The effect of cartoon and noncartoon violence on aggression by Taiwanese school children

The effect of television violence on aggression has inspired a great number of studies in western countries. However, relatively less information on this topic has been collected from subjects in developing Asian countries. The first objective of this research is to examine whether watching television violence influences children's aggression in Taiwan, where its cultural values discourage aggressive behaviors. In addition, this research examines whether watching cartoon and noncartoon violence have different impact on aggression. The ways cartoons and noncartoon programs portray violence (e.g., animation vs. nonanimation) may be associated with a different extent of perceived reality, and hence different effects.;Two consecutive cross-sectional studies were conducted in 1993 and 1994. In each study, more than nine hundred Taiwanese school children were surveyed. Among them, 698 students participated in both surveys. Information regarding television violence viewing was based on subjects' reported regularity of exposure to a list of violent programs. Two approaches were used to measure subjects' aggression: peer-nomination, and self-report.;Analyses of the two cross-sectional data revealed that watching more television violence was significantly associated with higher levels of aggression among Taiwanese subjects, after controlling for the influences of other explanatory variables. The associations between the two variables among girls were relatively stronger than those among boys. This research also found that watching noncartoon violence was correlated more strongly with aggression than was watching cartoon violence. Among junior high school subjects, only watching noncartoon violence was significantly associated with aggression.;Analyses of the longitudinal data revealed that television violence viewing in a previous year significantly and positively predicted levels of subsequent aggression in girls. However, there was no significant longitudinal relationship between these two variables in boys. Thus, the data suggest that watching television violence might have influenced boys' concurrent aggression, while it might have influenced girls' concurrent and subsequent aggression. In addition, watching noncartoon violence by junior high school subjects was correlated more strongly with subsequent aggression than was watching cartoon violence. Some implications and limitations of this research are also discussed.