How Profanity in the Media Affects Children

Modeling Behavior

• Many studies show that children are apt to model behaviors they observe, including those on television and in other media. The social learning theory, developed by Bandura in the late 1970s, explains that people, including children, use media models to shape their behaviors. Although the social learning theory is decades old, recent research continues to support this idea. Heusmann's studies in the late '80s concluded that the behaviors children see in the media can affect their attitudes about behavior years after the viewing experience.

Cultivating Viewpoints

• The media's use of profanity is believed to affect children by shaping or cultivating their viewpoints on behavior, appropriateness and social reality. The cultivation theory, as explained by Gerbner, proposes that profanity in the media is likely to influence heavy television viewers in their perception of societal reality. They are likely to believe that profanity is acceptable, appropriate, humorous and commonly used in society.

Desensitizing Effects

• The parental fear that children will become desensitized by profanity, sexual content and violence on television has been supported by many studies. In the book "Why We Curse: A Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory of Speech," the author cites reports showing that any word -- including a profane word -- repeated to a child will induce desensitization to that word. This supports the idea that If a child hears profanity on a regular basis, those words will become normal to a child and the child will become desensitized to the social taboo of profanity.

Antisocial Behavior

• A study published in "Communication Quarterly" combined the social learning theory and the cultivation theory and suggested that the desensitization of a child to profanity, mixed with cultivated viewpoints and the urge to model behaviors, will result in a child who exhibits antisocial behaviors. These antisocial behaviors are not limited to profanity. According to the study, they can include violence, inappropriate sexual conduct or other behaviors a child has not learned to view as inappropriate.