the relationship between movie violence and violent behavior in adolescents: a cross-sectional population-based study in isfahan, iran

Background: violent behavior in adolescents is one of the important public health problems; however, studies on this issue in developing countries are limited. nowadays, adolescents spend a lot of day-night time watching tv. objectives: the aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between watching violent movies and perpetrating violent behaviors among adolescents. methods: in this cross-sectional study, 2800 adolescents, aged 11 - 18 years, residing in urban and rural areas of isfahan province were enrolled. this study received a part of a grant no. 188169 dedicated to a project scrutinizing if watching violent movies by adolescents encouraged violent behaviors in the three domains of physical, verbal, and psychological violence. the data were gathered by a valid and reliable questionnaire, and spss software was used for data analysis. results: violent behaviors were significantly higher among adolescents who watched more violent movies (adjusted or = 1.6, ci: 1.3 - 2.1). physical, verbal, and psychological types of violence achieved the adjusted ors of 1.6 (ci: 1.3 - 2.05), 1.3 (ci: 1.1 - 1.6), and 1.07 (ci = 0.8 - 1.3), respectively. conclusions: watching violent movies can noticeably increase the frequency of violent behaviors among adolescents, especially in boys and rural students.