Young children's awareness of violence in Northern Ireland: the influence of Northern Irish television in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Abstract

Children aged 5 to 6 years living in either a suburb of London or in a small town in Northern Ireland which has been virtually free from violence, were asked to make up stories in response to a series of pictures depicting such things as derelict houses or a train crash. More Northern Irish children mentioned bombs and explosions than did the London children. To investigate the possibility that this knowledge of explosions might be the result of at least incidental exposure to coverage of such events on Northern Irish television news a further study was initiated. Children from another relatively quiet part of Northern Ireland were compared with children from two separate areas of Scotland where television reception is only possible from Northern Ireland and from a third area in Scotland where Northern Ireland television news cannot be received. Children from those areas where Northern Irish television news can be received again outnumbered those from the control area in terms of mentions of the words bomb or explosion.