NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adding to evidence that media violence can promote real-life aggression, a long-range US study has linked TV viewing in adolescence and young adulthood to violent behavior later on.

The research is the "first of its kind" to link television viewing at these ages to adult aggression, the study's lead author told Reuters Health.

The 17-year study of more than 700 families found that 14-year-old boys who watched relatively more television were more likely to have assaulted someone or committed any serious act of aggression by the time they were 22 years old. A similar pattern was found among females, but the relationship was much weaker, according to findings published in the March 29th issue of Science.

Specifically, researchers found that 14-year-old boys who watched 3 or more hours of TV a day were about twice as likely as those who watched less than 1 hour per day to assault someone or get into a serious fight by early adulthood.

When it came to females, TV viewing at age 22 was associated with aggressive acts by age 30--including assault, robbery and threats to injure someone.

These links between aggression and hours in the front of the tube remained even when other key factors were considered--such as past acts of aggression, family income, parents' education, neighborhood safety and psychiatric disorders.

The study did not examine the content of what participants watched, but violence is pervasive on TV--from dramas that regularly depict it, to news and sports, according to lead author Dr. Jeffrey G. Johnson of Columbia University in New York.

A large body of research has pointed to the relationship between exposure to violent TV and video games and aggressive behavior, particularly among children. But the question of whether already-aggressive people are simply drawn to these types of entertainment has persisted.

Johnson likened this debate to the once-disputed link between smoking and disease--in that the medical community was convinced of it far sooner than the tobacco industry and much of the public.

"At this time," he said, "the vast majority of the scientific community is persuaded that the evidence is conclusive for kids," regarding the impact of media violence. This study, Johnson noted, adds yet another layer, suggesting that the effects are seen in a much wider age group.

Indeed, it is time for research to move beyond the question of whether media exposure contributes to aggression and violence, according to Craig A. Anderson of Iowa State University in Ames.

"It is time to move on to the much more difficult questions concerning what action should be taken by parents, educators, civic groups and legislators," he told Reuters Health.

"The main scientific questions have been answered," according to Anderson, who wrote an editorial published with the report.

These questions, he said, have been addressed in studies showing, among other things, that one-time exposure to media violence increases aggression immediately afterward and repeated exposure increases long-term aggressive behavior.

"These effects occur (in) males and females, people who are habitually aggressive and those who are not, (and in) youngsters and young adults," Anderson said.

He noted that the little research that has been done on how to counter young people's exposure to media violence suggests that children need to be taught that what they are seeing is not realistic and that real-life aggression truly hurts people.

"The best way to teach this is for parents to watch the shows with their children and to discuss these issues as they arise," Anderson said, noting that even innocuous-seeming programs like "Saturday morning cartoons and Disney movies" may contain violence.

SOURCE: Science 2002;295:2468-2471.

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