Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing © 2017 Indian Association of Health,

2017, 8(4), 333-341 Research and Welfare

http://www.iahrw.com/index.php/home/journal_detail/19#list ISSN-p-2229-5356,e-2321-3698

Adolescents' television viewing: Its impact on

quality of sibling and peer relationship
Shilpi Nanglu
Defence Institute of Psychological Research, DRDO, New Delhi

Objective-The study aimed at seeing the linkage between Indian adolescents' television viewing and their quality of
sibling and peer relationship. The study sample consisted of male and female children (N=400) aged between 12 to
15 years with mean age of 13 years. It was hypothesized that heavy viewers of TV (watching > 3 hours of television)
would be significantly higher on the conflict, rivalry, perceived relative status dimensions of sibling relationship
than the light viewers. Adolescents' higher exposure to informative programs will be positively related to warmth
dimensions of sibling relationship. Heavy viewers of television will be significantly higher on conflict dimension of
peer relationship than the light viewers of television. Method-Television viewing was measured by Television
viewing patterns questionnaire by Nanglu and Banth (2006) in terms of the number of hours spent viewing
television and the type of content viewed by the individual, i.e., (entertainment, informative, sports, & violent
programs). Sibling relationship was measured by (Furmon et al., 1985) and peer relationship was measured by
Friendship qualities scale (Bukowski et al., 1994). The respondents were divided in to heavy (> 3 hours /day) and
light viewers (< 3 hours /day) on the basis of the reported daily television viewing time. The data was analyzed by t-
ratio and regression analysis. Results- Television-viewing pattern is not affecting the sibling relationship on the
dimensions of warmth, conflict, perceived relative status and rivalry. Light viewers are significantly high on
security dimension of peer relationship as compared to heavy viewers. Regression analysis indicated total 12.2 % of
variance is predicted in the sibling relationship and peer relationship by the viewing of the informative, sports
programs and horror/violent programs. Conclusion-This is indicative of the fact that the extent of television viewing
and content of television viewing influences the quality of adolescents' sibling and peer relationship.

Keywords: adolescence, sibling relationship, peer relationship, television viewing, heavy viewers

The new generation is more influenced by computers and the internet
than TV yet it still remains a dominant force in our cultural
landscape. TV has become an essential belonging, found in every
home; it has become an essential source of entertainment and
meaning in life for all sections of the society. Gandossy (2009)
reported that average American television viewer is watching more
than 151 hours of television per month. Indian children are presently
exposed to over 100 channels through the advent of satellite
television and are spending on an average 2 to 4 hours on television
viewing everyday Thus the debate is on ,”as to how the multitude
programs of television are affecting the lives of our children and
adolescents which tantamount to the future of our nation. It is our
Indian values, norms and customs that we want our children to grow
up with and our marriages to be ruled by, not the dysfunction found
coming from the box that at times dominates our lives, They are also
not engaging in activities they need to develop their relationships,
physical well-being and cognitive growth.
In the 21st century we as parents, educators and media people are
at crossroads to gauge the negative and the positive influences of TV
programs on the thoughts, behaviours and emotions of the people
especially at the formative years, i.e., childhood and adolescence. If
TV programs reflects back to us our society's values and norms, it is
indeed a scary picture and if they are dictating values and norms in
the form of stories it is an equally scary picture as the stories
presented in some of the TV programs are often harmful. Despite
several decades of research in the West, there is little consensus on
Correspondence should be sent to Dr. Shilpi Nanglu
Scientist-D, Defence Institute of Psychological Research,
DRDO, New Delhi
the effects of different types of television programs as beneficial or
harmful for different psycho-social development of children/
.Moreover it is difficult to generalize the results from Western
studies to Indian context as several cultural factors may play a
significant role in shaping their perception and usage of television.
Consequently it is important, to examine how does different
programs viewed by Indian children effect social life in form of
quality of family peer relationships
Television viewing
Television viewing patterns: Television viewing patterns comprises
of the repeated viewing and coviewing of the television programs,
amount of time spent viewing television, content of television
programs viewed, late night viewing of the programs. In the present
study the focus of the television viewing pattern is in the context of
amount of time spent viewing television in the form of heavy and
light viewers of television and the type of programs viewed viz.
Informative, Entertainment, Horror/Violent and Sports programs. :-
Amount of television viewing: Amount of television viewing is the
number of hours spent by an individual viewing television
programs. There are various factors, which influence the amount of
television viewing. These are accessibility to the television set,
culture, and most importantly the family setting, which includes the
kind of rules laid down in the family for viewing television, the kind
of the programs permitted to be viewed by the adolescent, i.e.,
parental regulation of the television viewing hours and the content of
television to be viewed by the adolescent. In many families the elder
siblings or parents in the home setting do the regulation of the
television viewing hours.
The range of television viewing varies from an average 2 hours to
 NANGLU/ ADOLESCENT’S TELEVISION VIEWING: ITS IMPACT ON QUALITY
8 hours per day in different countries. Larson and Verma (1998)
reported that the adolescents in industrialized societies spend an
average of 1.5 to 2.5 hours per day watching television which is less
than the time spent viewing in late childhood. These averages are the
same across different nations in North America and Europe as well as
Japan and Korea.
Content of television Viewing: Content of television viewing
includes the kind of programs, which are watched by the adolescents.
In our context the number of programs broadcast by Indian media is
very large ,there are a large number of 24 hour regional channels like
Jalandhar doordarshan, surya channel, etc. and region based news
channels ,besides these channels from with the introduction of the set
top boxes like Tata sky, Dish TV which are available to the urban as
well as rural population as such a sumptuous diet of various
television channels are being broadcast to us .There are channels
which telecast international news channels like BBC, CNN, and even
Indian News channels like NDTV, Aaj Tak etc. and the movie
channels of the foreign countries like HBO, star TV and Indian movie
channels like Star movies, Star Gold, Zee Cinemas etc. In addition to
this there a number of the international and national entertainment
channels like SAB TV, star plus, Star World etc. There are a lot of
educational, religious and spiritual channels like Discovery,
National Geographic, Aastha, Aarti etc. All this kind of the vast
coverage of the television programs gives our viewers a wide range
of channels or programs to choose from and a lot of exposure to the
Indian culture as well as the Western world. It is difficult to cover all
the kind of the programs for research purpose therefore we have
restricted ourselves to only few kinds of programs which have been
classified under the categories informative, entertainment,
horror/violent, and sports programs.
In the Indian context when the pattern of adolescent preference for
these types of program is studied it is reported that majority of the
adolescents view the entertainment programs the maximum which is
followed by the informative programs and then the sports,
horror/violent programs which have an equal incidence. The
entertainment programs typically include soap operas; music
channels comedy serials and informative programs include the talk
shows, and documentaries etc. The horror/violent programs include
the horror programs; WWF wrestling and sports program include the
cricket matches and other programs.
Adolescents prefer watching adult-oriented programming such as
movies, film song sequences, soap operas and dislike educational
programs and they prefer TV to print media. There are various
reasons, which can be attributed to this kind of viewing preferences
of adolescents. Young adolescents report that they watch TV for
entertainment and not for intellectual stimulation (Wadkar, 1998).
Larson and Verma (1998) reported that there are significant gender
differences with respect to the types of the programs being watched
by the males and females. Males watched more violent and sports
programs whereas females watched more entertainment programs.
Quality of relationships
Family is a very important unit in an individuals' life. It is the first
place where socialization of a child takes place. It comprises of
parents, siblings. The quality of these relationships plays a very
influential role in the development of the child. After parents'
siblings play an important part in child's life, sometimes older
siblings act as surrogate parents who take decisions regarding many
issues. Siblings can be best friends as they are of the same age group
334
and children usually confide in them.
Sibling Relationship
Sibling relationships are probably the most long-lasting
relationships in the lives of individuals. Since sibling relations begin
early and usually last long, the relationship patterns developed may
be generalized to other relationships such as those with peers and
even relationships in adult life (Newman, 1994). The emergence of
the relationship pattern in early stages of life determines the quality
of the sibling relationship through middle childhood into
adolescence (Dunn, 1996).
Sibling relationships include helping, sharing, teaching, fighting,
and playing. The adolescent siblings spend on average about ten
hours a week together and an average of twelve percent of that time
doing constructive activities such as: art, music, sports, games, and
religious activities. On the other hand, they spend twenty-five
percent of that time doing non constructive activities such as:
watching t.v. and "hanging out (Santrock, 2007).
There are three important characteristics of sibling relationships
given by Dunn (1996). Emotional quality of the relationship: Both
intensive positive and negative emotions are often expressed by
siblings toward each other. Many children and adolescents have
mixed feelings toward their siblings. Familiarity and intimacy of the
relationship: Siblings typically know each other very well, and this
intimacy suggests that they can either provide support or tease and
undermine each other, depending on the situation. Variation in
sibling relationships: Some siblings describe their relationships
more positively than others. Thus, there is considerable variation in
sibling relationships. We've indicated that many siblings have mixed
feelings about each other, but some children and adolescents mainly
describe their siblings in warm, affectionate ways, whereas others
primarily talk about how irritating a mean a sibling is (Santrock,
2007).
Two qualities of the sibling relationship that may have
implications for relationships with extra familial peers are warmth
and conflict (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985). Warmth is a feeling of
closeness and warmth in sibling relationships encourages siblings to
share information and look towards siblings for emotional support.
Sibling relationship warmth is associated with emotional
understanding and self-disclosure between siblings (Bukowski,
Lehoux, & Rinaldi, 2001).
Links between siblings' emotional closeness and the social skills
of children with their peers is observed. Warmth in the sibling
relationship predicts positive peer relations in a sample of third
through sixth grade children (Cohen, 2001). This is true regardless
of sibling conflict level. Children with warm sibling relationships
are likely to be liked overall in the peer group. These children feel
less lonely than children with low or no warmth in sibling
relationships.
Conflict is common in sibling relations in childhood. During
childhood, even intense conflict in the sibling relationship does not
lead to the end of the relationship, as it might in other relationships.
The reasons are many and may include familiarity, access to the
sibling, parental differential treatment, expectations of the siblings
as well as the parents, uneven dominance, and power sharing
(Wilson, Smith, Ross, & Ross, 2004). Children without siblings may
be less able to manage conflict, and could be more victimized and
aggressive in peer groups (Kitzmann et al., 2002). The number and
quality of friendships a child forms may be more influenced by
335 Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing 2017, 8(4), 333-341
the parent-child relationship than by the sibling relationship. Social
skills like conflict management in relationships is affected by the
presence of siblings than by parents. Sibling conflict provides
practice with negotiation, compromise, and resolution of conflict.
These experiences helps in development of better perspective
taking abilities. This may be transferred to other relationships like
peer relationships.
The sources of the information of the Sibling relationship may
have led to varying results. In most studies, parents completed the
questionnaires. The child could perceive the relationship differently
than the Parents. The influence of other factors like sex of the sibling
(especially in countries like India), temperament of the siblings, and
other role models may influence relationship quality.
Sibling relationship and television viewing
How a family spends time together is often indicative of the
behaviour that children will internalize as acceptable modes of
passing time. If TV or movies bring the family (parents & siblings)
together, we can expect children to reach for the same entertainment
as they grow older. The messages which we receive involuntarily
through the TV and other entertainment sources are both beneficial at
best and sinful at worst. It is generally believed that TV has the
potential to either benefit or be detrimental to sibling relationships.
There are some positive effects of television viewing on the sibling
relationships, these are:
Children with younger siblings tend to watch more programs
designed for preschoolers than do those who have no younger
siblings (Huston et al., 1989). Children with older siblings move
away from educational programs earlier than those without older
brothers and sisters.
Violence viewing hypothesis derived from information
processing theory states that violent television will have indirect
negative effects on interactions of the siblings by increasing
aggression as children tend to imitate the aggressive behaviour of the
model if the desired goal of the model is achieved (Huesmann &
Eron, 1986). Aggressive behaviour leads to spirals of alienation from
culture. Besides harming the communication with siblings, TV also
perpetuates aggression in the viewers due to exposure to violent
programs ( Simatos & Spencer, 1993).
Coviewing TV with siblings can enhance communication and
sharing of opinions and ideas. Television viewing can be used to
enhance positive sibling interactions by commenting on the script,
writing, camera shots, direction and acting of the piece, while in
progress. TV watching supports bonding between siblings, as the
siblings are emotionally available to each other (Anderson, 2001).
On the downside the negative effects of television viewing are also
prevalent, these are:
Heavy viewers of TV have poor interpersonal skills than those with
less usage of television TV viewing habits at age 8 can predict violent
behaviour and criminal activity at age 30, we cannot definitively
prove that this will be so. Not all of those who view violence on
television will become aggressive in later life. Perhaps those who
watch excessive amounts of television leads to diminished
opportunity to develop their social skills, and subsequently are
lacking in 'life skills' in later life. While television may be one factor
that promotes a mental state capable of acting on violent urges and
impulses, it cannot be considered the only one (Anderson et al.,
2003).
It is also seen that excessive exposure to violence makes the
adolescents desensitized to violence, resulting in indifference on
one hand and making them feel vulnerable or fearful of being
attacked by someone on the other hand (Anderson, 2003).
Relational aggression is high among children who are heavy
viewers, they exhibit hostile attributional biases, which is
significantly correlated with preference for violent TV exposure
index. This harms relationships because child high on relational
aggression has conflicts with siblings on even small issues, which
hampers the growth of sibling relationships. Excessive multimedia
interaction is regarded as a solitary activity as a result children they
do not have time to play games with their siblings and develop a
bond that can increases warmth ,closeness or companionship among
them.
Peer relationship
Despite the importance of the family relationships, it is an
undeniable fact that peers play an important role especially in
adolescents' life when one seeks freedom from family control and
wants to experiment with one's freedom. Peer values and norms hold
precedence over family values, sometimes throughout adolescence
and even later in life. The quality of person's relation with his
parents, sibling or peers, shapes up his personality and many times
govern his behaviour towards others. The peer group consists of
individuals who are of the same age, social class, reputation (e.g.,
popularity & academic achievement), personalities, activities,
beliefs, and attitudes (Dunn, 2004; Gifford-Smith & Brownell,
2003). Similarity between friends is reinforcing because, Firstly, it
involves consensual validation. Secondly, it involves
companionship in the same activities. Thirdly, it reduces dissonance
or conflict and increase chance of agreement.
In Adolescence peer group is like gang, clique, and close group.
Through his peers the child comes in contact with the various
attitudes towards himself, adults and towards other things that are to
be valued or disregarded.
The bonding that develops among the peers determines the
quality of friendship, i.e., the degree of excellence in friendship
taken together both good and bad dimensions (Berndt, 1996).
.Friendship quality contributes positively to children's social and
psychological well-being, whereas low friendship quality is
contributes negatively. High friendship quality is marked by high
frequency of positive and low frequency of negative interactions;
whereas low frequency of positive and high frequency of negative
interactions imply for low friendship quality (Berndt, 1999).
Friendship is a supportive relationship that involves mutuality. It
is a specific, Dyadic and bilateral relationship (Bagwell, 2004;
Bukowski & Hoza, 1989). The support that one provides to another
in the dyadic relationship does not always equal to the support
receives (Berndt, 1996).
Having friends and having high friendship quality are the intrinsic
needs of children in preadolescence. They serve numerous
important developmental and social functions (Hartup, 1996a)
which are antecedents for later romantic and marital relationships
(Asher & Parker, 1988) the seven main functions of friendships
identified by them are:-
● Serve as ego support and self- validation,
● Serve as sources of intimacy,
● Provide instrumental aid and guidance,
 NANGLU/ ADOLESCENT’S TELEVISION VIEWING: ITS IMPACT ON QUALITY
● Provide sense of reliable alliance,
● Serve as an emotional buffer in providing security particularly in
threatening situations,
● Provide companionship, and
● Foster the growth and development of social competence.
Besides these functions five conceptually meaningful aspects of
friendship quality have been recognized by Bukowski, Hoza, and
Boivin (1994) these are companionship, closeness, help, security,
and conflict, these are further described as follows:
Companionship is defined as proximity; children voluntarily
spend time together for fun or for activities. It involves mutual
preferences between dyads. Children are known to be friends when
they prefer particular partners and seek them for interactions as well
as maintaining the proximity (Howes, 1996).
Closeness, is characterized by intimacy, self-disclosure, and
sharing of feelings. Closeness often arises and becomes more intense
in middle childhood or early adolescence because it requires
communication among friends, and the sophisticated linguistic skill
is not yet equipped with younger children. Emotion is also involved,
intense emotional experiences of friendships and emotional
demands tend to increase with age in childhood and preadolescence
(Newcomb & Bagwell, 1996). The closeness of friendship quality
contributes positively to children's self-esteem, and psychological
adjustment (Bowker, 2004).
Help, It consists of two smaller components aid and protection
from victimization (Bukowski et al., 1994). Aid refers to the mutual
help and assistance among friends. Protection from victimization
refers to the willingness of children to come to a friend and stand up
for him or her when the friend is being bothered by others. It has been
shown that the give- and-take interpersonal relationship in help can
sustain friendship (Azmitia & Montgomery, 1993).
Security comprises of two components. One is the feeling or
impression of children that their friendships are being secure, and
even capable to maintain with conflicting situations, known as
transcending problems. The other component is the belief of children
in their mutual trust, namely, reliable alliance. Friends are more
likely than acquaintances in having trust and loyalty. In other words,
friends have greater security than acquaintances do (Azmitia &
Montgomery, 1993).
Conflict is some kind of disagreement which is discouraged for
friendship formation. It consists of opposition between two
individuals, usually fight or argument. Friends have conflicts just as
many as acquaintances do, but the underlying properties are quite
different. Firstly, the conflicts between friends are less intense than
those between acquaintances. Secondly, friends engage more in
conflict resolution than acquaintances do, and they have greater
commitment to resolve conflicts by methods such as negotiation and
compromise.
Occasional conflicts are proven to be important and constructive
to friendship because children can learn to practice using
constructive strategies in handling conflicts, which is known to be
“true cooperation”. Through this process, social relations are
enhanced. Conflict and support is part of the same dimension of
preadolescent friendship (Berndt & Perry, 1986).
In summary, high friendship quality is marked by high frequency
of positive and low frequency of negative interactions between
friends; whereas low frequency of positive and high frequency of
negative interactions imply for low friendship quality.
336
Television viewing and peer relationship
There has been a great deal of comment on the effect of TV on the
development of social and interpersonal skills. Viewing of the
positive social television has much effect on its viewers. Children
who watch program showing positive interaction and adaptive ways
of dealing with emotion show increase in cooperation, helpfulness,
ability to verbalise feelings, task persistence and imaginations,
Hearold (1986).
Modeling of interpersonal behaviours such as altruism and
empathy can be incorporated into regular programming. Children
have shown cooperative behaviour following one episode of the
social behaviour in a commercial TV drama among preschoolers
(Van Evra, 1990).
However on the downside the negative effects of the Television
viewing have also been reported.
Heavy television viewing can also affect the quality of a childs'
interaction. Heavy viewers engage in less interpersonal play, Van
Evra (1990). Television viewing is a less intensive kind of social
contact for preschoolers than actual interaction with peers or parents
and it impacts their sociability by displacing other social activities
and by interfering with the growth of certain skills necessary for
development of communicative ability.
Children with high usage of TV have poor interpersonal skills
than those with less usage of television. Besides harming the
communication with peers, TV can also perpetuate aggression in the
viewers due to exposure to violent programs (Simatos & Spencer,
1993).
Relational aggression is high among children who are heavy
viewers, they exhibit hostile attributional biases, which is
significantly correlated with preference for horror/violent TV
exposure index. This harms the peer relationships because child high
on relational aggression has conflicts with peers on even small
issues, which hampers the growth of peer relationships. Excessive
multimedia interaction tends to be regarded as a solitary activity.
Thus, besides the positive impact of TV on relationship with peers
several studies suggest some children may substitute use of
multimedia for social interaction therefore precluding the
development of important social skills and friendships necessary for
self-esteem and personal growth.
The above studies show that television medium can have positive
or negative time or the effect on the sibling relationship or peer
relationships of the adolescents.
Hypothesis of the study
● Heavy viewers of TV (watching > 3 hours of television) would be
significantly higher on the conflict, rivalry, perceived relative
status dimensions of sibling relationship than the light viewers.
● Adolescents' higher exposure to informative programs will be
positively related to warmth dimensions of sibling relationship.
● Heavy viewers of television will be significantly higher on
conflict dimension of peer relationship than the light viewers of
television
Method
Participants
Male and female adolescent children (N=400) aged between 12 to
15 years with mean age of 13 years The present study focused on
337 Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing 2017, 8(4), 333-341

adolescents' therefore the sample (N=400) was taken from one
private and two public, schools of Chandigarh studying in eighth,
ninth and tenth classes (aged 12 to 15 years). The present
investigation was restricted to those English medium schools where
one tends of find children coming from middle to upper middle class
families, children having at least one sibling either elder or younger
and one parent working were taken up for the study.
Instruments
Television viewing was measured by Television viewing patterns
questionnaire by Nanglu and Banth (2006) in terms of the number of
hours spent viewing television and the type of content viewed by the
individual, i.e., (entertainment, informative, sports, & violent
programs). The shortened version of Sibling relationship was
measured by (Furmon et al., 1985) consisting 39 items, with
dimensions relative status, warmth, conflict and rivalry. Peer
relationship was measured by Friendship qualities scale (Bukowski
et al., 1994) which included companionship, conflict, help/aid,
security, closeness and balance.
Statistical analysis
The analysis plan involved rendered data to the following statistical
techniques:-
● The raw scores were obtained on different questionnaires by the
sample population, K sample test was done to check its normality.
● The means and standard deviations were obtained for all the
subjects on each variable. Then t-ratios were computed for the
variables to compare the difference between scores of heavy and
light viewers on all the dependent variables (quality of sibling
peer relationship).
● Correlations were computed between television viewing
(exposure score of informative, entertainment, horror/violent,
sports program) individually as well as separately with all the
variables.
● Stepwise multiple regressions were calculated using the exposure
scores of the programs as the independent variable and dependent
variables quality of sibling peer relationship.
Results and discussion

Table 1: T test for differences in heavy viewers (N=246) vs. light viewers (N=154) on all variables viz.
quality of sibling and peer relationships of the adolescent
Variables Dimensions of Variables Mean S.D. T-value
Heavy light Heavy light
Sibling Relationship SR-W 21.44 21.12 0.460 0.470 0.545
SR-CON 15.18 15.24 0.610 0.560 0.858
SR-RIVAL 10.42 10.41 0.164 0.178 1.298
SR-PRS 06.00 6.036 0.194 0.209 0.205
Friendship Relationship FAQ-C 10.35 10.43 0.209 0.233 0.528
FAQ-B 11.40 11.28 0.185 0.183 0.692
FAQ-CON 08.35 08.05 0.340 0.320 1.679*
FAQ-H 23.52 23.70 0.198 0.202 0.530
FAQ-S 17.19 17.46 0.192 0.173 0.228
FAQ-CL 15.68 15.52 0.189 0.212 0.938

Difference among Heavy and light viewers on Sibling relationship dimensions.

dimensions
T-value for sibling relationship's dimension of warmth was not
significant for heavy viewers (M=21.44) and light viewers
(M=21.12).There is no difference between the heavy viewers (M=
15.18) and light viewers (M=15.24) with respect to conflict
dimension of the sibling relationship.
T values were not significant on sibling relationship's dimension
of perceived relative status between the heavy viewers (M=6.036)
and light viewers (M= 6)
Also, no significant difference on rivalry dimension of sibling
relationship between the heavy viewers (M= 10.42) and light
viewers (M=10.41)
All these results are indicative of the fact that the television-
viewing pattern is not affecting the sibling relationship on the
dimensions of warmth, conflict, perceived relative status and rivalry;
there relationship is mostly stable on these dimensions.
Difference between Heavy and light viewers on peer relationship
When the light and heavy viewers were compared to see the differences
between the two on the following dimensions of Peer relationship;
closeness, balance, Conflict, companionship, helping, security.
T ratios were significant on the security dimension of the peer
relationship, light viewers (M=17.46) were significantly high on
security dimension of peer relationship as compared to heavy
viewers (M=17.19, t =1.679, p <.05). The present study reveals that
heavy viewers (N=154) watching television for more than 3 hours
whereas the light viewers (N=246) watching television for less
than 3 hours have mean scores (M=8.35, 8.05 t=1.679*, p<.05) on
peer conflict, see Table. This indicate that more amount of time spent
viewing television leads to significant increase in the conflict
between the peers in terms of easily getting in to arguments and
disagreements
Correlational analysis
Correlation analysis was done to study the relationship between the
variable. The correlates of all the dependent variables with the
 NANGLU/ ADOLESCENT’S TELEVISION VIEWING: ITS IMPACT ON QUALITY 338

independent variables was computed and the significant correlates Table 4: Regression Analysis with sibling relationship warmth as
of all the dependent variables viz. quality of sibling and peer dependent variable and types of program (entertainment,
relationship with the content of television programs are shown in the informative, horror/violent & sports) as independent variable: -
tables under different sections. 1. SR-W
Quality of sibling and peer relationship Independent variable R R2 R2 change F change

In this section the correlates of sibling relationship and peer Informative 0.253 .064 .064 27.199
relationship are reported in the stated sequence.
Among all the predictor variables of content of television programs
● Sibling Relationship: the correlates of sibling relationship with the results in the table above shows that 6.4 % of variance in the warmth
content of television programs are presented in the Table-2 . dimension of sibling relationship is explained by viewing of
Table 2: Correlates of sibling relationship with content of tv programs informative programs.
I E V S Table- 5: Regression Analysis with sibling relationship conflict as
dependent variable and types of program (entertainment,
SR-W 0.253** 0.168** 0.103* 0.169**
informative, horror/violent, & sports) as independent variable:- 2.
SR-Con -0.135** -0.147** -0.110* -0.176**
SR-Con
SR-PRS N.S. (-) N.S.(-) N.S.(+) N.S.+
SR-Rival N.S.+ N.S.(-) N.S.+ N.S.(-) Independent variable R R2 R2 change F change
P< .05 level*, I: Informative, V: Horror/violent Sports -0.176** .031 0.031 12.621
P < .01 level**, E: Entertainment, S: Sports
** p<.01; * p<.05
SR-W - Sibling relationship warmth Table- 5 shows that 3.1 % of the variance in the conflict
SR-CON- Sibling relationship conflict dimension of sibling relationship is predicted by viewing of sports
SR-PRS - Sibling relationship perceived relative status program.
SR-RIVAL - Sibling relationship rivalry The results indicate that 9.5 % of variance is predicted in the
The scores on subscales of sibling relationship were correlated sibling relationship by the viewing of the informative and sports
with the exposure time of different types of programs viewed. A programs.
significant positive correlation was found between sibling warmth Table 6: Regression Analysis with peer relationship conflict as
and watching of informative programs (r=0.253 p<. 01), dependent variable and types of program (entertainment,
entertainment programs (r=0.168 p<. 01), horror/violent informative, horror/violent, & sports) as independent variable:-
programs(r=0.103 p<.05), and sports program (r=0.169 p<.01). A. FAQ-CON
A significant negative correlation between sibling conflict and Independent variable R R2 R2 change F change
viewing of informative programs (r= -0.135 p<. 01), entertainment
(r= -0.147, p<. 01), violent(r = -0.110,p<. 05) and watching of sports Horror/violent 0.165** 0.027 0.027 11.156
program (r= -0.176, p<.01). Although insignificant but a positive Results show that 2.7% of the variance in the conflict dimension
correlation was found between viewing of horror/violent programs of peer relationship is predicted by viewing of horror/violent
and rivalry between the siblings (r=. 036). programs.
● Peer Relationship Overall, results indicate that viewing of informative,
Table 3: Correlates of peer relationship with content of tv programs entertainment, horror/violent and sports programs produces 12.2 %
of conjoint variance in the quality of sibling peer relationships. The
I E V S hypothesis, “Heavy viewers of television will be significantly
FAQC N. S.(+) N. S.(+) N. S. (-) N. S.(+) higher on conflict dimension of peer relationship than the light
B N. S.(+) N. S.(+) N. S.(+) N. S. (-) viewers of television' is supported these findings are global and a
CON N. S. (+) N. S.(+) 0.165** N. S. (-) cause of concern. The plausible explanations to this kind of
H N. S. (+) N. S.(-) N. S.(-) N. S. (-) phenomenon are Firstly, because aggression and violence is rampant
S N. S. (+) N. S.(+) N. S.(-) N. S. (+) in most of programs that are shown on television like family
CL N. S. (+) N. S.(+) N. S. (-) N. S.(+) programs, WWF, Horror programs, these kind of programs justify
aggression for the only reason i.e. entertainment. Viewing of these
P< .05 level* I: Informative V: Horror/violent
kinds of programs can influence the minds of the adolescents who
P < .01 level ** E: Entertainment S: Sports
are not mature enough to understand and question this kind of the
When the types of programs viewed were related to dimensions
behaviour.
of peer relationship, a significant positive correlation between
Secondly, content of the serials being shown today i.e. their
conflict among friends with viewing of horror/violent programs is
scripts are generally messageless, only plots of harming each other,
reported, (r=0.165, p<.01). An insignificant but a positive
taking revenge are being shown adolescents might perceive them as
correlation between security, closeness and helping behaviour
true depictions of values prevalent in the society and might adopt the
among friends with
same behaviour patterns in their relations which leads to higher
Viewing of informative programs was found. An insignificant but
relational aggression between peers and subsequently higher
negative correlation was found between viewing of Horror/violent
conflict between them.
programs and security, (r= - 0.050), closeness, (r= - 0.009) and
There were also no significant differences between the heavy and
helping, (r= - 0.059) dimensions of friendship.
339 Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing 2017, 8(4), 333-341
light viewers on the dimensions companionship (M=10.35,10.43,
t=0.528;p=N.S); balance(M=11.4,11.28,t=0.692;p=N.S),
help(M=23.52, 23.7,t=0.530;p=N.S), security (M=17.19,
17.46,t=0.228;p=N.S)and closeness(M=15.68, 15.52,t=
0.938;p=N.S) are not affected by the amount of television viewing.
This indicates that amount of television viewing has no impact on
pro-social behaviour among peer relationships. Voluntarily spending
time with each other, willingness to give help, feeling that friend can
be relied and trusted upon are not affected by television viewing .
Vandewater et al. (2006) studied the relationship between amount
of time spent viewing television with time spent in more
developmentally appropriate activities on Texas sample (N=1772),
the results indicated that time spent watching television both with
and without parents or siblings was negatively related to time spent
with parents or siblings, respectively, in other activities.
Kamila Mistry, Cynthia Minkovitz, Donna Strobino, and Dina
Borzekowski (2007) reported sustained television viewing as
associated with behavioral outcomes. Concurrent television
exposure is associated with fewer social skills. For children with
heavy television viewing in early childhood, there was no consistent
relation with behavioral or social skills outcomes. Having a
television in the bedroom was associated with sleep problems and
less emotional reactivity at 5.5 years but was not associated with
social skills. Sustained exposure is a risk factor for behavioral
problems. For social skills, concurrent exposure was more important
than sustained or early exposure.
Although not significant the mean trend indicates that security
dimension of peer relationship is in the favour of light viewers from
which it can be inferred that light viewers are having a feeling of
security with their peers.
Friedrich-Cofer et al. (1979) observed 141 children (ages 2.35.3
years) in Head Start centers before and during their viewing of
neutral films or specially selected episodes of Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood that represented prosocial themes. The subjects in
each condition saw 20 films in 8 weeks. They were observed and
scored for prosocial behaviors at random times during a 3-month
baseline period and again during the 8-week experimental period. No
significant difference was observed between groups in the number of
positive social interactions with and prosocial behavior toward peers
and teachers.
Peer Relationship with Exposure Time/ Week on Different
Categories of Television Programs.
● Informative programs: Although Insignificant but positive
correlations were found between viewing of informative
programs with companionship(r=0.006, p= n.s), balance(r=0.057,
p= n.s), conflict (r=0.020, p= n.s) security(r=0.016, p= n.s) and
help(r=0.038, p=n.s.), closeness(r=0.021, p= n.s) dimensions of
friendship see (Appendix-A). This implies that the viewing of
informative programs does not significantly influence peer
relationship aspects like voluntarily spending time together,
willingness to help each other, belief and trust in friend, have
affective bond and experience equality in the relationship.
However, the hypothesis stating “Adolescents' higher exposure to
informative programs will be positively related to help behavior,
security, closeness between friends” is not supported. One of the
plausible explanation is that the in adolescence the individual
shows greater loyalty, commitment to his peers, as such even if
they spend time viewing television programs their relationships
affective bond does not get influenced by it. The programs
included in informative category of television viewing were not
related to fostering these dimensions of relationship Moreover, co
viewing of television also with peer takes place, this makes up
time for companionship and provide them opportunity to interact
and understand each other. The incidence of viewing
entertainment programs is more prevalent in our sample
population which could be overwhelming the effects of
informative television viewing. Also, the programs showed in the
television are not always pro-social in their approach and in order
to develop these social skills like closeness, companionship and
feeling of balance and security, one has to spend considerable
amount of time with the friends which is not being done by
adolescents these days as they are spending half of their available
time watching television.
● Entertainment programs: Although Insignificant but positive
correlations were found between viewing of entertainment programs
with companionship(r=0.047, p=n.s), balance(r=0.054, p= n.s),
conflict (r=0.050, p= n.s) security (r=0.017, p= n.s) and help(r=-0.009,
p=n.s.), closeness (r=0.016, p= n.s) dimensions of peer relationship.
Insignificant but negative correlations trend were found between
viewing of entertainment programs with help (r=-0.009, p= n.s),
dimensions of peer relationship. This implies that the viewing of
entertainment programs does not influence peer relationship aspects
like voluntarily spending time together, willingness to help each other,
belief and trust in friend, have affective bond and experience equality
in the relationship. The programs showed in the television are not
always pro-social in their approach and in order to develop these social
skills like avoid conflict with their peers one has to spend considerable
amount of time with the friends which is not being done by adolescents
these days as they are spending half of their available time watching
television.
● Horror / violent programs: Insignificant but negative correlations
were found between the viewing of horror/violent programs with
companionship (r=-.003, p= N. S), help (r=-.059, p=N. S) and
security (r=-0.050, p= N. S) dimensions of peer relationship. An
insignificant but negative correlation is found between viewing of
sports program and conflict between peers (r=-0.009, p= N. S) see
Table-6. A significant positive correlation viewing of
horror/violent programs with conflict (r=0.165, p< .01)
dimension of peer relationship is found see Table-6 between with
is reported. This implies that more time spent on viewing of
violent programs positively related to higher degree of conflict in
form of fights and arguments between peers. Therefore the
hypothesis “Adolescents' higher exposure to violent programs is
positively related to conflict with peers” is supported. The time
displacement, which states that television viewing, takes time
away from such demanding activities as social interaction,
Koshal and Gupta (1996) Koolstra et al. (1996).
In the recent revision (Bandura, 1986-1994) social learning
theory emphasizes that a viewer's interpretation of a televised
message mediates imitation and learning. Bandura states that
interpretations are a function of contextual cues like the type of
model who engages in violence and the consequences delivered to
the model. More recent models involve cognitive priming
(Berkowitz, 1994). These augment social learning theory by
emphasizing the immediate and short-term effects of media
exposure. They focus on the way in which televised content
activates or 'primes' related thoughts and behavioural responses.
 NANGLU/ ADOLESCENT’S TELEVISION VIEWING: ITS IMPACT ON QUALITY
For instance, watching televised aggression may trigger negative
feelings (such as anger or fear), which, in turn, prime aggressive
feelings, thoughts, memories and behavioural tendencies. Once this
cognitive associative network is triggered or activated, how the
individual perceives the situation (cognitive appraisals), what they
say to themselves (self-statements), and other higher-order
cognitions determine whether or not aggression occurs.
Huesmann, Lagerspetz, Eron, and Slater (1984) Henry, Swaim,
and Anderson (2003) reported that real-world effects of violent
television can be understood in terms of a cyclical process, a
downward spiral from violent television viewing to aggressive
behavior to social isolation to viewing more violent television.
Exposure to violent television could be the catalyst for a cyclical
system leading toward an aggressive, socially isolated lifestyle.
● Sports programs: An insignificant but positive correlations were
reported for companionship (r=-0.008, p= N. S), security (r=-
0.012, p= N. S) and closeness (r=-0.007, p= N. S) dimensions of
peer relationships. This implies that sports program viewing leads
to building of these positive dimensions of peer relationship may
be because sports programs foster the feelings of team spirit, and
nurture cooperation between them. An insignificant but negative
correlations were reported for balance (r=-0.029, p= N. S), conflict
(r=-0.009, p= N. S), help (r=-0.050, p= N. S) dimensions of peer
relationships. This implies that viewing of sports programs is not
related to any of the six dimensions (three positive, three negative)
of peer relationship.
There are several studies which have reported that co viewing of
television with friends has an impact on peer relationship, these are
quoted below:-
The more time children spent co viewing television with friends,
the more time they spent with their friends engaging in other
activities. Again, it is important to consider both directions of
influence in the interpretation of this result. Children may forge
stronger relationships with their friends around television and thus be
more likely to continue their interactions away from the medium.
Alternatively, children who regularly spend time with their friends
may engage in a variety of activities with them. Viewing television
together may be one activity in the repertoire of a rich childhood
friendship. Regardless of the direction of influence, this finding does
not support the hypothesis that viewing television with friends
interferes with relationships or replaces other shared activities.
Kamila Mistry, Cynthia Minkovitz, Donna Strobino, and Dina
Borzekowski (2007) reported sustained television viewing was
associated with behavioral outcomes. Concurrent television
exposure was associated with fewer social skills. For children with
heavy television viewing only in early childhood, there was no
consistent relation with behavioral or social skills outcomes. Having
a television in the bedroom was associated with sleep problems and
less emotional reactivity at 5.5 years but was not associated with
social skills. Sustained exposure is a risk factor for behavioral
problems, whereas early exposure that is subsequently reduced
presents no additional risk. For social skills, concurrent exposure
was more important than sustained or early exposure.
In conclusion out of the four programs watched by adolescents
only one program, i.e., horror/violence is leading to more
disagreements, arguments between the peers.
Regression analysis
Regression analysis was carried out to gauge the relative strength of
340
all the four different types of programs in predicting the type of
impact the content viewed has on young Indian adolescents' quality
of peer relationship
Peer relationship
The viewing of violent programs predicted variance of 2.7 % on the
dimension of conflict between friends in form of increased
disagreements and arguments between them (Table- 6 ). The other
programs in the step wise regression were excluded from this analysis.
The results imply that only 2.7% of the variance on conflict behaviour
among peers is accounted by television viewing 97% 0f the variance is
predicted by factors other than television viewing. Although as expected
watching of horror/violent programs are responsible for peer conflict
during adolescence has been supported but in a very weak manner.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that although Indian teenagers are affected by
television viewing content in their area of interpersonal
relationships, still there are other factors in the environment that are
influencing them to greater extent, these may be pressure of
academics, parental control and their own personalities which are
going through a major change being adolescents. This calls for
future research which needs to be focused on the quality of
interpersonal relationships as affected not only but television but
internet and other technology advances.
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