A CONTENT-ANALYSIS OF SAFETY BEHAVIORS OF TELEVISION CHARACTERS - IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILDRENS SAFETY AND INJURY

Examined frequency and characteristics of safety behaviors in televisi on programs popular with child audiences. A sample of 52 programs was coded for safety event location, demographic characteristics of safety models, social and physical contexts of safety events, and successful or unsuccessful outcomes of safety behaviors. Results indicate an ove rall rate of 13 safety behaviors per hour, with over half of all safet y behaviors located in commercial advertisements. Most safety behavior s were performed by male adult characters, had limited relevance for c hildren, and were not associated with either positive or negative outc omes. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for observati onal learning of safety behaviors by child viewers.