Television and Delinquency

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: This study by Thornton and Voigt examined the explanatory power of social control theory using the influence of three media variables in conjunction with more traditional social control variables on self reported delinquency. METHODOLOGY: A quasi-experimental survey design was employed using 3500 public school students in three southern public schools. The Lousiana Youth Survey, an anonymous survey response questionnaire, was given to a randomly drawn sample of students in grades 4-12, and included 27 questions concerning delinquency. Six delinquency scales were constructed: social (Socdel), minor property (propdel), major property (Propdel2), aggressive (Aggdel), drug delinquency (Drugdel) and alcohol delinquency (Alcodel), which represented incidence counts. The social control variables were measured by scales of commitment to conventional goals (Commit), parental social control (PSC), attachment to school (AS), attachment to parents (AP), involvement in conventional activities (Involve), belief in the law (Belief), and delinquency of peers (DOC). The first media variable measured the child's preference for violent or nonviolent TV programming (AMV). After asking the respondents to list their four most favorite shows, an index was developed to assess the amount of violence in those programs. The scale went from 2 (very violent) to 0 (no violence). Violence scores were collapsed into four categories: almost none (0-1), some (2-3), much (4-5), and great deal (6-8). The other two media variables measured how much TV viewing each child engaged in. The data were analyzed using Gamma and multiple regression techniques. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Simple bivariate correlational analysis looked at the relationships between the independent variables and the six types of self reported delinquency. Amount of time spent viewing TV on weekdays strongly related to aggressive delinquency (negatively), social delinquency, and minor property delinquency. Attachment to school, attachment to parents, Commit, Involve, and Belief were strongly and negatively related to all six types of delinquency. Strong positive relationships existed between DOC, age, gender, race, and SES and all delinquency variables. A multiple regression analysis was used to examine the direct and indirect influence of the media. Weekday viewing hours and AMV were the only two variables that were significantly related to delinquency. PSC, Commit, AS, AP, Involve, and Belief all related to the first four types of delinquency. DOC related strongly to all six types of delinquency. The social control variables significantly related to two of the media variables, weekday viewing hours and AMV. AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors implied that more attention should be given to the indirect effects of TV violence than on direct viewing/aggression. Also, more research needed to be done to find the indirect paths that lead to delinquency. EVALUATION: This study suggests that media viewing may also be an important variable in social control models of delinquency. There has been research that suggests that aggressive television may lead to aggressiveness, but the conception that aggressive television may decrease the effectiveness or power of ties to conventional behavior is an interesting idea. One scenario comes to mind. The child who spends a great deal of time in front of anti-social TV not only is seeing violence as an acceptable form of getting things done but also may be weakening his or her actual ties to other children and parents, particularly if the lesson of the shows contradicts family morals; it may also be possible that one of the interactions between family and media suggested by the authors comes in the form of an acceleration of acceptance of violence in a context of family acceptance of violence. The sample size for this study was very large and randomly selected, but the sample only represents one city in one geographical area. Other study would want to get a better cross-section of the United States for better generalizability. It was difficult to get a grasp on inter-rater reliability in the coding of the television shows. As the authors state, there is no measure of attentive viewing time which may greatly influence the magnitude of the effect of the media on the children. The issues raised in this study are important theoretical considerations which may, with more supportive research, prove to improve social control models of delinquency. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Exposure to Violence KW - Theory KW - Media Violence Effects KW - Television Viewing KW - Television Violence KW - Louisiana KW - Exposure to Violence KW - Child Delinquency KW - Child Offender KW - Juvenile Delinquency KW - Juvenile Offender KW - Delinquency Causes KW - Grade 10 KW - Grade 11 KW - Grade 12 KW - Grade 4 KW - Grade 5 KW - Grade 6 KW - Grade 7 KW - Grade 8 KW - Grade 9 KW - Junior High School Student KW - Senior High School Student KW - Elementary School Student KW - Late Childhood KW - Late Adolescence KW - Early Adolescence KW - Social Control