The Contribution of Face-to-Face and Embedded Mediation to Early Childhood Aggression After Watching Violent Media Content

Objective: Many studies demonstrated that watching violent media content reinforces violent behavior in young viewers, and stress the need for successful interventions for moderating this negative effect. Based on the theoretical perspective of the mediation theory, which emphasizes the caregiver’s role in child development and defines it as an interactional process in which caregivers modify stimuli for the developing child, the purpose of the present study was to examine the mitigating effect of instructive mediation on young children’s violent behavior resulting from watching violent media content. The contribution of a new conceptualization of mediation embedded in the programs themselves was investigated, in addition to faceto face mediation. Method: An experimental research design was used. The participants included 216 children (114 boys and 102 girls) aged 4–7 years (M = 5.11, SD = 7.78) from 14 kindergartens. The children in each kindergarten were randomly divided into seven groups. Each group watched the same episode from a violent children’s cartoon television show, with a different type of mediation. Results: Both face-to-face and embedded mediation reduced violent behavior after watching violent content. Examination of the effects of different mediation measures on violent behavior showed that mediation of meaning had the strongest positive effect.