How protective against child and adolescent aggressive behavior is a violence-free media diet?

Ybarra, Michele & Diener-West, Marie. (2008, October). How protective against child and adolescent aggressive behavior is a violence-free media diet?  Presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.

Summary:

This presentation analyzes data from the Growing up with Media study to discuss the role of violence-free media in the lives of youth. Topics discussed include demographic and psychosocial characteristics of youth and prevalence rates of violent, bullying, and fighting behaviors based upon violent media exposure.

Findings include:

Youth who report no exposure to media violence are more than 80% less likely to concurrently report:

- seriously violent behavior

- bullying behavior

- frequent fighting

When compared to otherwise similar youth of the same sex and age who report ‘many’, or ‘almost all/ all’ of at least one type of media they consume is violent.

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