THE ROLE OF TELEVISION IN THE SOCIALIZATION OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIORAL SKILLS

This study examined the relation between level of television viewing a nd nonverbal behavioral encoding skills among school-aged children. As predicted, frequent TV viewers communicated emotions common on televi sion (happiness and sadness) better than emotions uncommon on televisi on (disgust and fear/surprise), a pattern that did not emerge for infr equent TV viewers. Additionally, compared with infrequent TV viewers, frequent viewers were better encoders of spontaneous nonverbal display s, but worse encoders of posed displays. The results of a follow-up st udy suggest that this latter pattern may reflect a failure by children who are exposed to highly expressive television models to engage in a ctive self-regulation of their nonverbal expressions.