Parents' Knowledge and Beliefs about the Impact of Exposure to Media Violence on Children's Aggression

The current study aimed to assess Jordanian parents' knowledge and beliefs about the effects of violent media on children's aggressive behavior. A sample of 262 parents of children aged 6-11 years completed a Media Quotient questionnaire about children's media habits, media effects, a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Issues in mental health nursing 2018-07, Vol.39 (7), p.592-599
Main Authors: Al-Ali, Nahla Mansour, Yaghy, Hadeel Said, Shattnawi, Khulood K., Al-Shdayfat, Noha M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aggression - psychology
Aggressiveness
Behavior
Child
Child & adolescent psychiatry
Child Behavior - psychology
Child psychology
Children
Children & youth
Communications Media
Computer & video games
Female
Habits
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Jordan
Male
Media violence
Middle Aged
Music
Nursing
Parents & parenting
Parents - psychology
Pleasure
Television viewing
Video Games - psychology
Violence - psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:The current study aimed to assess Jordanian parents' knowledge and beliefs about the effects of violent media on children's aggressive behavior. A sample of 262 parents of children aged 6-11 years completed a Media Quotient questionnaire about children's media habits, media effects, and children's aggressive behavior. Parents reported that their children spend an average of 4.83 h (SD = 2.12) watching TV, 3.20 h (SD = 2.29) playing video games, 1.07 h (SD = 0.88) listening to music, and only 0.52 min (SD = 0.67) reading for pleasure per day. Parents have a moderate level of knowledge about the media effect (M = 15.49, SD = 3.439). Children of parents who have adequate knowledge about the media effect, spend less time watching TV (r = −.355, p < .001), playing video games (r = −.265, p < .001), and listening to music (r = −.347, p < .001). Ninety-two percent (n = 241) of parents were concerned about the amount of sexual and of violent content their children see in movies or on TV. Children who spend more time playing video games (r = −.201, p = .004) show aggressive relational behavior. This study suggests that increasing parents' knowledge of media of evidence-based programs may have a protective effect on children's behavior.
ISSN:0161-2840
1096-4673
DOI:10.1080/01612840.2017.1422201