Violence on TV: What happens to children who watch?

Results of new study led by Linda Pagani, Professor at the Université de Montreal’s School of Psychoeducation, long-term associated risks of early exposure to violent content in childhood and later teen antisocial behavior, more than a decade later.

“Although past evidence showing causal links between modelling and getting rewarded for violence had an immediate impact on aggressive behavior in 4-year-old children, few studies have investigated long-term risks with antisocial behavior. We studied such risks in mid-adolescence, explained Pagani, who is also a researcher at the Centre de recherche Azrieli du CHU Sainte-Justine. 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.”

Close to 2,000 children
In all, Pagani and her team looked at 963 girls and 982 boys born between the springs of 1997 and 1998 who were enrolled in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Parents reported the frequency of their child’s exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years old. Boys and girls then self-reported on several aspects of antisocial behavior at age 15.

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.” 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 researchers then conducted analyses to examine whether exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years predicted later antisocial behavior eleven years later.

The researcher added, “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.”

Boys stand out
At age 15, for boys only, preschool violent televiewing 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.

Risks also included threats, insults, and gang fight involvement. The use of weapons is also among the behavioral outcomes predicted by exposure to childhood television violence in this study. No effects were found for girls, which was not surprising given that boys are generally more exposed to such content.

Pagani concluded, “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 targets 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.”

The entire team of students from Université de Montréal and researchers from the United States and Italy established that, "Parents and communities can play a crucial role in limiting future problems by carefully avoiding young children's exposure to violent media content."

About the study

The article, “Prospective associations between preschool exposure to violent televiewing and externalizing behavior in middle adolescent boys and girls” was published on January 20, 2025 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.    

Linda Pagani, lead author of the study, is a professor at the Université de Montréal's School of Psychoeducation and a researcher at the Centre de recherche Azrieli du CHU Sainte-Justine and at the School Environment Research Group. Amélie Gilker-Beauchamp, Laurie-Anne Kosak and Kianoush Harandian are graduate students under her direction. Claudio Longobardi is professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Turin, in Italy. The study’s senior author is Eric F. Dubow is distinguished research professor and director of clinical training in the Department of Psychology of Bowling Green State University, in Ohio.

This work was made possible thanks to the participation of parents, teachers and children in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, and under the auspices of the Institut de la statistique du Québec for data collection, storage and hosting. The overall study was funded by the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon, the Institut de la statistique du Québec, the Ministère de l'Éducation (Québec), the Ministère de la Famille (Québec), the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (Québec), the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauve en santé et en sécurité du travail, the CHU Sainte-Justine and the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec (Québec).