Media Impact on Preschool Behavior

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Considerable research has established the adverse effects of violent television programming on children's level of aggression. Research has also established that certain types of media programming can actually promote prosocial behavior. Unfortunately, the current viewing habits of most preschoolers lean heavily towards inappropriate programming at the expense of higher quality shows. This study will attempt to improve the TV diet of preschool children, without increasing overall viewing time. Keeping in mind the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for screen time in this age group, we will test an intervention to assist parents in making conscious and informed decisions regarding the media content to which their young children are exposed. This primary prevention effort will focus on young children, in an attempt to avert the emergence of violent behavior patterns later in youth and adolescence. The age of 3-5 is carefully chosen for this intervention because of the ready availability of prosocial content for young children, with known benefits for encouraging prosocial behavior; because of the heavy diet of aggressive and violent content that children in this age range actually watch; because young children may be especially vulnerable to the effects of viewing upon behavior and because despite the obvious promise of early interventions to set good behavioral patterns early, there is a dearth of research in this area. In doing so, we have three specific aims: Aim 1: To improve the quality of television viewing H1a. Children in the intervention arm will watch fewer hours of aggressive programming per week than children in the control arm H1b Children in the intervention arm will watch more hours of prosocial television than children in the control arm Aim 2: To decrease aggression in the intervention arm H2. Children in the intervention arm exhibit less aggression than children in the control arm Aim 3: To increase prosocial behavior in the intervention arm H3 Children in the intervention arm will exhibit more prosocial behavior than children in the control arm. Media Impact Project Narrative Using no more than 2 or 3 sentences, describe the relevance of the research to public health. Be succinct and use plain language that can be understood by a general, lay audience. The types of programming young children watch has been shown to affect their behavior. This project will attempt to improve the media diet of young children by decreasing the amount of violence they watch and increasing the amount of prosocial programming. The goal will be to determine if this makes a positive difference in their behavior.