A total of 1133 13-15-year-old pupils in six secondary schools in South Wales were invited to complete questions concerning vampire belief and amount of television watching. The data demonstrate that belief in vampires was positively associated with higher levels of television watching

Picton, Laura

Robbins, Mandy

Williams, Emyr

English

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 University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap  This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our policy information available from the repository home page for further information.  To see the final version of this paper please visit the publisher’s website. Access to the published version may require a subscription.  Author(s): Emyr Williams ;  Mandy Robbins ; Laura Picton Article Title: Adolescent television viewing and belief in vampires  Year of publication: 2006 Link to published version:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13617670600850000 Publisher statement:  ‘This is an electronic version of an article published in Williams, E. et al. (2006). Adolescent television viewing and belief in vampires. Journal of Beliefs & Values, Vol. 27, pp. 227-229. The  Journal of Beliefs & Values is available online at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/954504285-36259360/content~db=all~content=a755226365   Adolescent Television Viewing and Belief in Vampires          Emyr Williams Project Officer, Welsh National Centre for Religious Education, University of Wales, Bangor, UK  Dr Mandy Robbins Teaching and Research Fellow, Welsh National Centre for Religious Education, University of Wales, Bangor, UK  and  Laura Picton Research Associate, Welsh National Centre for Religious Education, University of Wales, Bangor, UK    address for correspondence  Dr Mandy Robbins Welsh National Centre for Religious Education University of Wales, Bangor Meirion, Normal Site Bangor Gwynedd   LL57 2PZ Wales, UK  telephone 01248 382768 fax  01248 383954 e-mail  m.robbins@bangor.ac.uk website www.bangor.ac.uk/rs/pt      1 Adolescent Television Viewing and Belief in Vampires Emyr Williams, Mandy Robbins* and Laura Picton University of Wales, Bangor, UK                   * Corresponding author: Welsh National Centre for Religious Education, University of Wales, Bangor, Meirion Normal Site, Bangor, Gwynedd, Ll57 2PZ, UK. E-mail: m.robbins@bangor.ac.uk   2  Summary A total of 1,133 13- to 15- year-old pupils in six secondary schools in South Wales were invited to complete questions concerning vampire belief and amount of television watching.  Data demonstrated that belief in vampires was positively associated with higher levels of television watching                   3 Introduction Strasburger and Donnerstein (1999) have documented the considerable attention given in recent years to the relationship between the media and adolescent behaviour.  One branch of research has focused on the interface between religiosity and television viewing (Francis & Gibson, 1992, 1993).  In particular recent qualitative research by Schofield-Clark (2003) has focused on the appropriation of television characters and scenarios into the often unconventional religious beliefs and value systems of adolescents.  She notes how characters from programmes such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are now providing adolescents with role models upon which to base their beliefs and values.  The persistence of and increase in vampire belief, linked to the increased representation of vampires in the media, has been noted by many authors in qualitative studies of the vampire subculture, particularly in America (Ramsland, 1998; Guiley, 1991; Konstantinos, 1996, cf Keyworth, 2002).  However, no published quantitative studies have sought to investigate the frequency of vampire beliefs outside that culture and assess its relationship with frequency of television viewing.  This aim of this paper is to investigate the connection between television watching and vampire beliefs among a general sample of adolescents.  Method Questionnaires were distributed to 1,133 pupils in years 9 and 10 (13- to 15- year olds) in six English-medium secondary schools in South Wales.  Of the 1,133 participants, 536 were male and 597 female; two thirds (66%) were in year 9, and one third (34%) in year 10.  4 As part of a larger survey, pupils completed two questions relating to belief in vampires, namely I believe vampires exist and I believe the dead can harm you measured on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘agree strongly’ to ‘disagree strongly’.  Participants also completed a question relating to the amount of televising watching on one day in the previous week, measured on a five-point scale, ranging from ‘none’ to ‘four hours or more’.  Following the conceptualisation of Francis (1997), the sample was divided into two groups, distinguishing between low levels of television viewing (under four hours a day) and high levels of viewing (four hours or more a day).  The Likert-type items were also dichotomised, combining the ‘agree strongly’ and ‘agree’ categories, and combining the ‘not certain’, ‘disagree’ and ‘disagree strongly’ categories.  Using the SPSS statistical package, statistical significance was calculated on a 2X2 chi squared contingency table.  Results The data indicated that high frequency television watchers were significantly more likely to believe in vampires: 22% of those who watched four hours or more of television a day believed in the existence of vampires, compared to 11% of those who watched under four hours of television (χ2 = 23.4, p< .001).  Those who watched more than four hours or more of television were also significantly more likely to believe that the dead can harm the living: 26% compared to 18% of those who watched under four hours (χ2 = 9.7, p< .01).     5 Conclusion Two main conclusions can be drawn from these results.  First, the data demonstrate that adolescents who watch four hours or more of television in a day are significantly more likely to believe in the existence of vampires.  Second, the data also demonstrate that those adolescents who watch four or more hours of television a day are significantly more likely to believe that the dead can harm you, a fundamental concept in vampire belief.  The paper has demonstrated a clear link between television consumption and fantastical creatures, namely vampires.  Further studies are now needed to confirm the link between frequency of television watching and the unconventional religious beliefs of adolescents.  References Francis, L. J. (1997) The socio-psychological profile of the teenage television addict, Muslim Educational Quarterly, 15, 4-19.  Francis L. J. & Gibson, H. M. (1992) Popular religious television and adolescent attitudes towards Christianity, in: J. Astley & D. Day (Eds) The Contours of Christian Education (Great Wakering, McCrimmons), 369-381.  Francis, L. J. & Gibson, H. M. (1993) The influence of age, sex, social class and religion on television viewing time and programme preferences among 11-15 year olds, Journal of Educational Television, 19, 25-35.  Guiley, R. (1991) Vampires among us (New York, Pocket Books).  Jagodzinski, J. (2004) Youth fantasies: the perverse landscape of the media (New York, Palgrave Macmillan).  Keyworth, D. (2002) The socio-religious beliefs and nature of the contemporary vampire subculture, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 17, 355-370.  Konstantinos. (1996) Vampires: the occult truth (St Paul, Llewelyn).  Ramsland, K. (1998) Piercing the darkness: undercover with vampires in America today (London, Boxtree).   6 Schofield-Clark, L. (2003) From angels to aliens: teenagers, the media and the supernatural (New York, Oxford University Press).  Srasburger, V. C. & Donnerstein, E. (1999) Children, adolescents, and the media: issues and solutions, Pediatrics, 103, 129-139. 

Children, adolescents, and the media: issues and solutions,

From angels to aliens: teenagers, the media and the supernatural

Piercing the darkness: undercover with vampires in America today

Popular religious television and adolescent attitudes towards Christianity, in:

The influence of age, sex, social class and religion on television viewing time and programme preferences among 11-15 year olds,

Adolescent television viewing and belief in vampires

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