Violent screen content in preschool means greater likelihood of antisocial behaviour

Boys who are exposed to violent screen content in the preschool years are more likely to become antisocial and violent themselves a decade later, in their mid-teens, a new study shows.

Led by the Université de Montreal’s Professor Linda Pagani, the study showed long-term associated risks of early exposure to violent content in childhood and later teen antisocial behaviour.

“Although past evidence showing causal links between modelling and getting rewarded for violence had an immediate impact on aggressive behavior in four-year-old children, few studies have investigated long-term risks with antisocial behaviour,” she explained. 

In all, Pagani and her team looked at 963 girls and 982 boys born between the springs of 1997 and 1998 who were enrolled in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Parents reported the frequency of their child’s exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years old. Boys and girls then self-reported on several aspects of antisocial behaviour at 15 years of age.

For the purposes of this study screen violence was defined as anything characterized by physical aggression, verbal aggression, and relational aggression […] depicting situations that intentionally attempt or cause harm to others. 

Children, the study says “are attracted to fast-paced, stimulating violent content, which often features appealing characters like superheroes who commit and are rewarded for aggressive acts, thus increasing the likelihood of exposure.”

The researchers then conducted analyses to examine whether exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years predicted later antisocial behaviour eleven years later.

“We statistically took into account alternative child and family factors that could have explained our results, to be as close as possible to the truth in the relationships we were looking at,” the Professor explained.

Boys stood out

At 15 years of age, for boys only, preschool violent televiewing predicted increases in antisocial behaviour. Being exposed to violent content in early childhood predicted later aggressive behaviours such as hitting or beating another person, with the intention of obtaining something, stealing, with or without any apparent reason.

Risks also included threats, insults, and gang fight involvement. The use of weapons is also among the behavioural outcomes predicted by exposure to childhood television violence in this study. 

No effects were found for girls, which was not surprising given that boys are generally more exposed to such content.

“Our study provides compelling evidence that early childhood exposure to media violence can have serious, long-lasting consequences, particularly for boys,” the Professor concluded. 

“This underscores the urgent need for public health initiatives that targets campaigns to inform parents and communities about the long-term risks and empower them to make informed choices about young children’s screen content exposure.”

Prospective associations between preschool exposure to violent televiewing and externalizing behavior in middle adolescent boys and girls was published on January 20, 2025 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.