USING GROUP VIEWING OF TELEVISION TO TEACH PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN SOCIAL SKILLS

This quasi-experimental field study assessed whether group viewing of television in a day-care setting can be used to encourage prosocial behavior in young children. Drawing from social learning theory and cognitive-developmental stage theory, four shortterm programs were designed and tested. Children (aged 3-5 years) from eight day-care centers in Montreal (n = 150) were part of the study. Intact groups (two settings randomly assigned to condition) participated in 8 days of intervention consisting of group viewing of video-taped segments of Sesame Street, followed by participation in activities. The programs were evaluated using a 2 X 2 X 2 factorial pretest post-test design with video-type (prosocial, cognitive), activity-type (cooperative, individualistic), and gender as the three factors. Measures included free-play observations, a perspective-taking ability test, and two qualitative measures describing the context. Analysis of covariance (pretest and age combined as covariates) revealed a significant main effect for video-type on prosocial behavior, and a significant interaction between video-type and activity-type on antisocial behavior. Results suggest that prosocial modelling using television can encourage prosocial behavior in the day-care setting. A group-viewing context, with or without post-viewing enactive prosocial training, may enhance prosocial modeling effects.