Factors Influencing Children as They Consider Role Models

1) Entertainment

We live in a society in which children are barraged with a constant stream of entertainment, whether it comes from the radio, television, or computers (Signorielli, 2001). French and Pena (1991) postulated that while children four to six years of age still look to familiar people and occupations for their role models, older children have increasingly chosen their heroes from the realm of fantasy figures depicted on TV, videos, and comics. Educational programs, such as Mr. Rogers, Arthur, and Sesame Street, depict characters using problem solving skills available to all children including, talking it out, asking an adult for help, seeing the other person’s point of view, taking responsibility, tolerance, and embracing the diversity of others. The characters in educational television show growth and understanding with each experience; violence is not acceptable behaviour. Furthermore, women and men are depicted in a variety of roles, both professional and personal. They are often portrayed in gender-neutral roles in which both parents equally participate in the workplace and the home. It is not uncommon to find stay-at-home dads, or mothers running corporations on many of the educational shows on television today.

However, these shows co-exist with other kinds of programs that depict violence and negative images where magical powers and brute force are used as conflict resolution tools. Erickson (1980) (cited in Gash and Conway, 1997) asserts, “since television’s arrival, Irish and American cultures have entered an era where children’s exposure to a multiplicity of often conflicting role models has increased dramatically” (350). According to Signorielli (2001), “female characters were also more likely than male characters to be portrayed in traditional stereotypes such as being more emotional, romantic, affectionate and domestic” (347).

In contrast, “male characters are presented as more intelligent, more technical, more aggressive, and as asking and answering more questions but bragging less … male characters typically have recognizable jobs, whereas the females are often cast as caregivers” (347).

Today’s superheroes often share similar traits with their adversaries and “the lines between good and evil have blurred, both the hero and the villain are more omnipotent, and the weapons they yield are more destructive” (French & Pena, 1991, para. 6). While the parent is still the main influencing agent on children (Anderson & Cavallara, 2002), we suspect that media has become increasingly influential on children’s choices of role models.