Teens who watch TV wrestling show more risky behavior

12 February, 2008

Though exposure to violence in movies, television and video games has long been suspected of adding to aggressive and violent behavior in young people, few studies have been conducted on the possible effects of watching professional wrestling on TV.

Professional wrestling is a type of violent entertainment that is very popular among young viewers.

A study has now revealed that teens in the United States who watch wrestling on television are about six times more likely to engage in violence, unprotected sex, and other risky behavior.

Researchers at the Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the United States, found that more the number of times young people watch wrestling, the higher their rates of risky behavior. However, the researchers admit that they have not established a direct cause-and-effect relationship between teens watching wrestling on television and risky behavior.

The study has been published in the February 2008 issue of the Southern Medical Journal, the official journal of the Southern Medical Association.

Robert H DuRant, lead researcher, wrote, "We can only conclude that, as the frequency of watching wrestling increases or decreases, the health risk behavior associated with it also changes.”

The study by Robert H DuRant and colleagues was based on a telephone survey of 2,300 young people, aged 16 to 20, across the United States. In all, 22% of males and 14% of females surveyed said they had watched professional wrestling on television over the past two weeks.

The researchers found that 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 watched 67% more wrestling programs said they had used a weapon to hurt someone as compared to those who had not tried to hurt anyone.

Respondents who had indulged in unprotected sex said that they watched wrestling 42% more than those who used protection. Similarly, smokers watched wrestling 31% more often than non-smokers.

The study revealed that, for each one additional time watching wrestling over the past two weeks, the rates of risky behavior – including having unprotected sex fighting with a girlfriend or boyfriend, or threatening or harming someone with a weapon – increased by up to 19%. This means that a youth who watched wrestling more than six times was more than twice as likely to have engaged in any of these behaviors.

It was found that youths with higher family incomes watched more wrestling than those with lower incomes. However, respondents who drank alcohol watched wrestling less often than those who did not drink.

The researchers wrote in the Southern Medical Journal, "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 have urged parents to monitor and control what their children watch on television. They also want doctors and other health care professionals to 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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