Media entertainment and adolescent boys' attitudes about aggression: an exploratory study
Date
2001
Authors
Novozhylova, Olga
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Abstract
Violence is one of the major worldwide concerns today in all segments of society. Antisocial behavior in humans is known to be related to a number of physiological, psychological, familial, and cultural factors. The learning conditions to which a child is exposed are also believed to contribute to the development of aggressive behavior and attitudes. One specific learning condition, media violence, is considered to be a potential contributor to the development of antisocial behavior in children and adolescents.
Numerous studies have been conducted in the field of media violence and its effects on the young viewers. A major focus has been the relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior, but, interestingly, research regarding the relationship between media violence and attitudes about aggression is sparse. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to contribute to the state of the research by predicting and comparing attitudes about aggression among adolescent boys on the basis of their exposure to violence in both movies and video/computer games
The study employed a survey research design. Two hundred and three adolescent boys aged 13-16 were selected from two public schools on Vancouver Island. The data were collected using four instruments: the Demographic Questionnaire, the Media Entertainment Questionnaire, the Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Aggression Scale (Vernberg, Jacobs, & Herschberger, 1999), and the Perception of Movie Reality Scale (based on Greenberg, Linsangan, & Soderman, 1994).
The results indicated that adolescent boys spend a significant amount of time both watching movies and playing video/computer games. In addition, they are exposed to substantial amounts of media violence. At the same time, parental involvement with their adolescents' movie-viewing and game-playing habits is relatively limited.
Further results showed that heavy and light viewers of movie violence did not differ on a statistically significant level in any dimension of their attitudes about aggression. Real and fiction perceivers, as well, did not differ in their attitudes. Adolescents with "violent" game repertoires, however, were significantly more supportive of the attitude that aggression is legitimate and warranted, as compared to those whose repertoires contained little or no violence. Additional results demonstrated that the "aggression-legitimate" attitude was significantly related to a set of predictor variables. The strongest predictors of this attitude in adolescent boys were parental involvement with their adolescents ' movie-viewing, game-playing habits, and the adolescents ' game repertoires.
The results obtained in this study are discussed in terms of implications for both violence-prevention programs and media-awareness classes. Suggestions for future research are also offered.