Personality and curiosity about TV and films violence in adolescents

The present study was designed to adapt Zuckerman and Litle’s Curiosity About Morbid Events scale (CAME) [Zuckerman, M., & Litle, P. (1986). Personality and curiosity about morbid and sexual events. Personality and Individual Differences, 7, 49–56] for Catalan-speaking adolescents, and to assess its relation with the junior personality scales, Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS/J) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ/J) within the framework of Zuckerman’s theory [Zuckerman, M. (1979). Sensation seeking; beyond the optimal level of arousal. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J.]. The adapted and modified version of CAME, which we have called CAME-M/J, and the cited personality scales were completed by a sample of 470 8th grade Basic General Education students of both genders, with a mean age of 13.64 years (sd: 0.67). Prior to this, teacher–tutor perception of their students’ aggressivity and excitability traits was assessed using a Likert-style scale. The results show good convergent validity, internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The P scale of the EPQ/J and the subscales Dis and TAS of the SSS/J relate to the consumption of violent films in boys, and E and TAS in girls. Boys who watch more violent films are rated as being more aggressive and excitable by their teachers. Multiple regression analyses show the personality variables P and Dis to be the best predictors of the CAME-M/J scale in boys, and in girls Dis, P and TAS. The results are compared with those obtained by Zuckerman and Litle (1986).