Huesmann et al. (2003)

Who and where

Huesmann et al. (2003)

Method

Longitudinal correlational study

Aim

To investigate the relationship between children's exposure to TV violence and later aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood.

Participants

557 children growing up in the Chicago area, with a follow-up study conducted on the same individuals as young adults in 1992.

Procedure

The researchers examined data to answer four main questions:

1. To what extent does early childhood exposure to media violence predict young adult aggression and violence?

2. Are there gender differences in the predictability?

3. Does the extent to which the child viewer identifies with the aggressive character or believes the plot is realistic affect the strength of the prediction?

4. To what extent does any long-term relation seem to be due to more aggressive children simply liking to watch violence or due to some environmental, family, or personal 'third variable' that stimulates both childhood violence viewing and childhood and adult aggression?

Findings

• For both male and female participants, more exposure to TV violence, greater identification with same-sex aggressive TV characters, and a stronger belief that violent shows tell about life “just like it is” predicted more adult aggression regardless of how aggressive the participants were as children.

• Parents play a role in influencing both aggression and TV habits.

Strengths

• Longitudinal design

• Large sample

Limitations

• Correlation study

• Reporting bias