Introduction
Media’s potential behavioral influences on children have been researched in various contexts. In their survey study, Mahmood, Iftikhar, and Bhatti (2020) explore school students’ reactions to horror/fighting scenes in cartoons. The surveyed sample consists of 100 school-age Pakistani children; their responses indicate that over 85% of children give preference to cartoons featuring fighting or war over friendlier and adventure-based content (Mahmood et al., 2020).
Discussion
Among the respondents who like fighting/war scenes in cartoons, 56% report the willingness to fight like superheroes and imitate their behaviors, whereas 14% have this desire only sometimes (Mahmood et al., 2020). Over 75% of children note a prominent fear of darkness and staying alone after exposure to horror content in cartoons (Mahmood et al., 2020). Although the study presents self-reported effects rather than observational data, it partially supports violent TV programs’ and games’ negative development-related effects by indicating that regular exposure to aggression in the media promotes desensitization to it. Resulting from it, physical aggression as a conflict management method can become a norm for the child, affecting socialization.
I can agree with the aforementioned study as I experienced behavioral changes after exposure to violent content and witnessed the same thing in younger relatives. As a child, I once encountered a TV show with some detailed depictions of animal testing and other scenes with violent actions toward animals. For a week, I had unpleasant nightmares and was afraid of someone doing the same things to my pet. To continue, learning by imitation permeates cognitive development (Feldman, 2018). My younger cousins often perform dangerous fight moves on each other after watching MMA fights without supervision; whenever their parents limit such content, their games tend to become less unsafe.
Conclusion
In conclusion, based on the reviewed findings’ connections to real-life observations, there is no clear reason to disagree with the conducted research.
References
Feldman, R. S. (2018). Child development (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Mahmood, T., Iftikhar, U., & Bhatti, M. A. (2020). Impact of violent cartoons on the behaviour of children: A case study of South Punjab. Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies, 6(2), 689-702. Web.