How Children Learn Violence through Modeling

How Children Learn Violence through Modeling

Donna DickmanPartnership for Violence Free Families

ddickman@pvff.org www.pvff.org

Why Is It Important to Learn Child Development?

To know what children can do and understand at different age levelsTo learn what you can expect of a child To better understand the reasons for the child’s behaviors

Risk Factors for Violence

Violence

Intentionally and on purpose

hurting a person, an animal, or a thing.

Toys

Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000

American Academy of PediatricsAmerican Psychological Association

American Academy of Child And Adolescent PsychiatryAmerican Medical Association

American Academy of Family Physicians

“At this time, well over 1000 studies - including reports from the Surgeon

General's office, the National Institute of Mental Health, and numerous

studies conducted by leading figures within our medical and public health

organizations .. point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in

some children.”

The Daily News

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Why Are Children Spending So Much Time With Media? Allows time for parents to do chores

Quiets children down; they are safe

Parents have time for themselves

Multiple equipment means fewer sibling hassles, and parents can watch their own shows

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On average young children today:Watch TV for 2 to 4 hours per day.Spend 35 hours per week on screen

time (TV, computer games).Watch 4,000 hours of TV before

entering kindergarten.

On average older children/teens (8-18):

Consume on average 8 hours of media (e.g., TV, movies, computer, music) per day.

Facts Related to Media Exposure

KEY FACTS: TV VIOLENCE

“The consensus among most of the research community is that violence on television does lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers… In magnitude, television violence is as strongly correlated with aggressive behavior as any other behavioral variable that has been measured.”

Source: National Institute of Mental Health

TV Cartoons?

According to Nielsen Media Research, WWE's programming reaches 15.8 million fans each week, of which 23 percent is under age 18. 

Grades 7-12: Form a tag team of your favorite character from literature and your favorite WWE Superstar, and describe and/or illustrate on an 8.5x11-inch piece of paper the strategy you would use to defeat the current WWE Tag Team Champions (as of October 10, 2010). Teens may use art, drawing, collage, poetry and/or writing alone or in any combination in creating your project. All projects must be the original work of the individual teen. Only one entry per person.

By the end of elementary school, will have seen approximately 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence on television.

By age 70, will have spent 7 to 10 years watching TV.

Facts Related to Media Exposure

Music

Video Games80 percent of popular (based on sales)

video games contain violence.

80 percent of homes in the United States have video game systems.

50% of youth report keeping a video game console in their rooms

The Problem(s) with Violent Video Games

A “Recipe” for Violence: Video games provide a

powerful combination of effective learning strategies for aggression: ◦ Modeling◦ Scripts for how to be

aggressive◦ Rehearsal of behavior ◦ Reinforcement

• Recent study: Violent video games may be the most harmful form of violent media because they are interactive, engaging, and they require the player to identify and act for the aggressor, selecting and performing violent acts, repeatedly (Anderson & Dill, 2000)

Who is affected?This phenomenon is NOT limited to

aggressive children in dysfunctional families and communities—

“Even with solid emotional, behavioral, cognitive and social anchors provided by a

healthy home and community, this pervasive media violence increases aggression and antisocial behavior.”

Perry, 2003An emerging category of high risk players

of violent video games—the quiet and anxious child who, with sufficient exposure, may become aggressive (Funk, 2002) .

Video Game Addiction?

What Families Should Teach Young Children About Media

What they see on TV, computer, and video games is not real life Real-life violence hurts people. Heroes are real people who are brave and do good things to help

others. Guns and knives used on TV are not real and do not hurt people. Real guns and knives can hurt or kill people. If children see violence on TV, change the channel or go do

something else. Children should talk to an adult when scared or afraid about

something they see on TV.

Violence is never the best way to solve a problem; it only creates more problems.

For More Information:

Partnership for Violence Free Families

www.pvff.org

American Psychological Association

ActAgainstViolence.apa.org