Children, Adolescents, and Media Violence

Kirsh (psychology, State U. of New York Geneseo) reviews and critiques research on media violence and its effects on children and adolescents. He first places media violence in the context of aggression, explaining its definition, theories, and behavior development, and patterns of and reasons for violent media consumption, with a new section on survey techniques for assessment of media consumption. The second section first challenges the idea that violent media are good for youth, then considers research on the effects of specific forms: sports violence; comic books, literature, and war toys; music and music videos; live-action television and movie violence; and video games and internet aggression (new to this edition). He ends by addressing violent media consumption from a risk factor perspective, reviewing media and nonmedia-related risk factors for aggression, techniques for reducing negative effects, and governmental and self-regulatory policies. This edition places recent methodological and statistical concepts in separate boxes, has end-of-chapter discussion questions, and in each chapter, places research and theory in the context of developmental change. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)