Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Promoting Disrespect Through Children's Television, Amy B. Brown

ETD Archive

The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency and portrayal of disrespectful behaviors as they occur on popular children's cable television shows. A content analysis of children's shows appearing on The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon was conducted. Disrespectful acts were organized into three categories: non-verbal, verbal, and physical. A total of 468 acts were recorded across the 18 episodes sampled for this study. Disrespectful acts that were classified as verbal in nature were the most prevalent, with 73 of the 468 identified acts falling into the verbal category. Fourteen percent of the acts were physical in nature, and …