Research indicates that children are especially vulnerable to the effects of television viewing. Taking a psychological, social-science perspective, this book explores how television viewing affects children. Chapter 1, "Introduction," (MacBeth) discusses the issues involved, how researchers go about studying media effects, whether television viewing is an active or passive activity, and how to determine whether television affects viewers and whether viewers with different characteristics use television differently. Chapter 2, "Television and Socialization of Young Children," (Huston and Wright) explores what family influences, societal influences, and individual characteristics are important in determining how much and what programming children watch, and how patterns of viewing affect children's social development and thinking. Chapter 3, "Diversity on Television," (Graves) discusses whether the multicultural nature of North American society is reflected in television programming and the effect of various portrayals on racial-ethnic groups and on members of the dominant culture. Chapter 4, "Television and Children's Fear," (Cantor), discusses whether children's fright reactions to television and other media are serious and long lasting, whether children at certain ages are particularly vulnerable, and whether the same sorts of things cause fear in all age groups. Chapter 5, "Television Violence Viewing and Aggressive Behavior," (Dubow and Miller) discusses how viewing television violence influences aggressive behaviors and how the potential negative effects can be reduced. Chapter 6, "Indirect Effects of Television: Creativity, Persistence, School Achievement, and Participation in Other Activities," (MacBeth) explores the indirect effects that seem to be caused by how television is used. Chapter 7, "Television Dependence, Diagnosis, and Prevention: With Commentary on Video Games, Pornography, and Media Education," (Kubey) discusses how people can determine whether they and their children are watching too much television and how they might change their habits and use television more constructively. Each chapter contains references. (LPP)