Observational learning: The impact of the aggressive actions portrayed on WWE professional wrestling on juvenile behavior

This quantitative study was conducted to see if there is a significant relationship between physical/verbal aggression as viewed on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and juvenile aggressive behaviors, specifically 6 th graders. According to Albert Bandura's observational learning theory, children mimic the behaviors they view from those they refer to as positive role models. Bandura's "BoBo" doll study showed the effects that observational learning does have on juveniles, in that those who watched adults being aggressive with each other displayed the same behaviors the adult did by being aggressive with the "BoBo" doll. With juveniles' aggressive behaviors escalating and criminal activity escalating, it is important to know if the viewing of physical/aggressive behaviors on WWE wrestling has an effect on a juvenile's behavior. Therefore, using a correlation survey, data were collected on a non-random and purposive sample. Data was analyzed by using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Pearson R Correlation analysis to determine if there was a relationship between the viewing of WWE wrestling physical/verbal aggression and juvenile aggression. The results of the study showed that the viewing of the physical/verbal aggression on WWE does have an effect on juveniles, but those who do not watch WWE do not have a heightened aggression level.