What do children value in entertainment programs? A cross-cultural investigation

We investigated which program characteristics in children's entertainment t elevision programs children between 6 and 11 years of age value. We collect ed data by means of questionnaires among 100 Dutch and 100 U.S. first th ro ugh fourth graders. The most important characteristics for both Dutch and U .S. children were comprehensibility and action, closely followed by humor, interestingness, innocuousness, realism, violence and romance, respectively . Compared to Dutch children, U.S. children attached more value to realism, innocuousness, and interestingness. Boys in both samples attached more val ue to action and violence in a children's program, whereas girls in both sa mples attached more value to innocuousness and comprehensibility.