THE EFFECTS OF TELEVISION ON EARLY ADOLESCENTS

In recent years there has been a great deal of controversy regarding the effects of television advertising and programming on children. Critics argue that television teaches children inappropriate values, manipulative behaviors, and causes them to desire products they would not otherwise buy. Defenders of television argue that children (or their parents) can decide for themselves what information presented on television they want to pay attention to and what they want to watch. Arguments presented by critics and defenders of television represent two opposing theoretical points of view concerning how people come to understand their environment. The assumption of social learning theory that people model behaviors seen in their environment is consistent with the argument presented by critics of television. The contention of conceptual systems theory that the parental training conditions a child is reared under determines how that child will come to interpret information from his/her environment is consistent with the argument presented by defenders of television. Hypotheses representing each of these theories were tested in this study. The hypotheses representing social learning theory asserted that television has a significant effect on children\u27s interpersonal orientation (which represents the rule structure children use when interpreting from their environment) and consumer socialization (which represents the child\u27s economic values, sources of product information, and reasons for wanting and/or buying a product). The conceptual systems theory hypotheses asserted that (1) the parental training conditions under which a child is reared determines the child\u27s interpersonal orientation and consumer socialization, and (2) a child\u27s interpersonal orientation determines his/her consumer socialization. Families with children between the ages of twelve to fifteen, recruited through the Lincoln area Parent-Teachers Association, served as subjects. Packets of questionnaires were delivered to the families to fill out in their homes. The final sample consisted of forty fathers, forty-eight mothers, thirty-nine mother-father pairs, and fifty-five children. Spearman\u27s rho correlation coefficients were computed to test the hypotheses. Results indicated no support for the social learning theory hypotheses. A relationship was found to exist between parental training conditions and the child\u27s interpersonal orientation and economic values. In contrast to what would be expected given the postulates of conceptual systems theory, however, parental training conditions were negatively related to the child\u27s interpersonal orientation and economic values. No significant relationship occurred between parental training conditions and sources of product information or reason for wanting and/or buying a product. Nor was any significant relationship found between the child\u27s interpersonal orientation and any of the consumer socialization variables. It was concluded that social learning theory does not provide an adequate framework for determining the effects of television on early adolecents. While there is some evidence that parental training conditions do influence a child\u27s interpersonal orientation and economic values, the nature of this relationship cannot be determined from the results of this study