BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Pediatrics Does watching TV wrestling increase violence?

In Pediatrics this month, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a study describing a correlation between watching TV wrestling like the WWE and violence among teenagers. The study is controversial because the data is old - 7 years old in fact.

Here's a link to the study: AAP Wrestling Study
Here's a link to the WWE's reply:WWE Comments on wrestling study

Let's try and do our own study and see what folks really think.
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Do your kids watch professional wrestling? single choice
	Yes, often
	Yes, sometimes
	Yes, rarely
	No
Votes accepted starting: 08/08/06 10:02 PM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

Does watching wrestling make your kids play more violent? single choice
	Yes
	No
	Sometimes
	I'm not sure
Votes accepted starting: 08/08/06 10:02 PM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

Ph.D.'s striving for tenure. 8o)

well...i think watching it could cause a child to imitate what they see..goodness knows I did as a child!! I was a wrestling fan as a child. My kids have never watched it to the best of my knowledge.

meg

It will increase violence.

I've learned a few more details about this study. Turned out the wresting in question was hard-core wrestling which is not what most kids/people watch and about as opposite from WWE as you can get - sort of like watching Rambo. The way the data were collected and the conclusions raised are also suspect - I read the study myself and don't think they made a good case.

That said, I do think that many other studies support that watching real violence does impact kids negatively. We just have to be careful to label all professional wrestling as "bad".

My husband watches WWE and lets our 11 year old watch some but he picks and chooses what she sees. Some of the shows are not kid-friendly. Thanks to TIVO he just previews everything first.

All it took for us was one bout of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We now have a karate kid on our hands.

But, again, I see studies like this and I start thinking that these degreed folks were seeking a last minute something or other to study, relative to their field, to insure tenure. When you're not so worried about tenure, you take a little more care about your data and about your results.

[color:" green"]I have 5 boys - and all love WWE. But we talk about how it's all entertainment. They know before hand whowill win. Then, on occassion, they've asked about going to WWE school/ So we get online and research that (many times!). They remember they have to be 18 and then we repeat the cycle the next time we watch!

They did try to repreat the moves inthe beginning, but once I told them it's not real - they quit. Lost it's "sex appeal," I guess![/color]

There was a story back in FL not that long ago when a father was play wrestling with his young son, did a "pile driver" and broke the kids neck...but that is the only incident I've ever heard of.

As a kid my brother and I were always imitating what we saw on wrestling, but wasn't it called something different back then and not WWE? I don't know, I haven't followed or watched it since I was 8 or so.

Anyhow, while I dont think it made us more violent it made us wrestle with each other, but we probably would have done that anyhow.

My husband watches boxing and I cannot stand it, it seems so pointless to me and, IMO, much worse than wrestling (the normal stuff, not the cable tv stuff).

meg