Tweens and TV: UCLA ’s 50-year survey reveals the values kids learn from popular shows

How important is fame? What about self-acceptance? Benevolence? The messages children between the ages of 8 and 12 glean from TV play a significant role in their development, influencing attitudes and behaviors as they grow into their teenage years and beyond, UCLA psychologists say.Now, a new report byUCLA ’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers assesses the values emphasized by television programs popular with tweens over each decade from 1967 to 2017, charting how 16 values have waxed and waned in importance during that 50-year span.  Among the key findings is that fame, after nearly 40 years of ranking near the bottom (it was 15th in 1967, 1987 and 1997), rose to become the No. 1 value in 2007, then dropped to sixth in importance in 2017.  Achievement — being very successful — was ranked first in 2017, with self-acceptance, image, popularity and being part of a community rounding out the top five.  The report,“The Rise and Fall of Fame: Tracking the Landscape of Values Portrayed on Television from 1967 to 2017” (PDF), evaluated two programs per decade (and four in 2017), from“The Andy Griffith Show” in 1967 and “Happy Days” in 1977 to “American Idol” and “Hannah Montana” in 2007 and “America’s Got Talent” and “Girl Meets World” in 2017.Like fame, values such as community feeling and benevolence have also seen dramatic rises and falls over the past half-century, with their rankings typically echoing changes in the larger culture, the...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news