Mental Health Effects of Internet Violence on Children

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This application is in response to the RFA from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a cooperative agreement for research on the association between exposure to media violence and youth violence. We are proposing to conduct a national telephone survey of youth ages 10-15. Youth and their parents will be contacted by telephone and then interviewed through the Internet with two follow-up interviews scheduled. Although much research has been conducted with respect to television violence, much less attention has been paid to new medias, especially the Internet. It is likely that Internet exposures have a greater effect on aggressive and violent behavior of young people than other media exposure because of the heightened interactivity involved, realistic graphics, and other visual stimulation. Because this is an emerging technology to which youth have significant access, the proposed study has important implications for public health policy and practice. We propose a study of 1,400 households, including one caregiver and one child ages 10-15 who is a user of the lnternet. Data will be collected at three time points over a two-year time period. Participants will be identified via random digit dialing and then directed to an Internet site to respond to the survey. This method marries the strengths of telephone and web-based surveys to produce results that maximize representativeness while minimizing response bias. The relationship between exposure to violent new media and aggressive behavior will be monitored for two years atter the baseline interview. We hypothesize that children and acolescents who utilize violent media, including violent web sites and video/computer games, will manifest more violent and aggressive behaviors over time compared to other children and adolescents. In addition, we hxpothesize that individual factors such as sex and trait-aggression, and contextual factors such as witnessing violence will be important components inunderstanding the association between violent media and violent behavior.