"In your face!" Do family communication patterns influence U.S. tween's imitation of disrespectful talk and behavior found in their favorite television shows?

This two-part study looks at disrespectful talk and behavior in tween's television programming (study 1) and its relationship to disrespectful talk and behavior by young viewers (study 2). First, a content analysis was conducted to examine the amount of disrespectful talk and disrespectful behavior in the top programs that children aged 6-12 watched in two different samples of programming from 2006 and 2012 (N = 173). Results revealed that 98% of the programs contained some disrespectful talk or behavior. Second, survey data was collected among current emerging adults, who reported watching these shows during their tween years, to explore the relationship between viewing these shows and disrespectful mannerisms during their tween years, family communication during tween years and current family satisfaction. Through analyses linking both studies, we found positive relationships between viewing the highly disrespectful television shows signaled in the content analysis and tween disrespectful talk and behavior. Tween family communication patterns were linked to later family satisfaction in emerging adulthood and conversation oriented families may be able to better weather increased negativity from tween disrespect. Findings are discussed in terms of information processing theory and social cognitive theory.