TV violence related issues in Yerevan: assessment of children's exposure to media violence; exploration of parents' opinions, attitudes, and knowledge about TV as an influential factor on health and behavior of children

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of TV violence and its negative influence on children’s behavior. The research data are persuasive that high levels of television violence viewing are causally related to aggressive behavior, acceptance of aggressive attitudes, and desensitization to violence. TV violence also leads to “victim” effects such as increased fear, sleeping problems, and nightmares. Since the Independence of Armenia there has been a dramatic increase of violent programming on Armenian TV. Thus, TV violence related issues in Armenia are to be investigated. The study aims of the project are to assess children’s exposure to media violence, viewing patterns, the amount of violent messages on TV; to explore parents attitudes towards TV, and their perception of TV as a potential endangering factor of their children’s health. The data was gathered from two sources: 15 in-depth interviews with mothers and TV monitoring of 8 channels. The data was gathered from July 4 to September 20.