Prosocial Television and Young Children: The Effects of Verbal Labeling and Role Playing on Learning and Behavior

Abstract

FRIEDRICH, LYNETTE K., and STEIN, ALETHA H. Prosocial Television and Young Children: The Effects of Verbal Labeling and Role Playing on Learning and Behavior. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 27-38. The effects of prosocial television alone and in combination with training-verbal labeling and role playing--on learning and helping behavior were assessed. 73 kindergarten children were assigned to 1 of 5 conditions for the 4 viewing and training sessions: (a) neutral television and irrelevant training, (b) prosocial television and irrelevant training, (c) prosocial television and verbal-labeling training, (d) prosocial television and role-playing training, or (e) prosocial television and both verbal-labeling and roleplaying training. 3 measures of learning were employed: a content test to measure knowledge of specific content of programs and generalization of themes to other situations, a puppet measure to assess both spontaneous speech related to program content and helping behavior in a fantasy context, and a third measure designed as a behavioral index of helping another child. The results provide support for the prediction that children learn the prosocial content of television programs and generalize that learning to other situations. Support is also found for the prediction that training enhances verbal learning and affects actual helping behavior. The verbal labeling had the greatest impact on the verbal measures of learning, particularly for girls, and role-playing training was more effective, particularly for boys, in increasing nonverbal helping behavior. The 3 diverse measures of learning, both specific and generalized, were positively related to one another. This was true for verbal as well as behavioral indices of helping.