The contribution of family communication patterns to children's interpretations of television violence

Abstract

In this study, children were shown one of three violent TV clips. Each clip showed an identical act of aggression but the perpetrator's motivation and punishment for the violent act were manipulated. Children also filled out a questionnaire that asked about their family communication patterns (FCP). Overall, children who rated higher on the communication dimension were more likely to see motivated violence as more justified, whereas children who rated higher on the control dimension were likely to see punished violence as less justified. In addition, children who were more control‐oriented and who had perceived the violent clip as justified chose aggressive story endings significantly more frequently than other children.