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Young TV Wrestling Fans Take More Chances

Study finds them more prone to risky, aggressive behavior

February 8, 2008
Adolescents who watch professional wrestling on television are more likely to be involved in violence, sex without birth control, and other risky behaviors, according to a study in the February Southern Medical Journal, official journal of the Southern Medical Association.

The researchers say the more often young people watch wrestling, the higher their rates of risky behaviors. But they are quick to point out they have not established a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

"We can only conclude that as the frequency of watching wrestling increases or decreases, the health risk behavior associated with it also changes," write Robert H. DuRant, Ph.D., and colleagues of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.

The study was based on a telephone survey of 2,300 young people, aged 16 to 20, across the United States. Twenty-two percent of males and fourteen percent of females said they had watched professional wrestling on television over the past two weeks.

The frequency of watching professional wrestling was related to increased rates of several violent and risky behaviors, after adjustment for other factors. For example, survey respondents who said they had tried to hurt someone with a weapon watched 67 percent more wrestling than those who had not tried to hurt anyone.

Those who had engaged in sex without birth control watched wrestling 42 percent more frequently than those who used birth control. Smokers watched wrestling 31 percent more often than nonsmokers.

For each one additional time watching wrestling over the past two weeks, the rates of violent/risky behaviors -- including having sex without birth control, fighting with a girlfriend or boyfriend, or threatening or harming someone with a weapon -- increased by up to nineteen percent. Thus a youth who watched wrestling more than six times was more than twice as likely to have engaged in any of these behaviors.

Youths with higher family incomes watched more wrestling than those with lower incomes. Surprisingly, respondents who drank alcohol watched wrestling less often than those who did not drink.

Exposure to violence on movies, television, and video games has long been suspected of contributing to aggressive and violent behavior by young people. Few studies have looked at the possible effects of watching professional wrestling—a type of violent entertainment that is very popular among young viewers.

"Youth who watch wrestling are exposed to a barrage of images of severe violence without the expected negative consequences, the degrading of women, sexuality connected with violence, and extreme verbal intimidation and abuse between wrestlers and their female escorts and/or women wrestlers," the researchers write.

Consistent with a previous smaller study by the same research group, watching televised wrestling is associated with increased rates of some violent and risky behaviors among young people.

"Reducing children's and adolescents' exposure to violence from electronic media sources should be an important component of any violence-prevention strategy," DuRant and colleagues conclude.

They urge parents to monitor and control what their children watch on TV. They also believe that doctors and other health care professional should educate parents about the influence of exposure to violence from media sources -- specifically on children's "normative expectations" concerning behavior in real-life situations such as dating.

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