THE CONTRIBUTION OF FAMILY COMMUNICATION PATTERNS TO CHILDRENS INTERPRETATIONS OF TELEVISION VIOLENCE

In this study, children were shown one of three violent TV clips. Each clip showed an identical act of aggression, but the perpetrator's mot ivation and punishment for the violent act were manipulated. Children also filled out a questionnaire that asked about their family communic ation patterns (FCP). Overall, children who rated higher on the commun ication dimension were more likely to see motivated violence as more j ustified, whereas children who rated higher on the control dimension w ere likely to see punished violence as less justified. In addition, ch ildren who were more control-oriented and who had perceived the violen t clip as justified chose aggressive story endings significantly more frequently than other children.