Violence on screen: what are the consequences for children exposed to it?

A study published today and carried out by Linda Pagani, professor at the School of Psychoeducation at the University of Montreal, highlights the long-term risks linked to early exposure to violent content during childhood and likely to manifest itself in antisocial behavior among adolescents around ten years later.

“Although previous studies have demonstrated that exposure to violent role models and reward for aggressive behaviors can have an immediate effect on aggression in four-year-old children, few have explored their long-term consequences on antisocial behavior. We therefore chose to study these consequences in adolescents, explains Linda Pagani, who is also a researcher at the Azrieli Research Center at CHU Sainte-Justine. Our research team also targeted children from middle-class backgrounds, as this group is statistically less likely to exhibit aggressive or harmful behaviors towards others, making them an ideal population to examine this question.”

Nearly 2,000 children studied over a period of 11 years

The study participants, 963 girls and 982 boys, are part of the Quebec Longitudinal Child Development Study cohort and were born between spring 1997 and spring 1998.

First, their parents reported the frequency of exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years. When these children reached the age of 15, they answered several questions about antisocial behavior on their own.

Professor Pagani and her team defined on-screen violence as any physical, verbal or relational aggression and situations where the protagonist intentionally attempts to hurt or cause harm to other people. According to the study, “children are attracted to fast-paced and stimulating violent content, which often features attractive characters such as superheroes who perform aggressive actions and who are rewarded for them, which increases the likelihood of ‘exposure to violence’.

The research team then conducted analyzes to determine whether exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 was predictive of antisocial behavior 11 years later.

“We statistically took into account other factors concerning the child and his family likely to explain our results in order to ensure the accuracy of the results on the link between exposure to violent content and antisocial behavior,” specifies Professor Pagani.

Aggressive and violent behavior in boys

Among boys only, exposure to violent television content during early childhood was associated with an increase in antisocial behavior at age 15. These antisocial behaviors manifested themselves in aggressive actions such as hitting or beating another person with the intention of stealing or taking advantage of them, with or without apparent reason.

The use of threats and insults, participation in fights between gangs of adolescents and the use of weapons are also among the aggressive antisocial behaviors listed in connection with childhood exposure to violent television content.

No increase in these behaviors was observed among girls, which did not surprise the research team, since boys are generally more exposed to such content.

“Our study provides convincing results that young children’s exposure to media violence can have serious and lasting consequences, particularly for boys,” says Linda Pagani. It also demonstrates the urgent need for public health prevention campaigns to raise awareness among parents and communities of the long-term risks of this exposure and to enable them to make informed choices regarding the violent digital content to which their children are also subjected. .”

In short, parents and communities can play a crucial role in preventing adolescent violent behavior by preventing very young children from being exposed to violent content on screen, concludes Professor Pagani, who carried out the study. with a team of scientists from Canada, the United States and Italy.

About the study

The article “Prospective Associations Between Preschool Exposure to Violent Televiewing and Externalizing Behavior in Middle Adolescent Boys and Girls” was published on January 20, 2025 in theInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.    

Linda Pagani, lead author of the study, is a professor at the School of Psychoeducation at the University of Montreal and a researcher at the Azrieli Research Center at CHU Sainte-Justine and at the School Environment Research Group at UdeM. Amélie Gilker-Beauchamp, Laurie-Anne Kosak and Kianoush Harandian are graduate students under his supervision. Claudio Longobardi is a professor at the University of Turin. The D^r Eric F. Dubow, who is professor emeritus and director of clinical training in the psychology department at Bowling Green State University, co-led this study.

This work was made possible thanks to the participation of parents, teachers and children from the Longitudinal Study of Child Development in Quebec and the support of the Quebec Statistics Institute for the collection, conservation and hosting of this data.

The study was financed by the Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation, the Institute of Statistics of Quebec, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Families, the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity, the Robert-Sauvé Research Institute in Occupational Health and Safety, CHU Sainte-Justine and the Ministry of Health and Social Services.