York College
Abstract
Media violence has incorporated negative effects on the behavioral development of children due to which their inclination towards the positive behavior and attitude has been decreased. The previous studies have addressed the extent to which the environmental factors, including exposure to the media content, contribute in the development of the violent or prosocial behavior. However, the prior studies did not provide any strong ground by means of addressing all the aspects of media content. In this manner, the current study is aimed to determine the effect of the media content on the prosocial behavior. The current study incorporated the Applied and Causal Research in order to address the problematic situation, however, quantitative analysis has been conducted in order to support the hypothesis of the current study. The sample size comprised on 40 high school adolescents and in accordance with their consent, the questionnaires was filled in order to gather data from the participants. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21, by means of testing the data using the Pearson Correlation Technique. The results of the study indicated that the violent media content negatively effects the prosocial behavior of the adolescents. The violent media content possesses the thrilling appeal to its audience but it is also effecting and shaping the behavior of its audience. The current study also provides the future implications in which it is suggested that the number of participants should be increased in order to ensure the consistency of the results over a large population. Similarly the future result should also incorporate the longitudinal study in order to acquire data from the participants on the basis of different intervals. This study is considered beneficial for parents in order to limit their children’s exposure to the violent media in order to ensure the positive behavioral development among them.
Introduction
Negative Effects of Violent Media
Since the dawn of media evolution, psychologists, parents, teachers and health specialists have shown concerns about the harmful influence of media violence, mainly on children. The legitimacy of that apprehension is supported by extensive scientific research that has been done. The study has shown that media advancement has potentially become a physical display in the form of behavioral change in young generation. In the early '70s, an eminent psychologist Albert Bandura showed interest in the television's effect on social learning and the children's capacity to imitate the things that they see (Anderson, Gentile, & Buckley, 2007).
However, the early studies did not enlighten the negative effects of media on the behavioral changes among the children. Therefore, the present study aims to indicate that television and video games are the main contributors of negative effects of violent media on the level of aggressive attitudes and children's behavior, inflated or increased fear of being victimized by violence, and increased insensitivity towards victims of violence.
Literature Review
Drawing evidence from American Psychological Association article, there are numerous evidence-based case studies that can be drawn concerning the presentation of media violence on television (Kunkel, 2007). The current study exhibits that there is no controversy in the public health and social science communities about the jeopardy of negative effects from children's exposure to media violence. The study emphasizes on a strong consensus that media violence exposure is a substantial public health concern (Kunkel, 2007).
The result of the study indicated that violence is extensive across the landscape of television and the most violence on television is presented in a way that makes it increases risks of harmful impact on children. The National Television Violence Study examined TV's programs and concluded that the overall presentation of violence on TVs has continued to be remarkably constant over time (Kunkel, 2007). The research shows that programs with violence average about six violent in every hour. Half of the violent media contain lethal acts, and depict gun use (Kunkel, 2007).
The article by Anderson and Bushman seeks to establish effects of violent video games on aggressive cognition, aggressive behavior, physiological arousal, aggressive effect and prosocial behavior (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). The study evidently supports the hypothesis that exposure to video games, movie and television violence increases aggressive behavior in children and young adults. The results of the analyzes indicated that low levels of the daily video game were beneficial to children while excessive video game resulted in increases physiological arousal, peer and conduct problems, lower life satisfaction, and aggression-related feelings and thoughts (Escobar-Chaves & Anderson, 2008). Additionally, children involving themselves with violent video games make them lower prosocial behavior.
According to Anderson and Bushman, the debate of effects of media violence on youth aggression and violence has been discussed for more than five decades (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). The research evidence shows evidently that negative effects of violent media are a causal risk factor for violent and aggressive behavior. The study indicates that media have a strong and powerful influence on health behavior on children. To date, the leading causes of children mortality and morbidity are the consequences of health risk behaviors that are connected to media exposure (Escobar-Chaves & Anderson, 2008).
The article by Mößle, Kliem, and Rehbein aims to examine how aggressive behavior is connected to violent media consumption, given the ease with which children can access violent content, particularly on the internet (Mößle, Kliem, & Rehbein, 2014). The study concluded that empathy was shown to facilitate the relationship between violent media content usage and aggressive behavior in the male subsample entirely. For instance, boys were found to have a lower empathy due to consumption of violence resulted in more aggressive behavior about the girls' whose behavior stabilized over time (Mößle, Kliem, & Rehbein, 2014).
Research Gap
The prior research account for the variables that effect on the behavior of children other than the negative effects of violent media. The environmental factors play a prominent role in the shaping of children’s behavior and these environmental factors account for the family and peers, that tend to interact in the social environment of the children and effect the extent to which the extreme behavior prevails among children.
In this manner, variables such as family and environment setting may affect children's psychology that may lead to aggressive and violent behavior. Additionally, in the last two decades, the nature of violent depictions in television has changed considerably (Mößle, Kliem, & Rehbein, 2014). Bushman et al. (2015) has indicated the negative effects of violent media on the behavior of children and causes the prevalence of aggressive behavior among children, however, the prevalence of prosocial behavior is still questioned in the prior studies as an antecedent of the exposure to violent media.
Conclusion
Summing up, not all children raised in violent environments will eventually become violent. Therefore, not all children who are exposed to violent media will have or increase aggressive and violent behavior. However, there is greater chance that the exposed children will be more aggressive and will depict more violent behavior by means of the development of prosocial behavior due to the high exposure to the aggressive content.
Methods
Design
The study incorporates the Applied Research in which it aims to determine the effect of the violent media on the behavior of children so that better parenting and counseling services can be provided to the children in order to ensure their wellbeing and healthy behavior. The prevalence of Causal Research also exists in this study due to the problematic concerns related to the behavioral issues among children.
The current study is comprised of the Quantitative Research due to the prevalence of the empirical analysis of the proposed hypothesis. Moreover, the cross-sectional study is conducted in this respect in order to gather the primary data from the respondents by means of the developed questionnaire. The study also encompasses the correlational study in which the variables will be correlated in order to determine the strength and direction of the relation between them.
Hypothesis
The current study incorporates the following hypothesis:
Ha1 There is significant negative relationship between Violent Media Content and Prosocial Behavior of Adolescents.
Participants
The current study aims to target the adolescents and hence, the students of high school were approached in order to participate in the study. The students were aged between 17 to 19 years and were recruited by means of informing the management of the high school that helped in the formation of the adequate number of sample in order to support the results of the study. The participants belonged from Asian, American-Latin, African-American, /white and Non-White students. There were 150 students enrolled in the high school, however, the data was gathered from only 40 students due to the time constraint and unavailability of all the students in the specific duration.
Measures
The current paper aims to determine the extent of negative effects that exposure to the violent media imposes among adolescents by means of their prosocial behavior. The data was fathered from the 40 adolescents and the data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. The measures of the variables are discussed below:
Dependent Variable
Prosocial Behavior: It depicts the extent to which an individual wants to help others while expecting no reward in return. The variable is measured by using the Prosocial Behavior instrument that is developed by Carlo and Randall (2002). This instrument is comprised of 23 items and all these items are adopted in the questionnaire of the current study. The items are measured on a 5 point Likert Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
Independent Variable
Violent Media: It depicts the extent to an individual is exposed to the aggressive and inappropriate violence. It is measured by determining extent of the “R-Rated” that an individual is exposed. This variable has only one item which depicts the extent of R-Rated media by means of measuring it on a 5 point Likert Scale, initiating from Very Violent to Not Violent.
Ethical Considerations
The ethical considerations ensure that the research is conducted in accordance with the ethical code of conduct. Since some of the participants were under 18 year old, the consent letter from the parents were acquired in order to ensure that the students’ involvement in the research is in accordance with the parents’ consent. The personal information of the participants, including their personal identity, was assured to be kept confidential. The participants were enlightened with the aim of the current study and the extent to which this study can help in the development of the healthy behavior among the adolescents. The participants were also assured to be enlightened with the results of this study so that adequate level of transparency and ethical use of data can be ensured.
Results
Analysis of Descriptive Statistics
The total number of participants was 40 and there were no missing values observed from the gathered data. The variables are measured on a scale of 1-5 and the mean value is considered moderate around 3 whereas, the deviation indicates the agreeability or consistency in the responses of the participants. The descriptive data indicates the moderate mean values of both the variables whereas, the level of agreeability among the responses is also considered high. The descriptive statistics of the data is illustrated below:
Predicted Results
It is predicted that the relation between the exposure to violent media and prosocial behavior will be found significant and negative. The adolescents are highly effected by the media content due to which they develop the tendency of resisting themselves in the traumatic incidents due to which they lack the willingness of helping others.
Analysis of Hypothesis
The proposed hypothesis aims to identify the relation between the Violent Media and Prosocial Behavior among adolescents due to which the Pearson Correlation Technique has been used in order to determine the empirical relation between the variables. The null hypothesis of the Pearson Correlation indicates the prevalence of no relation between the variable and the p-value rejects this hypothesis when this value is found below 0.01 and the current results indicate the 0.000 p-value. In this manner, it is observed that a significant relation between the variables exist.
The Pearson Correlation value indicates the strength and direction of the relation. The negative value indicates the negative relation whereas, 0.867 indicates that the value is closer to 1 and hence, the variables are highly related to this study.
Findings
The results of the current study indicate that the negative relation between the exposure to the violent media and prosocial behavior among adolescents prevail. In this manner, it is depicted that the exposure to the violent media reduces the altruistic nature of the adolescents due to which they develop the prosocial behavior and hence, become less prone towards the individuals who need their help. Therefore, the prosocial behavior is considered as the consequence of the violent media, comprising of video games and movies, has effected the behavioral development of the adolescents due to which their inclination towards helping others has been decreased.
Discussion
Summary
The hypothesis of the current study was aimed to determine the significant relation between the violent media content and prosocial behavior and the results of the study indicate that the violent media negatively effects the prosocial behavior. In this manner, it is depicted that when adolescents are exposed to the media content, these individuals become less altruistic in nature and develop the prosocial behavior. Their prosocial behavior is considered troublesome due to their lack of willingness towards the mankind and social responsibility.
Comparison and Contrast
The study conducted by Boxer et al. (2015) was focused on determining the exposure to the violent video games as an antecedent of prosocial behavior due to the video games’ negative effect on the development of the children’s personality. The study indicated that exposure to the violent video games develop the negative environment for the children due to which the children become aggressive and prosocial in accordance with their environment. However, this study was based on the qualitative meta-analysis and hence, the study failed to provide the empirical ground to its findings.
In this manner, the current study has adopted the quantitative approach in order to support this notion in accordance with the empirical findings. Moreover, the current study has enhanced the dimension of media content by means of including R-Rated TV media content and video games due to which a holistic exposure of adolescents to the violent media has been incorporated.
Study Limitations and Strengths
The sample size of the current study was small due to which the results of the current study cannot be considered consistent over the larger population. Moreover, the current study was cross-sectional due to which it depicted the behavior of the children during only one timeframe and hence, the duration of prosocial behavior among students is not observed on a long-term basis. However, there exists strengths in the current paper that accounts for the provision of the strong empirical support to its findings. Similarly, the current study focused on the behavior of the adolescents due to the higher rate of juvenile delinquency in the society.
Implications for Research
The individuals are exposed to the media content on a daily basis but the frequency and duration of the exposure changes in accordance with the willingness of the individual. However, the extent to which media content effects the behavior of the individual lacks the adequate empirical support and hence, the current study incorporated the empirical analysis to provide the empirical support to its findings. Similarly, the quality of media content was not studied on account of video games, movies and TV shows and hence, a holistic dimension of media content has been incorporated in this study.
It is necessary that the future studies address the extent of negative effects of the violent media by means of the exposure to such media in terms of duration so that the detailed analysis of the exposure to the violent media on the behavior of an individual can be studied in an effective manner. Moreover, it is also suggested that the future studies increase the sample size in order to ensure the consistency of the data over a large population.
Real World Application
This study can help the parents to screen the appropriate media for their children in order to ensure that the violent media does not effect the behavioral development of their children. It can also help the educators and parents to determine the signs of prosocial behavior and address the issue related to the exposure to the violent media in an effective manner. The adolescents who possess the prosocial behavior can also benefit from this study by means of enlightening themselves about the negative effects of indulging in the violent media content.
References
Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological science, 12(5), 353-359.
Anderson, C. A., Gentile, D. A., & Buckley, K. E. (2007). Violent video game effects on children and adolescents (Vol. 10). New York: Oxford University Press.
Boxer, P., Groves, C. L., & Docherty, M. (2015). Video Games Do Indeed Influence Children and Adolescents’ Aggression, Prosocial Behavior, and Academic Performance A Clearer Reading of Ferguson (2015). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(5), 671-673.
Bushman, B. J., Gollwitzer, M., & Cruz, C. (2015). There is broad consensus: Media researchers agree that violent media increase aggression in children, and pediatricians and parents concur. Psychology of Popular Media Culture,4(3), 200.
Carlo, G., & Randall, B. A. (2002). The development of a measure of prosocial behaviors for late adolescents. Journal of youth and adolescence,31(1), 31-44.
Escobar-Chaves, S. L., & Anderson, C. A. (2008). Media and risky behaviors. The Future of Children, 18(1), 147-180. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ795862.pdf
Kunkel, D. (2007, June 26). The Effects of Television Violence on Children. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/about/gr/pi/advocacy/2008/kunkel-tv.aspx
Mößle, T., Kliem, S., & Rehbein, F. (2014). Longitudinal Effects of Violent Media Usage on Aggressive Behavior: The Significance of Empathy. Societies, 4, 105-124. Retrieved from http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/4/1/105/pdf
