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By Stephen Beech
Boys as young as three years old who watch violence on are more likely to become disruptive teenagers, warns new research.
Scientists discovered "long-term associated risks" of early exposure to violent content in childhood and antisocial behavior - including using weapons such as knives - more than a decade later.
Study leader Professor Linda Pagani, of the in Canada, said: “Although past evidence showing causal links between modeling and getting rewarded for violence had an immediate impact on aggressive behavior in four-year-old children, few studies have investigated long-term risks with antisocial behavior.
"We studied such risks in mid-adolescence.
"It was ideal to study this question with typically developing middle-class children because, as a population, they have the lowest chances of engaging in aggression and behavior harmful to others.â€
Pagani and her team looked at close to 2,000 Canadian children - 963 girls and 982 boys - born in 1997 or 1998.
Parents reported the frequency of their child’s exposure to violent television content at 3.5 and 4.5 years old. Boys and girls then self-reported on several aspects of antisocial behavior at age 15.
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The study defines screen violence as anything “characterized by physical aggression, verbal aggression, and relational aggression […] depicting situations that intentionally attempt or cause harm to others.â€
Children, the study says, “are attracted to fast-paced, stimulating violent content, which often features appealing characters like superheroes who commit and are rewarded for aggressive acts, thus increasing the likelihood of exposure."
The research team then examined whether exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 predicted antisocial behavior 11 years later.
Pagani said: “We statistically took into account alternative child and family factors that could have explained our results, to be as close as possible to the truth in the relationships we were looking at.â€
The findings, published in the , showed that at age 15, for boys only, preschool violent TV viewing predicted increases in antisocial behavior.
Being exposed to violent content in early childhood predicted later aggressive behaviors such as hitting or beating another person, with the intention of obtaining something, stealing, with or without any apparent reason.
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Risks also included threats, insults, and gang fight involvement.
The use of weapons was also among the behavioral outcomes predicted by exposure to childhood TV violence in the study.
No effects were found for girls, which was not surprising given that boys are generally more exposed to such content.
Pagani said: “Our study provides compelling evidence that early childhood exposure to media violence can have serious, long-lasting consequences, particularly for boys.
"This underscore the urgent need for public health initiatives that target campaigns to inform parents and communities about the long-term risks and empower them to make informed choices about young children's screen content exposure.â€
She added: "Parents and communities can play a crucial role in limiting future problems by carefully avoiding young children's exposure to violent media content."