The social values orientation of Canadian adolescents and pre-adolescents was analyzed to determine the effects of television choice on their values. Youth were randomly selected from ethnic and non-ethnic populations in Montreal and Windsor by percentages of subgroups listed in Statistics Canada for each city. It was assumed that ethnic and non-ethnic adolescents and pre-adolescents would differ in their value orientation, that social and moral values held by ethnic parents and youth would differ from those of non-ethnic parents and youth, and that these differences would be reflected in perceptions about television heroes and content. The most important question was whether or not heroes transmit values or simply reinforce them. An initial questionnaire indicated family attitudes about a number of social interactions values, against which six weeks of observations of viewers was compared. Findings indicate that television viewing during adolescence for both ethnic and non-ethnic groups appears to be related to personal need and identity, as well as to entertainment, and values appear to be reinforced by television. (Author/JEG)