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When Children Watch, Adolescence Reacts: Exploring the Link Between Violent Media and Antisocial Behavior


This study of typically developing children demonstrates the long-term dangers associated with early exposure to violent content in childhood. Risks of aggressive and delinquent behavior were observed in boys more than a decade later. This reinforces the importance of limiting children’s exposure to media violence and suggests that prevention campaigns aimed at parents and communities can help mitigate the long-term negative effects, promoting healthier, more balanced development.


Personality disorders are mental health conditions that affect the way a person thinks, perceives, feels, and relates to others. They are characterized by rigid, maladaptive patterns of behavior that deviate from cultural expectations.


These patterns cause significant distress or difficulties in daily functioning. Personality disorders can be classified into three main groups: Cluster A (eccentric behaviors), Cluster B (dramatic or erratic behaviors), and Cluster C (anxious or fearful behaviors).


Personality disorders are caused by an interaction of genes and the environment. In other words, some people are born with a genetic tendency toward personality disorder, and this tendency can then be inhibited or amplified by environmental factors such as experiences or sources of stress or well-being.


The general view is that genes and environment have an almost equal contribution to the development of personality disorders.

Personality disorders are diagnosed as a mental health problem when personality traits become so pronounced, rigid, and maladaptive that the person has trouble at work, at school, and/or in dealing with other people.


These patterns are called maladaptive because the person does not adjust (adapt) to the demands of the circumstances. Maladaptive patterns vary in severity and duration.


These social maladaptive patterns can cause significant distress for people with personality disorders and their family, friends, coworkers, and other social contacts.


Typically, people whose personality traits are ineffective or have negative consequences try to change their response patterns. In contrast, people with personality disorders do not change their response patterns even when these patterns repeatedly prove ineffective and have negative consequences.


Studies have focused on how the environment can positively or negatively influence this disorder. Young children are often exposed to violence both directly and indirectly, primarily through different forms of media, such as television, video games, and the Internet.

Studies suggest that such exposure can have both short-term and long-term negative effects on children’s development, affecting their emotions, behavior, and mental health.


Violent media includes visual representations that depict physical, verbal, or relational aggression. Children are particularly drawn to violent content that is visually stimulating and fast-paced, often presented by attractive characters, such as superheroes, who are rewarded for acts of aggression.


This increases the likelihood that children will be repeatedly exposed to such content.


To understand the effects of media violence on children, researchers often conduct experimental and nonexperimental studies.


Natural experiments and correlational studies examine how exposure to violence in everyday settings can influence children’s behavior, especially because direct experiments can be ethically problematic in very young children.


While some researchers have found no direct link between television violence and violent behavior in children, other studies suggest the opposite, showing that early exposure to violence can lead to increased aggressive behavior over time.


For example, a longitudinal study in the United States showed that children who watched more violent content were more likely to display aggressive behaviors 15 years later.


Over the past decade, a task force of experts from the American Psychological Association (APA) critically examined and meta-analyzed the existing literature on exposure to violent video games from 2009 to 2013.


They concluded that exposure was associated with increased physiological arousal and aggressive behavior, cognitions, and affect. They also found compelling associations with desensitization and reduced empathy.

Bandura’s observational learning theory and the General Model of Aggression help explain how repeated exposure to violence can influence children’s behavior. Children may learn to imitate aggressive behaviors by observing characters who are rewarded for such acts.


Furthermore, continued exposure to violence can desensitize children, decreasing their empathy and increasing their acceptance of aggression as a normal way of resolving conflicts.


Early childhood exposure to violent media content represents an actionable target for preventive intervention. Associated risks for later aggressive behavior have been established in childhood, but few studies have explored generalized long-term associations with antisocial behavior.


Researchers at the Université de Montréal, Canada, investigated prospective associations between exposure to violent television content in early childhood and subsequent antisocial behavior in middle adolescence.


Participants were 963 girls and 982 boys from the birth cohort of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD). Parents reported the frequency of their children's exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years. Four indicators of antisocial behavior were self-reported by participants at age 15.

Research suggests that boys and girls may respond differently to exposure to media violence, due to biological and social differences.


Boys tend to be more attracted to action-based and direct violence content, while girls prefer more emotional and indirect aggression-related content.


For boys, violent television viewing in preschool was associated with increases in proactive aggression, physical aggression, and antisocial behavior in mid-adolescence. No prospective associations were found for girls.

This study specifically documents the long-term risks associated with self-reported physical and proactive aggression in adolescent boys.


Exposure to violent content in early childhood predicted later aggressive behaviors, such as hitting or beating another person, with the intent to obtain something or steal, with or without any apparent reason. These risks include threats, insults, and involvement in gang fights.


Weapon use is also among the behavioral outcomes predicted by childhood exposure to television violence in this study.


Viewing violent content in early childhood predicted 15-year-olds’ court appearances for misdemeanors, placements in juvenile hall, and interactions with the police.


Self-reported violent tendencies at age 15 do not bode well for later development because such tendencies tend to persist and influence difficulties in the personal, family, and school spheres.

Aggressive adolescent boys specifically exhibit more long-term depressive symptoms and stress, lower self-esteem, reduced empathy, and lower life satisfaction in adulthood. They are also more likely to have poorer communication skills and lower family cohesion, even years after adolescence.


In conclusion, this study of typically developing children demonstrates long-term dangers associated with early exposure to violent content in childhood. Risks of aggressive and delinquent behavior were observed in boys more than a decade later.


Preventive intervention campaigns that aim to transfer knowledge to parents and communities about the potentially insidious consequences of preschool exposure hold the promise of more optimal development in youth.



READ MORE:


Prospective Associations Between Preschool Exposure to Violent Televiewing and Externalizing Behavior in Middle Adolescent Boys and Girls

Linda S. Pagani, Amélie Gilker Beauchamp, Laurie-Anne Kosak, Kianoush Harandian, Claudio Longobardi,  and Eric Dubow 

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(1), 129


Abstract:


Objective. Early childhood exposure to violent media content represents an actionable target for preventive intervention. The associated risks for later aggressive behavior have been established in childhood, but few studies have explored widespread long-term associations with antisocial behavior. We investigate prospective associations between exposure to violent television content in early childhood and subsequent antisocial behavior in mid-adolescence. Method. Participants are 963 girls and 982 boys from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) birth cohort. Parents reported the frequency of their child’s exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years. Four indicators of antisocial behavior were self-reported by participants at age 15 years. These indicators were linearly regressed on exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years. All analyses, stratified by sex, controlled for pre-existing and concurrent potential individual and family confounding variables. Results. For boys, preschool violent televiewing was associated with increases in proactive aggression (β = 0.065; 95% CI, 0.001 to 0.089), physical aggression (β = 0.074; 95% CI, 0.040 to 0.487), and antisocial behavior (β = 0.076; 95% CI, 0.013 to 0.140) by mid-adolescence. No prospective associations were found for girls. Conclusions. This study of typically developing children demonstrates long-term perils associated with early exposure to violent content in childhood. We observed risks for aggressive and delinquent behavior in boys, more than a decade later. Preventive intervention campaigns that target knowledge transfer to parents and communities regarding the potential insidious consequences of preschool exposure promise more optimal development in youth.

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