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Adding to evidence that media
violence can promote real-life aggression, a long-range US study has linked
TV viewing in adolescence and young adulthood to violent behavior later
on.
The research is the "first
of its kind" to link television viewing at these ages to adult aggression.
The 17-year study of more than
700 families found that 14-year-old boys who watched relatively more television
were more likely to have assaulted someone or committed any serious act
of aggression by the time they were 22 years old. A similar pattern was
found among females, but the relationship was much weaker.
Researchers found that 14-year-old
boys who watched 3 or more hours of
TV a day were about twice
as likely as those who watched less than 1 hour per day to
assault someone or get into a serious fight by early adulthood.
When it came to females, TV
viewing at age 22 was associated with aggressive acts by age 30 -- including
assault, robbery and threats to injure someone.
These links between aggression
and hours in the front of the tube remained even when other key factors
were considered -- such as past acts of aggression, family income, parents'
education, neighborhood safety and psychiatric disorders.
A large body of research has
pointed to the relationship between exposure to violent TV and video games
and aggressive behavior, particularly among children. But the question
of whether already-aggressive people are simply drawn to these types of
entertainment has persisted.
At this time the vast majority
of the scientific community is persuaded that the evidence is conclusive
for kids regarding the impact of media violence. It is time to move on
to the much more difficult questions concerning what action should be
taken by parents, educators, civic groups and legislators.
The little research that has
been done on how to counter young people's exposure to media violence
suggests that children need to be taught that what they are seeing is
not realistic and that real-life aggression truly hurts people.
Science
March 29, 2002;295:2468-2471
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