If your kids are like mine, they have a few favorite characters from television, books, or even video games, who are still on their minds even when the screens are off and the books are closed. Kids develop strong attachments to these characters and everything they embody.
Maybe your child acts out scenes with Bluey after TV time is over, or can’t leave the house without a plush version of one of the cats from the Gabby’s Dollhouse series, or lies awake whispering to her favorite Paw Patrol pups after lights out. Or, maybe you use lines from the Llama Llama books by Anna Dewdney to remind your child to be a good friend, or quote Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss to cajole her into tasting a new food.
All of these attachments are not just to characters, but to the deeper ideas embedded in them, and they can really shape your child’s outlook on the world.
Characters With Explicit Messages
Many of our favorite characters, both classic and contemporary, convey very direct moral messages. Spider-Man has the motto, “With great power comes great responsibility,” and Paw Patrol‘s many messages include, “No job is too big, no pup is too small.
We can directly see the effect of some of these.
For instance, if your child is a Daniel Tiger fan, your child might pause when frustrated and say, “When you feel so mad that you wanna roar, take a deep breath and count to four!”
We can also reinforce them.
Sesame Street introduced a format where a character facing a problem says, “I wonder, what if, let’s try,” to walk through the steps of thinking about the issue, brainstorming solutions, and then testing them. A parent can lean on this by asking their child, “What would Elmo or Abby Cadabby do?” and reminding them of the steps.
Then, of course, everyone who had any connection with a preschool or daycare in the late 1990s and early 2000s will surely remember borrowing the Clean Up song from Barney & Friends to get kids happily moving and picking up toys.
The remarkable part is that this works because children’s media does have an impact.
The Implicit Messages Have A Clear Effect, Too
In a 2013 study published in Pediatrics, researchers asked parents to alter some of their children’s viewing habits.
They were not intended to reduce overall screen time, but to substitute other media, with a focus on shows that modeled prosocial behavior (behavior that benefits society as a whole, such as kindness, sharing, and being a good friend). These included programs in which prosocial behavior was the primary focus (Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, and Super Why!, which the researchers specifically name), as well as others they describe as modeling prosocial behavior more inconsistently (including Curious George, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Sid the Science Kid).
Then the researchers used a scorecard, the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (SCBE), which assesses behaviors such as anxiety, anger, depression, and oppositionality, as well as social competence.
Compared with the control group (children whose media consumption was not altered), children who were redirected to more prosocial cartoons showed higher SCBE scores at 6 and 12 months.
There Are Caveats, Of Course
While kids certainly learn lessons from Bluey, Gabby, Big Bird, Daniel Tiger, and all the others, they’re also constantly learning from their families and others in their social circle.
This means that others with influence can undermine these positive lessons, so it remains important for parents and other caregivers to model prosocial behaviors for their children.
Kids can also pick up negative or harmful behaviors from other characters they love, so parents must be active in their children’s media options.
Additionally, there are no long-term studies demonstrating that these effects persist beyond 12 months. There’s some anecdotal evidence that some of us take our media influence into adulthood (I know I still think of Captain Planet when I reuse a plastic container), but we don’t have strong data on the lasting effects of these influences.
That said, we have ample evidence of positive effects in the short term, and we can hope that the best things we (directly or through their media) teach our children will stick.
What Should Parents Take From This?
When your kids have a favorite cartoon character, lean into that and embrace the character’s best traits and lessons. Get to know the character yourself, and be ready to mention how Elmo handles disappointment, to reference how the Paw Patrol “never give up,” or to remind them that Daniel Tiger sings, “When something feels bad, turn it around, and find something good.”
You can make all of those implicit lessons explicit. Name the lesson when the show is on (“I’m glad Bluey realized that she should stop talking for Bingo and let her find her voice. That was very understanding,”) and then implement it when called for (“Are you listening to your sister, or just deciding what you think she should want? Do you remember how Bluey had to stop and listen to her sister?”)
Most of all, if your child is deeply attached to a character, don’t panic. Instead, observe and see what your kid is learning, and take the chance to help internalize the best lessons.