Assessment of the Effects of TV Programs Containing Violence on Children in Pre-school Period through the Views of Parents

Abstract

This research was prepared to draw public attention to the effects of violence containing television programs on preschool period children, the views of parents regarding such effects and suggestions for their solution. Even though there are many researches in relation to this matter all over the world when reviewing literature, the scarcity of researches focusing on solution suggestions draws the attention. The problem phrase of the research was determined as "how the effect of violence containing television programs is observed in preschool children?". The study is a qualitative one and the research design is determined as case study. The study group consists of the parents of students participating in private preschool institutions. Semi-structured interview form was used as data collection tool, and the analyses were realized through descriptive analysis. The following findings were obtained from the study: It was detected that the rate of students to be affected by the violence in television depends much on the programs viewed and daily television watching hours. It was also seen that reflection of television violence to the children depends on the viewpoint of parents against the violence on that program. One of the outstanding findings is that it is frequently pointed out by parents that programs for children are focused on increasing the ratings rather than being instructive.