Children, Adolescents, and Media Violence

This revised text provides updates that reflect new findings in the field of media violence research during childhood and adolescence. Throughout the book, special attention is paid to evaluating the role of developmental processes and to stressing the importance of methodology in understanding media violence research. Findings have been divided into two main areas: aggressive behavior and aggression-related constructs (e.g., emotions, cognitions, arousal) to help clarify media violence-related effects on youth.

“This is an outstanding book. Key strengths are professional and comprehensive treatment of the literature and reader accessibility. I am a mass communication scholar, and with the aid of Kirsh′s text I feel I have a psychologist in the classroom with me. I have adopted this book for my course several times and will continue to do so in the future. Please let me summarize the above review in three words. "This book rocks!" Thank you for this great addition to the literature.”, “It is an excellent book which my students lilted a lot. It is a very good intro into the domain of media violence research for anyone who wants an accessible yet comprehensive coverage of the area. I will certainly continue using the book for my courses and look forward to the new edition.”, "Kirsh strikes a good balance between breadth and depth, presenting a concise yet holistic review of the media violence literature. The book does a great job of integrating diverse findings and providing a deeper understanding of processes underlying media violence effects that can benefit both psychologists and a general audience.", "Since Steven Kirsh pays attention to introduce all necessary methodological aspects as well as discuss the different aspects of media violence research in detail, this book can be used as a textbook in undergraduate as well as graduate courses. However this book is not limited to the context of the university, but also a helpful resource for teachers and parents. They can easily understand the mechanism by which violent media influences children."

Steven J. Kirsh is a Professor of Psychology at The State University of New York at Geneseo. During his youth, he reports spending many hours, and dollars, in the video arcades of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Professor Kirsh’s primary areas of research focus on the influence of violent media consumption on emotion recognition and social information processing. He has published Media and Youth: A Developmental Perspective (2010) and coauthored the most recent edition of Psychology for Living: Adjustment, Growth, and Behavior Today (2011), as well as numerous scientific articles and book chapters. Professor Kirsh currently teaches courses in the areas of child development, introductory psychology, research methods, and media violence.