Preschool - Aged Children's Media Use and Its Relationship to Their Prosocial and Aggressive Behavior

Abstract

Abstract: The present study, exploring media exposure of preschool age children using media diaries had three major goals. First goal was to examine whether there was a relationship between the duration of children’s media use and their prosocial and aggressive behavior. Then, the second goal was to explore links between the content of media they use and children’s prosocial and aggressive behavior. Finally, informed by Displacement theory, we focused on exploring whether the time spent for developmentally enriching activities changed based on the time spent for media use. Parents of 52 preschool age children between the ages of 4 and 6 reported on their children’s media use on a media diary filled out throughout a weekend and the teachers assessed the prosocial and aggressive behaviors of the same children. The results showed that the aggressive behavior of the children increased as their time spent for playing video games increased. Also, the time they spent for engaging developmentally enriching activities decreased as the time they spent for playing video games increased. The results of the study contributed to the field as it provided an in-depth exploration of factors associated with media use habits of children at home using media diaries providing duration, content and context of media use and their relationship to children’s prosocial and aggressive behaviors.