Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Shilpi Nanglu ¹

Affiliations
1 Defence Institute of Psychological Research Defence R&D Organization, Timarpur, New Delhi, IN

Abstract

The study explored the link between Indian adolescents' television viewing and parent adolescent conflict. The sample consisted of male and female children (N=400) aged 12-15 years. It was hypothesized that heavy viewers of TV (watching >3 h of television) would be significantly higher on intensity and frequency of conflicts with their parents. The respondents were divided in to heavy (>3 h/day) and light viewers (<3 h/day) on the basis of the reported daily television viewing time in the questionnaire by Nanglu and Banth (2006) and Prinz et al. checklist was used to measure the intensity and frequency of conflict. Data was analyzed by t-ratio and regression analysis. Heavy viewers reported a significantly higher intensity and greater frequency of conflict with their parents as compared to the light viewers. The intensity and frequency of parents-adolescents' conflict reported a significant positive correlation with viewing of informative, entertainment, and horror/violent programs. This is indicative of the fact that the extent of television viewing and content of television viewing influences the parent adolescents' relationship quality.

Keywords

Frequency of Conflict, Intensity of Conflict, Parent Adolescent Conflict, Television Viewing.

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Shilpi Nanglu ¹

Affiliations
1 Defence Institute of Psychological Research DRDO, New Delhi, IN

Abstract

Objective-The study aimed at seeing the linkage between Indian adolescents' television viewing and their quality of sibling and peer relationship. The study sample consisted of male and female children (N=400) aged between 12 to 15 years with mean age of 13 years. It was hypothesized that heavy viewers of TV (watching > 3 hours of television) would be significantly higher on the conflict, rivalry, perceived relative status dimensions of sibling relationship than the light viewers. Adolescents' higher exposure to informative programs will be positively related to warmth dimensions of sibling relationship. Heavy viewers of television will be significantly higher on conflict dimension of peer relationship than the light viewers of television. Method-Television viewing was measured by Television viewing patterns questionnaire by Nanglu and Banth (2006) in terms of the number of hours spent viewing television and the type of content viewed by the individual, i.e., (entertainment, informative, sports,&violent programs). Sibling relationship was measured by (Furmon et al., 1985) and peer relationship was measured by Friendship qualities scale (Bukowski et al., 1994). The respondents were divided in to heavy (> 3 hours /day) and light viewers (< 3 hours /day) on the basis of the reported daily television viewing time. The data was analyzed by t-ratio and regression analysis. Results- Television-viewing pattern is not affecting the sibling relationship on the dimensions of warmth, conflict, perceived relative status and rivalry. Light viewers are significantly high on security dimension of peer relationship as compared to heavy viewers. Regression analysis indicated total 12.2 % of variance is predicted in the sibling relationship and peer relationship by the viewing of the informative, sports programs and horror/violent programs. Conclusion-This is indicative of the fact that the extent of television viewing and content of television viewing influences the quality of adolescents' sibling and peer relationship.

Keywords

Adolescence, Sibling Relationship, Peer Relationship, Television Viewing, Heavy Viewers.

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