A Comparison of the Impact of Television on Preadolescent’s Attitudes Towards Races and Religions Over Time

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Children use television to seek information about experiences not available in their daily environment, which helps shape their opinions concerning in-group and out-groups (e.g., Bar-Tal, 1996; Black, Gutman & Hickson, 1996; Durkin & Judge, 2001). These studies suggest that young children already favor their own group and that their out-group prejudice is based primarily on obvious traits such as skin color. Because preadolescent children spend over 5 hours daily on average watching television or video (Common Sense Media, 2015), it is an integral aspect of social learning and influential in fostering stereotyping (Goldberg & Gom, 1979; Graves, 1999).

One avenue that remains unexplored is the connection between exposure to TV characters representing different ethnic and religious groups and preadolescents’ understanding of race and religion. In addition, the amount of television preadolescents watch may also contribute to the way they classify and understand people. The purpose of this study is to conduct a cross-sectional analysis of data collected in 2005 (wave 1, N = 543), 2016 (wave 2, N = 80) and data that will be collected in 2020-21 (wave 3) in an attempt to detect changes in ethnic and religious awareness and attitudes over time.

Data from each wave will include surveys completed by children aged 8 to 14. This age group is of particular interest because at this stage attitudes are malleable based on experiences. In Wave 1, parents were contacted via email from an Internet based research group. During Wave 2, parents of preadolescents were recruited via email and Facebook. After parental consent was completed, youth completed a 38-item survey, which replicated a portion of the original as well as questions about race, religion, and friends. Television viewing behavior items were adapted from Roberts’ (1999) measure on Kids and Media and based on personal communication with leaders in media research and attitudes toward race and religion were adapted from the Scale for Measuring Attitudes for Any Defined Group (Renners, 1960). Wave 3 data collection is consistent with Wave 2. Data analysis will include analysis of the correlation between identity with a group, attitudes towards out groups and media consumption while controlling for exposure to groups, friendships and parent education.

Wave 1 and 2 data indicate an overall positive shift in attitudes toward minority groups including African Americans, Arab Americans, Hispanic Americans and Muslim Americans. Overall screen television/video use increased between waves revealing the more TV preadolescents watched, the more negative their attitudes toward African Americans. In both waves, attitudes towards Muslims were more negative among those who identified Muslims on TV, even when controlling for parent education, friendship, life exposure and time spent viewing. This research suggests that TV viewing may be correlated with attitudes toward some minority groups. Comparing these three data points allows for an examination of the potential impact in the increased exposure to and inclusion of minority groups in programming. Trends over time are important to explore given the increase in media access between 2005, 2016 and 2020’s increasingly mobile TV and video access.

Authors

• Shoshana Dayanim, Other (Keiser University)
  Presenting Author

• Kelly L Schmitt, Keiser University, KL Media Research
  Non-Presenting Author