A recent study considered the longitudinal effects of exposing children to violence and aggressive behaviour.  It found that the more violence children are exposed to at a young age, the more they consider it to be normal behaviour and what’s more they are more likely to engage in aggressive behaviour towards others.

The study said that “Children witness violence at home, at school, in their neighborhood, and in the media. Children may also experience violence, as a victim, at home, at school, and in their neighborhood. A longitudinal study tested whether children who are exposed to a heavy dose of violence come to regard it as normal behavior and subsequently behave more aggressively themselves.”

The research team, headed by Izaskun Orue of University of Deusto in Spain, and included Brad Bushman of Ohio State University, asked 777 children aged 8 to 12 years old about their exposure to violence, wether witnessed (on TV or as part of a video game) or experienced (as a victim). They completed 2 questionnaires, 6 months apart.

The questionnaire was split into 3 sections, represented by questions & statements like:

  1. “How often has somebody hit you at home?” (measuring their exposure to violence)
  2. “Sometimes you have to hit others because they deserve it” (measuring their thoughts on aggression as an appropriate action)
  3. The final section of the questionnaire measured how aggressive the child was, based both on their own report and what their classmates said about them.

The children were asked the same questions 6 months later and the results were compared.

These result showed that “witnessing violence predicted increases in aggression 6 months later through changes in normative beliefs. Likewise, experiencing aggression as a victim predicted increases in aggression 6 months later through changes in normative beliefs. These findings show that when children think violence is commonplace in many contexts, they are more likely to aggress against others.”

“Exposure to violence can also increase aggression regardless of whether at home, at school, in or in the virtual world of TV, regardless of whether the person is a witness or a victim,” said the study.

“People exposed to a heavy diet of violence come to believe that aggression is a normal way to solve conflict and get what you want in life. These beliefs lower their inhibitions against aggression against others.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source:  Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE).