Media Effects, Maltreated Children and

Media research on maltreated children specifically focuses on television and defines maltreatment as physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse or neglect of children by their parents. Emotionally disturbed children also fit into this category; these children tend to be from unstable homes, often have behavioral problems in school, and are sometimes institutionalized. Maltreated children have become a source of interest in media research because they watch television more than other children. Media theories, such as social learning and cultivation theory, suggest that individuals who are heavy viewers of television are [Page 512]more vulnerable to its effects. Typically, maltreated children watch television between 3.5 and 8 hours per day, compared to 3 hours for nonmaltreated children; institutionalized children typically watch the most television. In addition, a few studies have found that fewer rules are associated with television viewing in the homes of maltreated children. In the 1970s, William A. Donohue and Thomas R. Donohue started this line of research, and since then, Joyce Sprafkin and Kenneth D. Gadow have also conducted many investigations. This entry first discusses the negative effects revealed by this line of research and then examines a few positive outcomes that have also been identified.

A number of studies have examined the ability of maltreated children to recognize television images as fantasy rather than reality. Literature suggests that children, in general, are not able to distinguish between fantasy and reality until about the age of 8 years. This is an important ability because fright reactions, persuasion, the belief that the world is like television, and other outcomes can emerge from not being able to distinguish these differences. The results suggest that emotionally disturbed children are more likely than nondisturbed children to believe television content is real and that commercials are truthful. In general, this suggests that emotionally disturbed children can come to perceive the television world as the real world and be more likely to want, request, and buy advertised products. In one study, emotionally disturbed children received instruction on distinguishing between real and fantasy presentations on television and in commercials. In comparison to children who did not receive the instruction, those who did were more able to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality on television, but the instructions had no impact on perception of commercials.

Several investigations by Thomas R. Donohue have studied the effect of television on maltreated children's value judgments and choice of role models. Overall, maltreated children prefer violent to nonviolent programs and violent television characters to nonviolent ones. Another consistent finding is that when maltreated children are asked for their reaction to a fictitious situation, the behavior they predict for themselves is more aggressive than the behavior they predict for their friends, family, and favorite television characters. However, they usually do not describe their own behavior as antisocial in nature. In fact, maltreated children sometimes report television characters as acting more disruptive than they would behave in different situations. In most of these fictitious situation comparisons, the child's best friend is rated as the most similar to the subject and thus the most aggressive, followed by their favorite television character. Children usually predict that behavior of parents and other important adult figures in their lives would be significantly less aggressive than their own. Some of these investigations have also noted that emotionally disturbed children see television children and television parents as happier than their own families. One study found that abused children are less likely than nonabused children to be able to identify a favorite character, a favorite adult character, and favorite television families.

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