o 25 violent acts per hour. (Lichter & Amundson, 1992) However a recent survey by the Center for Media and Public Affairs identified 1,846 violent scenes broadcast and cablecast between 6 a.m. to midnight during one day in Washington, D.C. The most violent periods were between 6 to 9 a.m. with 497 violent scenes (165.7 per hour) and between 2 to 5 p.m. with 609 violent scenes (203 per hour). (Lichter & Amundson, 1992) Most of this violence is shown during hours that are not generally viewed by the adults therefore violence in the early morning and afternoon is viewed by children and youth.CORRELATIONAL EXPERIMENTSWhat are the effects of this televised violence on our children? What we know about the influence of TV violence comes from the research of correlational, experimental and field studies that have been conducted over the past 40 years. The amount of evidence from correlational studies is very consistent in showing the effects of violence in relation to children: In most cases viewing and having a preference for watching violent television is related to aggressive attitudes, values and behaviors. During 1972 Robinson and Bachman (1972) found a relationship between the number of hours of television viewed and adolescent reports of involvement in aggressive or antisocial behavior. During that same year Atkin, Greenberg, Korzenny, and McDermott (1979:5-13) used a different measure to determine aggressive behavior. They gave nine to thirteen-year-old boys and girls situations such as the following. Suppose that you are riding your bicycle down the street and some other child comes up and pushes you off your bicycle. What would you do? The response options included physical or verbal aggression along with options to reduce or avoid conflict. This group found that physical or verbal aggressive responses were selected by 45 per cent of heavy-television-violence viewers compared to only 21 percent of the light-violence viewers. During 19...
