C D M H

Project Title:	Childhood TV Violence Viewing and Adult Aggression
Principal Investigator:	L. Rowel Huesmann
Co-Investigators:	Leonard D. Eron
Contact Person and Information:
Maura Seale Room 5032 ISR 426 Thompson Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248 (734)764-8385 mseale@umich.edu
STUDY AIMS:
To investigate the long-term effects of childhood exposure to media violence.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INITIAL SAMPLE:
Selection criteria:
748 boys and girls in grades 1 and 3 in the Chicago metropolitan area and subjects of similar ages in Finland (220), Poland (237), and Israel (186).
Sample characteristics:
Gender:		Approximately evenly split in all countries
Ethnicity:		In U.S., 100 subjects were black or Hispanic
Socioeconomic Status:		Urban, middle class in all countries. In U.S., approximately 100 subjects attended school in low SES areas.

COMPLETED WAVES:
Wave	Age of Subjects	N:
1977	6, 8 years	748 U.S., 220 Finland, 237Poland, and 186 Israel
1978	7, 9 years
1979	8, 10 years
1992-1994	22, 24 years	.

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES:
Middle Childhood Young Adulthood

MEASURES
Personal:
	Personality	Preference for sex-typed games
	Cognitive Competence	Intellectual functioning Educational achievement Teacher reports Parent reports
	Symptoms and Syndromes	Television habits (including judged realism of programs and identification with TV characters). Peer nominated aggression Popularity (peer nomination) Aggression
Social:
	Family	Parental rejection Parental punishment of child Parental TV habits
REPRESENTATIVE FINDINGS:
Early exposure to media violence causes later aggression in children regardless of social class, IQ, gender, or initial aggressiveness. Furthermore, children who identify more with characters and perceive TV violence as more realistic are influenced more. This effect occurs in the US, Finland, Poland and Israel. The data show that the effect persists into young adulthood for both boys and girls.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS:
Bushman, B. J. & Huesmann, L. R. (2001). Effects of televised violence on aggression (pp. 223-254). In D. Singer & J. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of Children and the Media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Huesmann, L. R. (1999). The effects of childhood aggression and exposure to media violence on adult behaviors, attitudes and mood: Evidence from a 15-year cross-national longitudinal study. Aggressive Behavior, 25, 18-29. Huesmann, L. R. & Beatty, A. (in press). The processes through which media violence causes aggressive behavior. In J. R. Schement (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Communication and Information. New York: Macmillan. Huesmann, L. R. & Eron, L. D. (Eds.), Television and the Aggressive Child, Pergamon, 1986. Moise, J., and Huesmann, L. R. (under preparation). The role of negative emotions in the media violence - agression relation. Huesmann, L. R., Moise, J. F., & Podolski, C. L. (1997). The effects of media violence on the development of antisocial behavior (pp. 181-193). In D. Stoff, J. Breiling, & J. Maser (Eds.) Handbook of Antisocial Behavior. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Huesmann, L. R., Moise, J., Podolski, C. P. & Eron, L. D. (under review). Longitudinal relations between childhood exposure to media violence and adult aggression and violence: 1977-1992. Developmental Psychology.

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