Child Exposure to Violent Content and Aggression: A Novel Approach to an Old Debate

Our objective is to examine bidirectional, within-person associations between early childhood exposure to violent content in boys and girls and the development of reactive and proactive aggression.

Data are from 975 girls and 987 boys from Quebec, Canada, followed in the context of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (1998-2023). Parents reported child exposure to violent TV content and proactive and reactive aggression at ages 4 to 6. Data were analyzed using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models.

Greater exposure to violent content at ages 4 was associated with within-person increases in reactive aggression by age 5 in boys (β = 0.16, 95% Confidence Interval = [0.050, 0.261]) and girls (β = 0.13, CI = [0.004, 0.229]). In addition, greater proactive aggression at age 4 was associated with a within-person decrease in exposure to violent content by age 5 in boys (β = -0.08, 95% CI = [-0.174, -0.003]) and girls (β = -0.09, 95% CI = [-0.174, -0.009]). A similar pattern was observed for boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 6 (β = -0.08, 95% CI = [-0.167, -0.003] for boys and β = -0.10, 95% CI = [-0.194, -0.010] for girls).

Our findings suggest a positive association between early childhood exposure to violent content and the development of reactive aggression. Greater child proactive aggression was also associated with reduced exposure to violent content, suggesting that parents may adopt a reactive, rather than preventive approach when monitoring child media habits.