Wrestling cause of violence in teens?

On Monday, research performed at Wake Forest University back in 1999 was released in the August issue of Pediatrics, claiming correlation between viewership of professional wrestling and ?date-fighting? among teenagers.

Such correlation is something that Robert Thompson, Ph.D., director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, finds problematic when drawing conclusions to the findings of the Wake Forest researchers.

?What always worries me about these kinds of studies is that they imply a cause; this study claims nothing more than a correlation,? said Thompson. ?So many people immediately see these studies, and they suggest that wrestling is causing these things, and I don?t think that is a done deal by any stretch of the imagination.?

Researchers conducted their initial interviews in the fall of 1999, sampling 2,228 male and female high school students. They concluded that there was an association between teenagers who watched wrestling on television and those who had a tendency toward violence, including fighting on dates and carrying weapons.

?Whether you can make the step that says people who watch wrestling become more violent?is a lot more difficult to prove, and I don?t think these studies prove it,? explained Thompson, a Syracuse University professor. ?I think it would be very, very difficult to put together a study that could actually control enough variables that you could demonstrate that.?

In his own personal and admittedly ?unscientific? experience, Thompson said that he can recall always having 10 or 12 students in the classes he instructed every year who were really into WWE programming.

?Invariably,? he said, ?[the WWE enthusiasts] were among my smartest, geekiest students out there; always the ?A? students who always went the extra yard on their papers. I could certainly say that there is a correlation between really good male students and an interest in wrestling. That wouldn?t prove that watching wrestling is going to make you smart, but in my particular experience and analysis, I could demonstrate that,? Thompson said.

On Monday during CNN Headline News, news anchors Susan Hendricks and Mike Galanos discussed the study and addressed several emails received in an informal viewer response poll. Viewers did not seem to interpret the association between violent behavior and watching sports-entertainment, as claimed by Wake Forest researchers.

One viewer wrote in saying that he attended sports-entertainment events with his parents and other family members. In watching the in-ring action and backstage antics, he always knew that it was not ?behavior that [he] was to repeat on [his] own.?

Another viewer asked, ?Could it be that those who watch wrestling are already pre-disposed to violence in some way??

?These studies are demonstrating a correlation,? added Thompson. ?For example, if the tree in my backyard gets bigger, the hair on my head gets thinner. There?s a direct correlation there, no question about it; one happens, the other happens,? he added. ?But there?s certainly no cause there, or I would?ve chopped down that tree a long time ago.? "

I think thats ridiculous. Being a proffesional wrestling fan and being a teen, I can tell you that we are not that influential to believe that you can be hit in the head 50 times and still function. We can tell the difference between fiction and reality and that that stuff is all for show. They have given crap about video games causing violence and now wrestling.

What do you think?

 

How stupid are these "studies" that come out? Wrestling causes teen violence, sexy music causes teen sex (thread on that in the JCC), video games cause teen crime, Harry Potter causes teen satanism... Give me a break. We have minds of our own, if we're doing something it's because we chose to. And what's the obsession with stopping TEEN violence/sex/etc.? I'd say the adults are more of a problem.

 

While I question the validity of this particular study (peer reviewed?), I do think there is something to the old saying "you are what you eat". In other words, if you immerse yourself in sex and violence, chances are you are going to become desensitized to it and eventually you may even start to take part in it. Mind you, most people will not "fall over the abyss" but there will be some that do.

Not long ago the infamouse Lionel Tate killed another child doing some wrestling moves. I'm not necessarily saying that wrestling is to blame, but I do know that the teenager in question wouldn't have even had the thought come into his mind to perform the wrestling moves on this child had he not been exposed to the violence depicted on the WWE. My biggest question is, what the heck were his parents thinking when they let him watch such violent material on television? I imagine he was a fan of the WWE for many years before this incident occurred. After all, it was said that these wrestlers were his "heroes". That leads me to believe that he was a long time fan of the show. Heck, even the WWE acknowledges the problem to an extent when they air their numerous "don't try this at home" commercials. It's a shame that the WWE has to try and make up for the failings of bad parents.

I think the underlying message that this "study" is trying to make is that parents should be more aware of what their children watch on television and take a more active role in supervising that content. Parents need to actually be parents.

BTW, before you flame me for not knowing what I'm talking about, keep in mind that I'm a wrestling fan (I started watching back when the WCW vs nWo war started). I don't much care for the current WWE product but TNA is pretty cool. WWE is too much about resurrecting old ideas and then burying them after the cheap pop is done *cough*the nWo in the WWE*cough*. DX is just the next old school gimmick on the list.

 

Wrestling Rules!!

Okay, I think that all this "Wrestling causes this and that is hogwash" I watch wrestling regularly and I'm not very violent. The fact is, people are violent not because of wrestling, but because thats how they solve problems. Wrestling is just something people blame.

 

You know what's funny is that one of the best students in my Anatomy class last year was a huge black guy who loved WWE.

 

Ding, ding, ding... we have our answer people. It is just another thing to blame. In America, its always someone else's fault. Never the person who comits the crime.

Wrestlin does rule

Good Stuff

 

You know, I've noticed a startling trend. Most school shootings were by kids that were going to the school they shot up. If we stopped letting kids go to school, there wouldn't be school shootings.

 

The problem is not wrestling, the problem is that these kids think Wrestling is real.

 

My theory: youth causes stupidity in teens. More research needs to be done in this area, to be sure, but I know I'm on to something.

Chicago, AP: Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found.

Lord have mercy. Next they'll be telling us that teens use alcohol and social gatherings to facilitate sex.

 

I know, then they'll say: "No unsupervised teens at the movie theatres" or something like that (which I know we can be annoying sometimes during a movie, sorry )



Good Stuff

 

The fact that you screwed up your markup code in that sentence is pure gold! LOL!

 

Long time reader, first time poster...

I am a fan of WWE, I think mainly because I watched it as a young lad. Now as a not as young lad, I find it amusing. Sure, everyone knows that the stories are fiction and the wrestling is choreographed, but you still have to admire the athleticism and abilities of these people.

Now, as for this causing violence in teens, I'm not so sure that we can lay the blame solely on wrestling. There is far more to an episode of RAW, Smackdown, TNA than just people beating the living suitcase out of each other. As I said, there are stories, there is audience participation, there's even DIVA competitions. In fact in several episodes it is the actual wrestling that takes a back seat to the story development and drama play out.

I'm sure there are many teens out there who watch the wrestling then go and attack their mates, or jump off the roof onto a table because they've seen it on TV, but let's not remove the control of these actions from the person involved in it. Everyone is capable of making a choice and if the teens of the world decide to beat the snot out of each other, it is not wrestling that is to blame, it is their lack of SENSE and understanding that this is a BAD thing to DO that is to blame.

As was said earlier, this is yet ANOTHER thing we are attempting to blame someone else for when the reality is, if you're too stupid to realise pile driving your buddy into the driveway is a dumb thing to do, you're probably going to be stupid regardless of whether you watch the wrestling or not...

 

Were just a violent species by nature so anything like wrestling, action films, video games are really for satisfying that aspect of us. Id say having those things makes us less violent in actuality.

 

Damn straight .

Legalize unschooling, educate yourself.

And also, Parents are the real cause of violence.

 

Well, I'm a teen (and I hate wrestling, but I'll post on the broad subject here)

In the Lionel Tate case and others like it, wrestling did inadvertantly cause the death by showing people these moves, but the kid is the real guilty party. Even if this kid didn't realize that wrestling is staged and choreographed(sp?), are you telling me a 12 year old with a (according to the article) "normal I.Q" didn't realize that putting a 6 year old girl who weighed 1/3rd his weight in a headlocking and bashing her head on a table (among more serious injuries) would kill her, or at least to immense damage? No, the kid had violence problems, and wrestling didn't help the matter.

That doesn't mean wrestling should be banned, but parents need to impose rules on thier children. The same goes for anything, music, TV, video games, the internet. Censorship to a point is fine, but now it's just getting out of hand, because so many parents don't have time to say "no" but then take the time to wage a letter-writing (or something) campaign decrying whatever caused bad behavior in thier child.

I'll give two examples. First is Maddox. The Best Page in The Universe. Anybody here read? Well I do, and while he promotes a whole slew of bad behavior and whatnot, I know it's just a act. The stuff about beating your kids, it's there to get a laugh. I met him recently a comic-con, nicer than I could ever believe. Unfortunetly, not everyone (teen or otherwise) is smart enough to shurg that off, and even if they are, some parents may find it inappropriate. Fair enough, if they block the site or something, fine, but there are people regularly emailing him threatening legal action because he excercises free-speech, even if it's very vulgar.

Secondly, I listen to some very angry music. No rap or anything (can't stand it) but bands like The Casualties, A Global Threat, ect. Very political, but also, when you listen to it (the singers scream, theres swearing, ect.) some people assume I'm going to go out and commit crimes because this song says so. Bah humbug! I disagree when these bnds shout about commiting crimes, I think that's stupid, but i'll listen to the music, because I like it.

If a person lets video games, TV, music, or websites like Maddox influence them into doing something bad, they're just plain stupid.

 

I really hope the taxpayers of this country didn't have to pony up the funds for the grant for this "so-called" research by Wake Forest. Jeez! I want a grant to study the mating rituals of lemurs!!! I demand it!


Yancy

 

Wrestling has been around on TV for a LONG time. I can remember watching it on television from time to time, even back in the early 80s! But there's always something to blame people's behavior on - the violence in video games, the violence in movies, the lyrics in music... whatever.....

 

I'm not sure I trust the general, nonscientist public to decide what research should or shouldn't be funded.

If nothing else, this summary of the research is itself an unscientific one and as such probably doesn't adequately represent the work done. Science journalism is notoriously bad at accurately portraying the conclusions of a body of work.

 

Something far worse than the violence that is found in wrestling is the portrayal of women. I think that is something far more harmful to the develoment of teens than the violence that is shown.

 

I wouldn't say that wrestling in itself would cause violence, but perhaps the not-so-great sportsmanship that's usually associated with it. I mean, you see all these advertisements about these matches, and these guys seriously look like they want to kill each other, and that probably rubs off on some people. I dunno, I'm usually okay with this kind of behavior when it comes to wrestling simply because it's wrestling and it seems to be some sort of tradition associated with it, but yeah.