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Adolescent children (ages 12-17) "become capable of abstract thought and reasoning, although they rarely use these abilities when watching television" (Dietz & Strasburger 1991). At these age levels they tend to watch less television than when they were younger. Adolescents in middle school and high school are more likely to doubt the reality of television. The small percentage of those who continue to believe in the reality of television, and who identify with its" violent heroes are the ones likely to be more aggressive (Bandura, 1973). The bottom line is "children learn their attitude about violence at a very young age, and once learned, the attitudes tend to be life-long" (Strasburger and Donnerstein, 1999). Studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may become insensitive to violence. Consequently, they tend to gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems by imitating the violence they observe on television by identifying with characters, good or bad. Children who watch television shows in which violence is very realistic, and that is frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see which is confirmed by statistics, and case studies (Bandura, p.25).
For example, one case study conducted by Stein and Friedrich for the Surgeon General's project in 1972 confirms this idea. Their study consisted of taking 97 preschool children. One third of them were exposed to a television diet consisting of Batman and Superman cartoons. The middle third were exposed to a diet of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, while the final third were exposed to neutral programming (neither antisocial or pro-social). These children watched over twelve half-hour episodes of their respective programs over a four-week period. They were then observed in their classroom and playroom environments (Murray, 1996). .
The psychologists running the study found that the children who watched the Batman and Superman cartoons were remarkably aggressive and not very apt to share and interact.
