Sesame Street Study Finds Kids Fear Violence

N E W   Y O R K,  May 29, 2001 -- American children ages 6 to 11 fret over guns, death, violence and the environment according to a new study by the creators of Sesame Street.

The Sesame Workshop (formerly called the Children's Television Workshop) conducted the study to get a handle on the educational and developmental needs of children ages 6 to 11 and to come up with educational media content for that age group.

In the pursuit of ideas about learning programs, researchers tapped into a surprising fear of violence in a majority of the kids interviewed.

The qualitative study allowed 233 children of diverse ethnic backgrounds from across the country to use cameras, art work, collages from newspapers and magazines, and mini-essays to describe their lives — including their hopes and fears — in workbooks.

Susan Royer, the vice president of research strategy at Sesame Workshop, says the kid's responses reveal that the "adult world" affects them very deeply.

"We were surprised, I think, at the presence of the adult world so much in the child's world, kind of the sprawl of adulthood onto childhood," Royer told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

"Certainly that was evidenced in the kids' fears — not just of death, which might be considered normal at this age — but really, kind of the accompaniment of violence and more adult things as it relates to those issues."

Kid Fears

When asked to state their fears, nearly two-thirds of the children vividly depicted intense unsettling anxieties about guns, death and violence. Among the 9-to-11-year-olds, the proportion indicating such fears was three-fourths.

Asked what they were afraid of, Eric Najera, for instance, depicted his fears with a picture of a kidnapping.

"Lots of time, I'm like scared," he said. "There's people… there's people like gangsters, hanging around, marking their area."

Robby Janeczek said he's worried about school shootings. To depict his fears, he had a workbook with the letters RIP on it.

"I can picture it happening at any school," he said. "I feel safe, but there's still that one feeling that says that could happen. I don't want to die at a young age. I wanna die happy and old."

Cherisse Olpin said she feels safe in her parents' bed, tucked in tightly.

"No one can get me," she says, adding that it is safe from bad people, "like thieves or kidnappers."

No More Playgrounds?

Though they were not asked expressly about the environment, it surfaced as a concern for many of the children who were part of the study.

Children ages 9 to 11 said they are worried about environmental problems that could shrink their play areas and pollution. Nearly 65 percent expressed concerns that outdoor places could be lost to development or neglect.

Media looms large in the lives of children, though its importance varied depending on sex, the study showed.

Three-fourths of all the 9-to-11-year-olds interviewed cited the media room as the heart of their home, with 60 percent of boys saying the TV was the main attraction. Girls, however, emphasized family togetherness as the draw for the media room.

Almost half of the boys said an electronic item such as a television or electronic game were their prized possessions, while girls valued dolls and toys.

When asked about who they though of as heroes, magicians and wise ones in their lives, children consistently picked their parents and family members. Grandparents, aunts and uncles were also selected as people who played valuable roles in their lives.