It may be educational, but what is that TV show really

teaching your preschooler?

Posted Feb 18, 2013 11:30 am

Douglas Gentile says many educational programs are teaching children an unexpected lesson. Photo by Bob
Elbert.
AMES, Iowa Most parents carefully select what television programs and movies their children can watch. But
a study in the latest Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology found that even educational shows could
come with an added lesson that influences a childs behavior. Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at
Iowa State University, was part of the research team.
Children who spent more time watching educational programs increased their relational aggression toward
other children over initial levels, Gentile said. This study shows that children can learn more than one lesson
out of a given program. They can learn the educational lesson that was intended, but theyre also learning
other things along the way.
This unintended impact has to do with the portrayal of conflict in media and how preschool-age children
comprehend that conflict. Gentile said TV and movie producers often incorporate an element of bad behavior
in order to teach children a lesson at the end of the program. This type of conflict is also found in childrens
literature. However, since children between the ages of 2 and 5 do not typically understand the plot of shows,
Gentile said they do not know how the beginning of a story relates to the end.
Even though educational shows like Arthur have pro-education and pro-social goals, conflict between
characters is often depicted with characters being unkind to each other or using relational aggressive tactics
with each other, Gentile said. Preschool children really dont get the moral of the story because that requires
that they understand how all the parts of the show fit together. You need pretty complicated cognitive skills and
memory skills to be able to do that, which are still developing in young children.

For the study, researchers observed how the children interacted with others in the classroom and on the
playground at day care centers. They also relied on behavior reports from teachers and parents. They found
that children exposed to educational programs were more aggressive in their interactions.
Researchers observed each child for approximately 2.5 hours throughout the study. They note that the
aggression they witnessed was generally not physical. Jamie Ostrov, a professor of psychology at the
University of Buffalo in New York and another member of the research team, said the behaviors often mirrored
those incorporated in childrens programming.
The most common relationally aggressive behaviors were children saying, I wont be your friend anymore
unless you do what I say, or You cant come to my birthday party as well as socially excluding a peer from
play, Ostrov said. From our viewing, this type of relational aggression is much more common in young
childrens programming than physically aggressive behavior.
Lessons for parents
Researchers caution parents against completely pulling the plug on TV and movies for their children. Gentile
said there is a benefit to educational programming, but it could also teach undesirable behaviors. Parents may
already limit the content and the amount of media their children consume, but he said parents can be more
involved when their children are in front of the TV.
Parents can watch with their kids and help them to understand the plot. Parents can comment along the way
and then explain the message at the end. They explain how the insulting behavior or the ignoring behavior was
not appropriate. This will help children interpret and get the message and help them learn to watch it for those
messages, Gentile said.
Researchers asked parents about the specific media their children were exposed to during the study. Ostrov
said most programs were educational or informational in nature with an emphasis on social and emotional
issues. Programs such as Arthur, as well as Curious George and Reading Rainbow, were among those
most often mentioned by parents. Gentile said to more fully understand the issues presented in these
programs there needs to be more analysis of the content.
- See more at: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2013/02/18/educationalmedia#sthash.g0BpGM91.dpuf