Emotional Reactions of Young Children to Tv Violence

OSBORN, D. K., and ENDSLEY, R. C. Emotional Reactions of Young Children to TV Violence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 321-331. Using a procedure for recording continuously the amount of emotional sweating (GSR), 4and 5-year-old children were shown 4 brief TV film episodes. 2 films, 1 employing cartoon characters (CV) and the other human characters (HV), contained violent actions among the characters. 2 other films, NOCV and NHV, contained only nonviolent actions among the characters. As measured by their GSR, Ss responded more emotionally to CV and HV, particularly the latter, than they did to the nonviolent films (CNV and HNV). The Ss also subsequently selected HV as the scariest film, and recalled more detail from HV I week later than from the other 3 films. Finally, Ss most frequently selected the 2 cartoon films, particularly CNV, as the best liked films.