in both recognition of the negative effect violence on television has and, at the same time, be taught how to control and shape their child's television habits, a major contribution could be achieved. Indirect efforts, such as suggestions to parents for more active things they can do with their children to stimulate their imagination and develop language skills, were found to be more effective than direct efforts to train parents to control and limit their children's television time. The stronger studies have attended to intervention with child training. There was strong support for intervention in training to change acceptability of aggression and the realism of television portrayals. This program also emphasized the undesirability of acting like television characters; in the second year, features were of the program were derived from counterattitudinal advocacy research. Effective features of intervention were identified as these: l) working directly with the children whose behavior is the focus of change rather than indirectly with parents, 2) the direct approach to teaching aggression is undesirable and television can be bad for them, and 3) the use of longer term and more numerous sessions (spanning, say, for two or three years). There has been some evidence of television having an effect on prosocial behavior. It was demonstrated in longitudinal field studies that children who learn and perform prosocial behaviors were not likely to engage in aggressive behavior. An intervention suggested by the author, stemming from this research, was the institution of encouragement for children to watch programs which emphasize the prosocial behavior of the characters. It has been found that the prosocial effect was stronger than the effect of the antisocial effects on antisocial behaviors. Exposure without supplemental training, the author claimed, may not be as effective as an intervention whose goal is to mitigate the effect of violent television. Supplemental training was seen as necessary to enhance the effectiveness of exposure to prosocial sequences on television but required careful planning in the interventions to make sure that counterproductive features were not introduced by otherwise well-meaning or helpful counterventionists. Part of an approach was argued to be found in programs for enhancing critical viewing skills. Some of these have been knowledge of production techniques, program formats, the purpose of commercials, how television distorts the real world, and television's possible effects on behavior. Little empirical research had been done on this area of training, but what had been done concluded that students were able to learn about the art of television which, in theory, would help to decrease aggressiveness as a result. There were no empirical studies to back up this theoretical approach, though. More skeptical factions argued more pessimistically that aggression was an early learned, difficult problem-solving strategy that would be resistant to replacement with less aggressive strategies. Interventions aimed at decreasing aggressive behavior have been these: l) improving parents' child-rearing skills and 2) social skills training, with the former being slightly more successful. Cognitive approaches had also been tried that included various mediating responses including internal cognitive processes, covert self-instructions, problem-solving, and role taking. Though individual results have been promising, there was no evidence to support that generalization of treatment effects would have any major impact. Some suggested that behavioral and cognitive approaches should be combined so that aggressive children would learn how to control their thinking and inhibit their impulsivity and know what to do in specific situations and be sufficiently well practiced in that behavior to ensure some success; applied to television and aggression, the author argued that children would learn that what they see on television is unrealistic and aggressiveness is undesirable and then be provided with alternative behavioral strategies. AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
In general, the author recommended the above-mentioned combined strategy of combining cognitive and behavioral approaches. Future intervention studies, he argued, might include a variety of components that are systematically manipulated including at least one condition in which regulation of television viewing is included. The large amount of television the young child watches and the increasing resistance of aggressive behaviors to change with age lead the author to argue for an approach that targets young children. In doing these interventions, the author concluded, practitioners and educators may be able to cut down the contribution of media to violence. EVALUATION:
It was surprising to see, in 1986, that there had been so little done in the area of media-based intervention, particularly since the issue has been one that had received attention as far back as the seventies. The focus of this paper, reviewing intervention strategies and suggesting direction, was clear and to the point. It is a shame there was not much more to review. A combined cognitive and behavioral approach sounds like a strategy that gets at both predisposing factors and processural factors in aggression and links them together in a meaningful way. The issue of older children, while much less amenable to these approaches, should not be abandoned, however. It may take more research to see how the process differs for them. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Media Violence Effects
KW - Television Viewing
KW - Television Violence
KW - Early Childhood
KW - Child Aggression
KW - Aggression Causes
KW - Aggression Intervention
KW - Literature Review
KW - Cognitive Behavioral Intervention
KW - Exposure to Violence
Language: en |