CARTOONS’ EFFECTS ON PRESCHOOLERS’ PROBLEM BEHAVIORS

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CARTOONS’ EFFECTS ON PRESCHOOLERS’ PROBLEM BEHAVIORS

Journal Title: The Journal of International Social Research - Year 2016, Vol 9, Issue 43

Abstract

Preschool children are not able to analyse, evaluate and select the media content carefully due to their developmental characteristics. Children, in the position of vulnerable receiver against media, are particularly affected by cartoons both in positive and negative ways. The techniques used in cartoons and the content could be very attractive to children, eg., imaginative characters which have super power, animal characters which can speak, bright colours, voices, and music. And they spent a big chunk of time every day in front of TV. It is thought that there may be a tight connection between problem behaviours which are displayed by children and the cartoons that they watch. Nowadays, media has become an important part of people’s lives. Every day, the time spent on media is increasing. Media is not used only to entertain and to present people news, but also to provide a social environment for people to interact with others and actually help them survive. Adults, even children, are addicted to using media outside, inside home, at metro or bus, and even at work. This addiction and interest in media can now be seen even in the lives of preschoolers. According to Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, children pretend what they see around them. However, since they cannot make a good choice every time, they might take any characters they see on cartoons as a role-model, even the ones which present violent behaviors and then show some violent behaviors. Thus, it is essential to examine the effects of cartoons on children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive development, especially problem behaviors. The main purpose of the current study is to evaluate the cartoons that are watched during the day time and the problem behaviors acted by 60-72 months old preschoolers, from the perspectives of parents, teachers and children. That is, the opinions of parents, teachers and children have been taken to examine the carton watching habits and problem behaviors of children. This study was conducted in 2 separate kindergartens, with the participations of 8 parents, 8 preschool children and 2 preschool teachers who agreed to participate voluntarily and with a total of 18 participants. In this study, qualitative research methods and a semi-structured interview form for children and parents were used by the researcher. Moreover, a checklist translated and entitled as “Problem Behaviour Checklist” by H.Z. İnan was used for preschool teachers. This checklist was created originally by a group of researchers from Harvard, Columbia and Chicago Universities in the name of “PHDCN: Child Behaviour Checklist, Wave 3, 2000-2002.” Data was gathered by the method of interview with parents and children and was analysed by the method of content analysis. Significant/common codes obtained from the data. And then, common themes were determined by categorizing these codes. The checklists filled by teachers and used to identify problem behaviours of children were compared with the codes and themes derived from the responses of children and their parents. The findings derived from this comparison are used to understand the effects of cartoons on children’s problem behaviours and to provide parents and cartoon producers some suggestions. Excerpts from the story of each case were given in detail. In the light of the findings, evaluation was made in terms of the relationship between cartoons-watching habits and problem behaviours of preschoolers and various suggestions were made to parents. The result of the current study presents how children were affected in terms of the type, content, and the duration of the cartoons that they watch and the control behaviours and level of awareness of parents on their cartoon-watching habits. It is found that the types and the contents of the cartoons they watched have significant effects on their role-model behaviours, social and emotional development.

Authors and Affiliations

Taşkın İNAN

Keywords

Cartoon Violence Media Literacy.

EP ID EP250941
DOI 10.17719/jisr.20164317714
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