Prevalence and Context of Verbal Aggression in Children's Television Programming

Abstract

This study examines the prevalence and context of verbal aggression in children's television programming. In all, 256 episodes of children's programming from cable and broadcast television were examined. About 18 acts of verbal aggression per hour were found, most of which were insults and name calling. While positive outcomes outnumbered negative ones, most acts had a neutral outcome. Of the positive outcomes, audience laughter, characteristic of sitcoms, was the most common. Characters modeling verbally aggressive behaviors were typically teenagers, Caucasian, average in appearance and status, and major characters who showed little remorse for their actions. In raw numbers, male characters were more verbally aggressive than females; however, proportionately that discrepancy disappears, but female characters were more likely than expected to be victims and to engage in indirect verbal aggression. Implications based on social learning theory are discussed.

Keywords:

• Children's TV
• Contextual Factors
• Gender
• Social Learning Theory
• Verbal Aggression

Notes

*Percent agreement.

Note. TV-PG (M = 16, SD = 2.8) and TV-14 (M = 30, SD = 5.65) were excluded from the program ratings since they had only two episodes each. Means in the same category that do not share subscripts differ at p < .05 in the Tukey honestly significant difference comparison.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jack Glascock

Jack Glascock is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Illinois State University.