Effects of prosocial cartoon models on aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors

Qian Zhang, Yi Cao, JingJin Tian, Kim El-Lim and Douglas A. Gentile

Children and Youth Services Review, 2020, vol. 118, issue C

Abstract: Although research has examined violent cartoon effects, little research has evaluated the effects of prosocial cartoons on kindergartners. Based on the general learning model (GLM) and social learning model (SLM), we examined how prosocial cartoon models affect aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors. A total of 174 children aged 5 and 6 years (50% girls) who had been nominated by their teacher and peers as aggressive were recruited from three Chinese kindergartens. Half of them were assigned to the experimental group to watch prosocial cartoons for five consecutive days, while the other half were assigned to the control group that did not watch cartoons. The modified semantic classification task (MSCT) and the competitive reaction time task (CRTT) were employed to measure aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors. Children who watched the prosocial cartoons displayed lower aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors than those who did not watch the cartoons. Specifically, watching prosocial cartoons reduced aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors more for boys than girls. Aggressive cognitions partially mediated the effect of prosocial cartoon viewing on aggressive behaviors.

Keywords: Prosocial cartoon models; Aggressive cognitions; Aggressive behaviors; Children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740920310501
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:118:y:2020:i:c:s0190740920310501

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105498

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().