The Perceived Impact of ANIME on School Children's Aggresive Behaviour

Proceeding at the LANCOMM International Conference 2011, 19-20 October 2011, 101 Resort

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THE PERCEIVED IMPACT OF ANIME ON SCHOOL CHILDREN’S AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR

Iza Sharina Binti Sallehuddin Communication Department

Faculty of Modern Language and Communication Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor

Faradillah Iqmar Binti Omar Communication Department

Faculty of Modern Language and Communication Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor

ABSTRACT

For centuries, television is being blamed for children becoming aggressive in later life because of its content. Anime programme such as Naruto, Pokemon, Digimon, and Astro Boy contain more aggressive behaviour compared to any other type of programming. Therefore, this study identifies the impact of anime on school children’s aggressive behaviour. In accordance to this perspective, the objectives of this research are: 1) to investigate the children’s initial attitudes towards anime aired on television, 2) to examine children’s acceptance on the aggressive character, characterization, and storyline of anime aired on television, 3) to determine children’s aggressive reaction to their surrounding after every episode seen, and 4) to ascertain children’s feeling after they react aggressively towards their surroundings. This study was conducted on 135 students of Standard Six of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya, Balakong, Selangor. Results indicate that most of the students say anime is fun because it has interestingness, realism, humour, and also violence. The students believed that those programme contributes to aggressive behaviour. Most of the students would learn and imitate from their observation through those programme. However, they disagreed that anime can turn them into someone else. If they feel being intimidated, the students would hit, attack, or kick that particular person. This study also revealed that the students most likely feel bad when hurting other people and therefore they would never behave aggressively towards their surroundings. Keywords: Perceived, Impact, Anime, Aggressive


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BACKGROUND OF STUDY

There is little question that the electronic media, particularly television play a significant role in the development and socialization of children. Even as infants, children are exposed to the media consumed by their parents. They begin watching television at the very young age and are exposed to a variety of programme content. Many of today’s school children watched various programmes that contribute a positive influence on them. However, they also watched long hours of violence anime and other “less desirable” programming. Research studies report that mass media, especially television give a great impact on children and adolescents. Television affects many aspects of human life such as health and behaviour, and a matter of particular concern is the effect of television violence on children. Much of the research on children and the electronic media points to a strong modelling effect. Children learn from television on what their roles should be in society and how to act toward other human beings. Of course, these lessons can be positive or negative, depending on the models portrayed in the programmes viewed. Television violence is responsible for the increase in childhood violence. Children’s programming has been documented to be some of the most violent television programmes currently on the air. Japanese animation (anime) causes confusion between fantasy and reality. Some children really do think it is okay to use physical violence with other children because their hero such as Naruto does and his character was shown as the good guy. However, without noticing it, some of those scenes do include several elements of violence. By letting and encouraging children to watch such violent anime, we are actually teaching them that violence is funny and acceptable. Because of these reasons, anime is growing popular in Malaysia, especially among children and even adults. If at one time, children and teenagers only knew of American cartoon characters and stories, now they are responding to something closer to their home and culture. Dragon Ball and Naruto for instance, are the biggest hit. Watched by young and old alike, it has crossed cultural boundaries like no other programmes. Named it, whether on TV2, TV3, ntv7, TV9 or even in Animax (Astro channel services), anime- style programmes may hold the majority of the time slots on the after-school, Saturday, and Sunday morning schedules.

Statement of the Problem

Children have become much more interested in anime for the past years due to the excellent characters, characterization, and the storyline portrayed in the programmes. Typically, children begin watching anime on television at an early age of six months, and by the age two or three, children become enthusiastic viewers (www.cfc-efc.ca). This has become a problem because too many children spent too much on television and even the anime that they are watching are having the elements of violence, and they become addicted.


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Japanese anime have a great impact on children including cognitive, affective, and behavioural aspects. One of the behavioural aspects that attract a lot of attention among the society, social activities, and scholars is violence. There are many cases around the world related to children or teenagers and violence. A child psychologist, Dr. Stephen Garber says that the realistic-type violence which always being portrayed in movies and in other situations will affect certain kinds of children who cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy (www.aber.ac.uk). For instance, a 14-year-old boy in Kentucky killed three teenagers and wounded five others in a shooting spree inspired by a dream sequence in the film "Basketball Diaries." As much as we are query about the anime programmes showed on television, our child are acting more and more aggressively and unethically (www.allsands.com). In Malaysia, we can see the uprising trends in anime aired on our local television channels. For example, we have Animax channel on Astro channel services that have influenced children of all ages on the genre. As many have known that this genre incorporates sex and violence in their content which contribute to the aggressive behaviour and their involvement in which have been supported in David Morley’s (1980) literature on the nationwide audience. In local context, some of the children who are very much ‘involved’ with anime programmes would do as what they have seen on the screen. As for the above mention phenomenon, this study tries to seek answers for several research questions as stated below:

1. What are the children’s initial attitudes towards anime aired on television? 2. How the children accept the aggressive character, characterization, and storyline

of anime aired on television? 3. How aggressive the children react to their surrounding after every episode seen? 4. How do the children feel after they react aggressively towards their surrounding?

Research Objective

The purpose of this study is to understand the perceived impact of anime on school children’s aggressive behaviour. Therefore, the specific objectives of this study are:

1. To investigate the children’s initial attitudes towards Anime aired on television. 2. To examine children’s acceptance on the aggressive character, characterization,

and storyline of Anime aired on television. 3. To determine children’s aggressive reaction to their surrounding after every

episode seen. 4. To ascertain children’s feeling after they react aggressively towards their

surrounding.

Scope and Rationale of the study

It is important to note that this study and its findings only represent Year Two (Standard Six) school children of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya, Balakong, Selangor. The target group would be on students’ age 12 years old. This age group were chosen

http://www.cnn.com/US/9803/26/media.violence/garber.jpg

http://www.cnn.com/US/9803/26/media.violence/garber.jpg


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because they best represent the primary school children and the respondents were of multi races. The rationale of choosing this topic because it is important to understand the perceived impact of anime on school children’s aggressive behaviour by referring to several examples of anime programmes that shown on local television.

Significance of the Study

There are numerous researches done about the impact of television violence towards children and teenagers. However, most of the researches were targeted towards the western audiences, and only few on south eastern Asian, particularly Malaysian audiences. Hence, it is important to conduct this research to find out whether Malaysian school children will respond in the same way as the western children or not. Furthermore, this study is important as the body of knowledge either in theory aspect or for any practices. This study is believed to be able to contribute to future studies that suggested children’s programme does contained violence and give impact to young children as stated by Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, (1980). In addition, this study would also verify the Social Learning Theory as this theory is very important as it will be further explored during data collection and data analysis. The researcher hopes that the results from this study will further expand the understanding of the theory as explained by Albert Bandura (Bandura, 1963). The analysis and the findings from this study will reveal the perceived impact on school children’s aggressive behaviour towards violence in anime. Therefore, may the result from this study give some ideas to programme producers, whether for TV2, TV3, ntv7, and TV9 or even Astro - especially to go in depth in order to be more alert and careful in showing children’s programmes.

Social Learning Theory

Developed by Albert Bandura in 1965 and 1977, Social Learning Theory emphasized on the importance of rewards and punishments. This theory identified that children can learn new behaviours in one or two ways: by direct experience through trial and error or by observing and imitating others in their social environment. Bandura (1994) stated that observational learning eventually is more efficient than trying to discover everything on your own. Children can and do learn from other people in their environment, including parents, siblings, peers, and teachers. Children can also learn from characters and people that appeared in the mass media (Sparks, 2002). According to Bandura (1965), if a child watched a person on television who seemed very attractive and who received rewards for acting aggressively, then the child would be more likely to imitate that character's behaviour. On the other hand, if a child saw a character who received punishment for acting aggressively, then the child might refrain from acting out any aggressive desire in real life. However, his theory was not just about television. It was a general theory about the way people learn behaviours. The basic principles could explain how children learn to help people as well as hurt them. Bandura’s (1994) studies helped researchers to understand a number of things about television violence and children. First, viewing television violence could cause children to


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behave more aggressively, particularly if the violent characters were attractive and received rewards for their actions. Second, in many of these studies, the effects emerged most strongly for boys not girls. Many researchers interpret this finding in the context of biological differences between the sexes. Throughout the animal kingdom, nature has programmed the male of the species with a tendency to behave more aggressively than the female. The researchers thought that perhaps this aggressive tendency resulted in boys being more sensitive to the impact of media violence. As it turns out, some studies on media violence show that the effects extend to female as well as males. In the 1980s, Bandura (1986) reformulated his theory for the reason that it had been criticised as too behaviouristic, which was focusing mostly on the reinforcements and how people act. The newer perspective, which was called Social Cognitive Theory, acknowledges that cognitive processes such as attention and retention are involved in observational learning. Children pay attention to different features of a model’s behaviour, in which later they bring forth different experiences to interpret and evaluate the model’s actions. Finally, they store that different information in memory. These types of cognitive processes can be used to help explain why some children might imitate a model but others do not (Strasburger & Wilson, 2002). Social Learning and Social Cognitive Theory are useful frameworks for understanding how children can learn new behaviours from television violence. However, these theories tend to focus on short-term learning. Despite the criticisms, Bandura’s (1973) social learning theory should be seen as important in the study and influences of aggression and criminal behaviour formed in this. In order to control aggression, he believed family members and the mass media should provide positive role models for their children and the general public (Bandura, 1977). Effect of TV Violence Towards Children’s Behaviour

Many of the statistics for the children’s programming were first established by George Gerbner and his colleagues in their annual assessments of prime-time and weekend morning television (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980; Gerbner, Gross, Signorielli, Morgan, & Jackson-Beeck, 1979). In his studies, (Gerbner et al, 1979) consistently found that children’s program were more violent than prime-time programming by looking at the whole week of each year across the three major broadcast networks. According to them, on average, over 90% of children’s programming contained violence, compared to 70% of prime-time shows. In addition, children’s programming featured a higher rate of violent acts, with 20 acts per hour compared to only five acts per hour during prime time. Furthermore, Gerbner (1980) also found that a vast majority of children’s programme (which is 79%) contained humorous violence, while relatively few did in the prime-time hours (20%) (Wilson, Smith, Potter, Kunkel, Linz, Colvin, & Donnerstein, 2002). Violence is far more prevalent in programmes targeted to children, in which clearly all of those are cartoons or anime. Given example, seven out of 10 children’s programmes contained violence, while six out of 10 non-children’s programmes did (Wilson & Smith, et al., in press). Researchers also found that children’s programmes were significantly more likely than other types of programming to portray unrealistically low levels of harm victims compared with what would happen in real life. Furthermore, children who are


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more aggressive themselves seem to prefer violent television and their parents who rated their children as aggressive also rated them as more interested in violent anime or cartoons (Cantor & Nathanson, 1997). Based from National Television Violence Study (NTVS) in 1997, violence can be generally defined as any intentional or accidental action that causes physical or psychological harm (as in the case of verbal abuse) to oneself, another person, animal, or at times, an inanimate object (Wilson et al., 1998). Negative characters portrayed by either cartoon or anime programme contain harmful element to children. Studies on content analysis of prime time programming which done by Potter and Warren (1998) indicated that in comedy shows, violence was more likely to be verbal than physical. Krcmar and Hight (2007) also found that young child who watched an action cartoon or super-hero image, as opposed to young children who watched neutral video clips or animated characters, were more likely to create aggressive story endings. These findings supported the argument that a schema for aggression may be activated as a result of having viewed aggressive acts (Anderson & Carnagey, 2004). Furthermore, a report in 2006 by The Kaiser Family Foundation’s examined children and the electronic media in which indicated 68% of parents of children six years of age and younger reported having seen their children imitate behaviours shown on television with 24% of these behaviours identified as aggressive (www.kff.org). The purpose of the present study is to assess fully aggressive acts in anime programmes targeted to child audiences. Though previous research gives the researcher some idea of the extent aggressive acts in these shows, the figures are incomplete. Furthermore, this study seek to establish new and more comprehensive level for the amount of aggressive acts in children’s show especially anime programmes as well as assessing for the first time the nature or context of these portrayal.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The aim of this study was to ascertain the perceived impact of anime on school children’s aggressive behaviour. Therefore, this study was conducted using the quantitative method, whereby this method requires that the variables under consideration must be measured. The data was collected by using self administered survey method, in which it was done through the distribution of questionnaires in classrooms. A survey method was chosen because it offered higher degree of predictability and was easier to generalise the results from the data collected to the population as a whole.

Population and Sampling Techniques

The sample known as the respondents, whereby these respondents were chosen randomly from each class with the same main characteristic: enjoy watching anime programme. In terms of the simple random sample, each subject or unit in the population has an equal chance of being selected. The respondents were chosen by using proportionate cluster sampling. This sampling is most suitable for this study as it define the data collections from small group of population or categories (Wimmer & Dominick, 2006). Therefore, this small group will be parallel with the information needed.


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The advantages of proportionate cluster sampling are that, only part of the population need to be identified. Furthermore, the costs are reduced if the clusters are well defined and cluster parameters can be estimates and compared to the population. The subject of this study were on multi races students’ age 12 years old who studied in Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya, Balakong in which the population of Standard Six students were 210. Therefore, the total sample based from the Krejcie and Morgan’s Table (1970) were 100% (n=135) students of Standard Six.

Instrumentation

The questionnaires were divided into five parts; A, B, C, D, and E. In Section A, the respondents were asked about their gender, age, race, favourite pastime and hours spent on watching anime. Section B asked the respondents about their initial attitudes towards anime while Section C asked about their acceptance of aggressive character, characterization, and the storyline of anime aired on television. While in Section D, the respondents were asked about their aggressive reaction towards other people after every episode seen on television and last but not least, Section E asked about the respondents’ feeling after they react aggressively towards their surroundings.

Data Processing

The data were processed and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS Statistical version 17.0) and as reported according to the research questions which can be seen in the next page.


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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

a. Respondents Demographic

There were 135 respondents conducted in this study, in which 47.4% were male respondents while 52.6% were female respondents. All respondents were from age group of 12 years old (n=135, 100%). Majority of these respondents were Malay, being 94.8%, while 2.2% were Indian, and 3.0% of the respondents were from other ethnicity. Please refer to Table 1 and Table 2, for more information.

Gender Frequency Percent

Male 64 47.4

Female 71 52.6

Total 135 100.0

Table 1. Gender of the respondents

Race Frequency Percent

Malay 128 94.8

India 3 2.2

Others 4 3.0

Total 135 100.0

Table 2. Ethnicity

Looking at the hours spend on watching TV, majority of them (54.8%) spent about three to four hours per day, 33.3% spent about one to two hours per day, 5.9% spent less than one hour per day and 5.9% of the respondents spent more than four hours per day watching television. Meanwhile reffering to hours spend on watching anime programme per day, a majority of the respondent (61.5%) spent about one to two hours per day, 20.0% spent about three to four hours per day, 15.6% spent less than one hour per day and 3.0% of the respondents spent more than four hours or others per day watching anime programme. Amongst the respondents, majority of them watch television with their siblings (60.7%), while 22.2% watch television with their family and 16.3% of them watching television alone. Last but least, only 1% amongst the respondents watcthing television with friend. Please refer to Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5.


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Table 3. Hours spend on watching TV

Frequency Percent

less than 1

hours

21 15.6

1-2 hours 83 61.5

3-4 hours 27 20.0

others 4 3.0

Total 135 100.0

Table 4. Hours spent on watching anime per day

Frequency Percent

alone 22 16.3

family 30 22.2

siblings 82 60.7

friends 1 .7

Total 135 100.0

Table 5. Companion during watching TV

b. Initial Attitude towards Anime

In analysing the initial attitude towards anime programme aired on television, there were several statements that revealed the respondents liking about anime. Majority (34.1%) of the respondents strongly agreed that anime is fun because it has interestingness, realism, humour, and also violence. Only 2.2% strongly disagreed that anime is fun, followed by 21.5% who gave their views as neutral. When asked whether the respondents enjoy watching anime, the results indicated that majority of the respondents agreed, with 36.3% compared to 8.1% of them disagreed that anime is enjoyable. The remaining 22.2% were neutral. This study also found that majority of them (12.6%) was not too obsessed with anime programme compared to only 42.2% of the respondents who obsessed with it. For more information, please refer to Table 6.

Frequency Percent

less than 1

hour

8 5.9

1-2 hours 45 33.3

3-4 hours 74 54.8

others 8 5.9

Total 135 100.0


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Strongly disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Total (%)

Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq (%)

Anime is fun (n=135)

3 2.2 14 10.4 29 21.5 43 31.9 46 34.1 100

Watching anime is enjoyable (n=135)

9 6.7 11 8.1 30 22.2 49 36.3 36 26.7 100

Never missed watching anime

(n=135)

20 14.8 36 26.7 48 35.6 21 15.6 10 7.4 100

The feeling of enjoyment seeing someone being

beaten (n=135)

32 23.7 32 23.7 21 15.6 23 17.0 27 20.0 100

Owned a various collection of anime merchandised

(n=135)

35 25.9 31 23.0 18 13.3 34 25.2 17 12.6 100

Obsessed with anime (n=135)

17 12.6 11 8.1 23 17 27 20.0 57 42.2 100

Fighting is normal for everyone (n=135)

14 10.4 13 9.6 20 14.8 53 39.3 35 25.9 100

Table 6. Respondents fondness about anime The study also revealed that majority of the respondents (48.9%) agreed that anime contributes to aggressive behaviour with 29.6% of them agreed and 19.3% strongly agreed. Barely 27.4% were neutral. Another 23.7% of them viewed that anime did not contributes to aggressive behavior with 14.1% disagreed and 9.6% were strongly disagreed. Overall, this results shows that although they were enjoyed watching anime but at the same time they believed that anime will contribute towards aggressive behaviors. Please refer to Chart 1 for the details.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Strongly

disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

agree

Percentage

Chart 1. Anime contributes to aggressive behavior (n=135)


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c. Respondents’ Acceptance on the Character, Characterization, and Storyline of Anime Aired on Television

There are many skills and new things that the respondents could learn based from their observation through anime programme. Majority of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that anime’s character shows great skills of fighting, being 40.0% and 35.6% respectively compared to only 7.4% of them disagreed that anime’s character shows great skills of fighting. Another 11.9% of the respondents were neutral. This study also found that among the 135 respondents, majority of them (31.1%) disagreed that they identified themselves as the main character; while 17.8% of the respondents agreed that they identified themselves as the main character. The remaining 29.6% were neutral. Since most of the respondents like to watch anime, majority of the respondent (10.4%) agreed that anime showed the things that they also like to do. However, another 30.4% were strongly disagreed that anime showed the things that they also like to do and the remaining 28.1% were neutral. For more information, please refer to Table 7.

Strongly disagree


Total (%)

Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)

Anime’s character shows great skills of

fighting (n=135)

7 5.2 10 7.4 16 11.9 54 40.0 48 35.6 100

Identified myself as the main character

(n=135)

22 16.3 42 31.1 0 29.6 24 17.8 7 5.2 100

Anime shows things I like to do (n=135)

41 30.4 36 26.7 38 28.1 14 10.4 6 4.4 100

Naruto is cool and have great skills

(n=135)

12 8.9 18 13.3 19 14.1 30 22.2 56 41.5 100

Still remember of last weeks’ episode

(n=135)

21 15.6 23 17.0 45 33.3 24 17.8 22 16.3 100

Table 7. The best thing that the respondents like about anime The results also revealed that majority of the respondents (72%) strongly disagreed that they feel like wanting to hit the person next to them when watching aggressive scene compared to only 8.1% of the respondents strongly agreed that they feel like wanting to hit the person next to them. As a result, in term of the acceptance of aggressive character, characterization, and the storyline of anime, the respondents would copy or imitate the aggressive acts they seen from the programme regardless whether they were boy or girl. As mentioned by Bandura (1965), this explained that children who were exposed to a violent model are more likely to act aggressively than children who had not viewed such violent. However, most of the respondents disagreed that anime programme makes them aggressive and they also disagreed that anime can turn them into someone else. Please refer to Table 8 for more information.


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Strongly disagree


Total (%)

Description Freq.

(%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)

The feeling of hitting the next person to me

(n=135)

72 53.3 34 25.2 8 5.9 10 7.4 11 8.1 100

The feeling of being on the edge of seat

(n=135)

17 12.6 26 19.3 35 25.9 27 20.0 30 22.2 100

Aggressive shows me as a strong person

(n=135)

43 31.9 32 23.7 33 24.4 13 9.6 14 10.4 100

Table 8. The excitement while watching anime

d. Respondents’ Aggressive Reaction to Their Surrounding After Every Episode Seen

Table 9 shows the results of aggressive reaction of the respondents towards their surroundings. Majority of the respondents (25.9%) disagreed that they enjoyed fighting with other children for fun while 8.1% of them were agreed. Amongst them, 16.3% remains neutral. The results in this study also indicated that majority of the respondents disagreed to hit the person who makes fun of them, being 11.9% and 7.4% respectively whilst 28.9% of them strongly agreed that they will hit the person who makes fun of them. It shows that they were really wanted to protect their pride and dignity. On the other hand, more than half of the respondent (29.6%) strongly agreed that they will attack the person who tries to take their personal things; while only 12.6% of them disagreed to attack the person who tries to take their belongings. The remaining 25.2% were neutral. Nearly half of the respondent (65.9%) disagreed that fighting for fun with other people is okay, with 40.0% disagreeing and 25.9% strongly disagreeing. Yet, 17.7% agreed that it is okay to fight with other people for fun while another 16.3% were stated as neutral. In addition, more than half of the respondents (50.4%) disagreed that they see themselves as an aggressive person compared to 22.9% agreed that they see themselves as an aggressive person. By looking at Table 10, in term of the aggressive reaction towards their surrounding, this study revealed that most of the respondents know what should be doing and what should not be doing, especially towards other people. Nevertheless, there were respondents who agreed that they have to be aggressive only if they were being attacked first by their surroundings. Nevertheless, majority of the respondents are being neutral in hitting a woman (31.9%), whilst 26.6% of them were agreed and 41.5% were disagreed. For more information, refer to Table 9 and 10 below.


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Strongly disagree


Total (%)


Enjoy fighting with other children

(n=135)

54 40.0 35 25.9 22 16.3 11 8.1 13 9.6 100

The feeling of ashamed if I could

not fight back (n=135)

20 14.8 32 23.7 33 26.4 21 15.6 29 21.5 100

To hit someone who makes fun of me

(n=135)

10 7.4 16 11.9 32 23.7 38 28.1 39 28.9 100

To attack the person who take my things

(n=135)

10 7.4 17 12.6 34 25.2 34 25.2 40 29.6 100

Table 9. The feelings that the respondents experienced if being angry or upset

Strongly

disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

agree Total (%)


Fighting for fun is okay (n=135)

54 40.0 35 25.9 22 16.3 11 8.1 13 9.6 100

I am an aggressive person (n=135)

31 23.0 37 27.4 36 26.7 23 17.0 8 5.9 100

Hitting friends who behave badly is okay

(n=135)

6 4.4 18 13.3 32 23.7 32 23.7 47 34.8 100

It is normal to hit women (n=135)

26 19.3 30 22.2 43 31.9 18 13.3 18 13.3 100

Table 10. Respondents’ reactions towards their surrounding

e. Respondents’ Feeling After They React Aggressively towards Their Surrounding

It is human nature, to get involved in a fight or like to see other people fighting over each other and they believed that anime contributes towards aggressive behavior as showed in Chart 1 where 48.9% of them were agreed. In terms of hitting someone, normally nobody feels good after hitting someone. This can be observed from more than half of the respondents (69.9%) disagreed that they don’t feel bad about hitting other people. However, only 10.4% of them agreed that they don’t feel bad hitting someone. On the other hand, a majority of the respondents, or 68.1% of them disagreed that they don’t feel regret involved in a fight, with 42.2% and 25.9% respectively. Only 17.0% of the respondents agreed that they do not feel regret involved in a fight. The remaining 14.8% were neutral. Besides, this study revealed that most of the respondents (87.4%) agreed that they feel sad seeing other people in pain, being 63.7% strongly agreeing and 23.7% agreeing; while only 4.4% disagreed that they feel sad seeing someone in pain. The highest percentages (55.5%) were recorded by respondents who strongly agreed that they will never behave aggressively towards their surroundings. Meanwhile only 15.5% of the respondents disagreed that they will never behave aggressively towards other people and the remaining 28.9% were neutral.


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Therefore, in term of the respondents’ feeling after react aggressively towards their surrounding, it is suggests that even though the respondents were exposed and influenced with the aggressive behaviour shown in anime programme, they still can distinguish between what is good or bad and what can be learn or not through this type of programme. Please refer to Table 11 and Table 12 for more information.

Strongly disagree


Total (%)


I feel happy hitting someone (n=135)

59 43.7 38 28.1 24 17.8 10 7.4 4 3.0 100

I don’t feel bad hitting someone (n=135)

61 45.2 33 24.4 27 20.0 10 7.4 4 3.0 100

I would not apologise (n=135)

64 47.4 28 20.7 19 14.1 11 8.1 13 9.6 100

I feel excited seeing people fighting

(n=135)

57 42.2 25 18.5 28 20.7 12 8.9 13 9.6 100

I won’t regret involved in a fight (n=135)

57 42.2 35 25.9 20 14.8 12 8.9 11 8.1 100

I feel weak if I could not hit harder

(n=135)

51 37.8 18 13.3 38 28.1 11 8.1 17 12.6 100

Table 11. The feelings that the respondents experienced after behave aggressively

Strongly disagree


Total (%)


I feel bad hurting someone (n=135)

2 1.5 4 3.0 20 14.8 33 24.4 76 56.3 100

I feel sad seeing people in pain

(n=135)

1 0.7 5 3.7 11 8.1 32 23.7 86 63.7 100

I feel annoyed watching programme

which contained violance (n=135)

26 19.3 12 14.1 61 45.2 9 6.7 20 14.8 100

I will never behave aggressively anymore

(n=135)

8 5.9 13 9.6 39 28.9 28 20.7 47 34.8 100

Table 12. Respondents’ feeling towards their surrounding


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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Most students of Standard Six of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya in Balakong agreed that anime is fun because it has the elements such as interestingness, realism, humour and also violence. Furthermore, some of the students owned a various collection of anime merchandised such as school bag, stationeries, T-shirt, comic books, and etc. Despite that they enjoyed watching anime programme, the students believed that those programme contributes to aggressive behaviour and that, some of them feel annoyed watching programme that contained too much of violence acts. Most of the anime’s character shows a great skill of fighting, in which most of the students would learn and imitate from their observation through those programme. In addition, the students feel that they are a part of the show while watching anime and therefore, being aggressive shows that they are a strong person. The most likely aggressive reaction the respondents would do was hitting, attacking, kicking, or hurting other people. However, these were meant only if that particular people attack them first. They would fight for fun or on purposed but the percentage of them is small. Although it is human nature to get involved in a fight or enjoy seeing other people fighting, the percentage of them were very small compared to those who feel bad if they hurt other people. Furthermore, the respondents do feel bad and sad seeing other people in pain and therefore, they would never behave aggressively towards their surroundings.

Implications of Study

The theory adopted in this study is the Social Learning Theory, as illustrated earlier. This theory identified that children can learn new behaviours in one or two ways: by direct experience or by observing and imitating others in their social environment. Children can and do learn from other people in their environment, including parents, siblings, peers, and teachers. Nevertheless, children can also learn from characters and people that appeared in the mass media, especially in the television. However, as stated by Bandura (Bandura et al., 1965, 1973), the aggressive behaviour does not necessarily imply to that particular child. Not every child who saw the aggressive behaviour being rewarded behaved aggressively after watching anime programme. Only some of the children who saw the aggressive behaviour being punished acted aggressively at the same time. Television viewing was not the main result for children to behave aggressively; however there are many other factors that are important in determining aggressive behaviour at any given instance. Factors may be from their parents, siblings, and also their surroundings (Bandura, 1973). In the perspective of practicality, if we are looking in term of the cultural, the anime still could not be called something closer to our culture because children only watched anime for pleasure and were not highly influenced with it. Perhaps if our local animation produced this type of programme, then the chances for the children to get influence and imitate the aggressive behaviour would be high.


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Future Research Recommendations

This study can be extended by conducting qualitative research methodology where the reactions and feedback of young children are observed. Furthermore, this study can be conducted for children age below 10 years old and also for teenagers age between 13 -19 years old. In addition, parents, teachers, and professional should be asked as well in order to know their opinion about the impact of anime programme on children and teenagers.

Closing

As a conclusion, students enjoy watching anime since it is fun and have many elements in it. However, they can still differentiate between the good and bad examples shown in the anime programme since they believed the programme contribute to aggressive behaviour. However, they would most likely to hit, attack, or kick the person who attacked them first.


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The Perceived Impact of ANIME on School Children's Aggresive Behaviour

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