Horror Film Effects on Kids Exaggerated, Children Are Fairly Resilient `

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A new report suggests that the impact of scary films on children may not be as bad as we initially thought. 

A University of Sussex tandem Laura Pearce, research student, and Andy Field, Professor of Child Psychopathology concluded that children are typically resilient and won't be too affected by something they see on the television, noted Science Daily. 

Their findings were published in the journal Human Communication Research. They put forth that while a small minority of children have displayed cases of extreme reactions to a possible show, after reviewing 25 years worth of research on the topic, overall, children show little signs of sadness, sleeping disorders or increased anxiety due to TV viewing of scary material. 

"Across studies, scary TV had an impact on children's well-being but it was fairly small on average, suggesting that most children are not affected very much at all," said Field. 

In the United Kingdom, the average 4-9 year old watches about 17 hours and 34 minutes of television each week while the older bracket, kids between 10 to 15 watch a bit more, 16 hours and 31 minutes weekly, reported Ofcom (via SD). 

The Gazette Review reports that both fear and anxiety has increased among kids and teenagers but this is a trend that has been happening for decades. It was noted that there were higher levels of anxiety in children in the 80s as opposed to psychiatric patients in the 1950s but Profession Field says we can't blame it all on exposure to the media. 

"We need to do more research into why particular children can be severely affected by particular content on TV. What is it about the media or about those individuals that causes this reaction? There is good reason to believe, for example, that already anxious and/or introverted children might be less resilient to scary content.

Once we know why certain children are more affected by what they watch than others, we can give more specific and useful advice to parents, rather than assuming that all scary TV is bad for all children, which this analysis shows is not the case."

In closing, the academician added that while the effects were minimal, there are effects present and urges policy makers to review the findings. 

 "Although at the group level the effect of scary TV on children's anxiety is small, it is nevertheless present. This finding has implications for policy-makers because TV guidelines focus on violence but, for some children, scariness will matter and TV can be scary without being violent."