THE ROLE OF TELEVISION IN THE SOCIALIZATION OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIORAL SKILLS

This study examined the relation between level of television viewing and nonverbal behavioral encoding skills among school-aged children. As predicted, frequent TV viewers communicated emotions common on television (happiness and sadness) better than emotions uncommon on television (disgust and fear/surprise), a pattern that did not emerge for infrequent TV viewers. Additionally, compared with infrequent TV viewers, frequent viewers were better encoders of spontaneous nonverbal displays, but worse encoders of posed displays. The results of a follow-up study suggest that this latter pattern may reflect a failure by children who are exposed to highly expressive television models to engage in active self-regulation of their nonverbal expressions.