Prospective Associations Between Preschool Exposure to Violent Televiewing and Externalizing Behavior in Middle Adolescent Boys and Girls

Objective. Early childhood exposure to violent media content represents an actionable target for preventive intervention. The associated risks for later aggressive behavior have been established in childhood, but few studies have explored widespread long-term associations with antisocial behavior. We investigate prospective associations between exposure to violent television content in early childhood and subsequent antisocial behavior in mid-adolescence. Method. Participants are 963 girls and 982 boys from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) birth cohort. Parents reported the frequency of their child’s exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years. Four indicators of antisocial behavior were self-reported by participants at age 15 years. These indicators were linearly regressed on exposure to violent television content at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years. All analyses, stratified by sex, controlled for pre-existing and concurrent potential individual and family confounding variables. Results. For boys, preschool violent televiewing was associated with increases in proactive aggression (β = 0.065; 95% CI, 0.001 to 0.089), physical aggression (β = 0.074; 95% CI, 0.040 to 0.487), and antisocial behavior (β = 0.076; 95% CI, 0.013 to 0.140) by mid-adolescence. No prospective associations were found for girls. Conclusions. This study of typically developing children demonstrates long-term perils associated with early exposure to violent content in childhood. We observed risks for aggressive and delinquent behavior in boys, more than a decade later. Preventive intervention campaigns that target knowledge transfer to parents and communities regarding the potential insidious consequences of preschool exposure promise more optimal development in youth.