Is the television rating system valid Indirect, verbal, and physical aggression in programs viewed by fifth grade girls and associations with behavior.pdfVIP

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30 (2009) 286–297 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology Is the television rating system valid? Indirect, verbal, and physical aggression in programs viewed by ?fth grade girls and associations with behavior Jennifer Ruh Linder a,?, Douglas A. Gentile b a Lin?eld College, USA b Iowa State University, National Institute on Media and the Family, USA article info Available online 23 February 2009 Keywords: Aggression Television Children Girls Ratings abstract This study had two goals: ?rst, to examine the validity of the television rating system for assessing aggression in programs popular among girls; second, to evaluate the importance of inclusion of non-physical forms of aggression in the ratings system by examining associations between television aggression exposure and behavior. Ninety-nine ?fth grade girls listed their favorite programs; 76 programs were coded for total, rewarded, and justi?ed indirect, verbal, and physical aggression. Teachers reported participants aggressive and prosocial behaviors. Results indicated that the age-based ratings do not re?ect the amount of total indirect and verbal aggression in programs, and there were higher levels of physical aggression and justi?ed verbal aggression in childrens programs than in programs for general audiences, contrary to hypotheses. The industry violent content ratings identi?ed programs with higher mean levels of physical aggression, but did not distinguish programs that contained violence from those that did not. Exposure to televised physical aggression, verbal aggression, and rewarded indirect aggression was associated with higher child aggression and decreased prosocial behavior. Implications for the validity of the industry ratings are discussed. ? 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction A large body of research has documented associations between viewing violent television and physical aggression