Helping children cope with frightening media presentations

Abstract

Various researchers over the past fifty years have observed that mass media presentations can produce intense flight reactions in children (Blumer, 1933; Himmelweit, Oppenheim, & Vince, 1958; Preston, 1941; Schramm, Lyle, & Parker, 1961). Public concern with this phenomenon has been rekindled recently, in part because mass media content has become increasingly graphic and horror-filled, and because television has been confronting more disturbing and controversial issues. In addition, due to the proliferation of available television channels, the most upsetting and sophisticated types of content are becoming readily accessible to children of all ages in their own homes. Although a few psychoanalytically oriented observers feel that frightening presentations can serve a largely positive function in children's emotional development (e.g., Bettelheim, 1975; Smetak, 1986), it seems that the majority of investigators of frightening fare are concerned about potential negative effects on children. In the thirties, Blumer (1933) claimed that "emotional possession" by movies caused individuals to lose ordinary control over their feelings and perceptions. In the forties, Preston (1941) warned that "addiction" to media horrors could produce profound negative effects on children's physical and psychological health. More recently, Singer (1975) has argued that children may be haunted for years by night terrors and bizarre and weird fantasies if they are exposed to frightening movies that are beyond their capacity to comprehend. In a recently published book on children's fears, Sarafino (1986) has maintained that exposure to "scary portrayals of animals, violence, and monsters on TV and in the movies can impair children's psychological development" (p. 56). A recent review of research on the prevalence of media-induced fears (Cantor, in press) concluded that most people have experienced such fears, that a substantial proportion of viewers have undergone intense responses that have lasted beyond the time of viewing, and that a sizeable minority have suffered what might be classified as a "significant stress reaction" (see Johnson, 1980) with a duration of at least two days. Blumer (1933) described the range of observed flight reactions as follows: