The Effect of Violence in Movies on Kids

According to the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, the average American child will view more than 200,000 acts of violence before the age of 18. A study in the journal "Pediatrics" found that R-rated movies were being watched by more than 12 percent of American children aged between 10 and 14. A direct causal relationship cannot be established between onscreen violence and its effects, although many studies suggest that watching violent movies increases the chance that children will engage in more aggressive behavior and become desensitized to violence.

  1. Aggression

    • A study by Albert Bandura in 1965 concluded with his suggesting a clear divide be made between the acquisition of aggressive responses and the actual performance of aggressive acts. His study found that while children could learn violent acts by seeing them portrayed, they wouldn̵7;t perform them unless rewarded. Since then, according to a literature review by Aberystwyth University, most experimental studies have concluded that the more onscreen violence a child is exposed to, the greater the chance that they would engage in aggressive behaviour.

    Desensitization

    • Watching violence in movies may dull children̵7;s sensitivity to violence in normal life. There is no conclusive evidence for this argument, although numerous studies make claims to the contrary. According to a study published in the "Journal of Developmental Psychology" in 1984, when children aged between 8 and 10 were shown a video of aggressive behavior they took longer to intervene in real-world violence between two younger children of whom they had been left in charge.

    Limitations

    • The multitude of influences in a child̵7;s life means that there is no way to measure any direct effect of movie violence. Furthermore, any results produced in artificial lab-based experiments are questionable for a number of reasons. In their own homes children do not usually watch movies entirely on their own or in large groups; there are generally other stimuli around them to focus on and there are no experimenters offering unintended cues to perform specific behaviors.

    Individual Differences

    • Research carried out in the 1950s by Wilbur Schramm in the U.S. and Hilde Himmelweit in Britain suggested that the effects of onscreen violence varied according to the social and personal characteristics of children. Variables that need consideration include personality, family stability, nutrition and any learning disabilities. According to the Media Awareness Network, exposure to violence in movies should be considered as one more variable in the overall development of a child rather than a simplistic determiner.

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