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Jan. 6, 2021

Disney, Pixar and Netflix are teaching your children the wrong messages about pain

Young children are frequently seeing pain portrayed unrealistically in kids’ TV shows and movies, writes Melanie Noel, Faculty of Arts, and colleague in Conversation Canada
Disney, Pixar and Netflix are teaching your children the wrong messages about pain

Mass media exert an  and is very likely how they learn about pain. Understanding the powerful influence that media has on preschoolers and kindergarteners is important because this is a crucial developmental period for socio-emotional development and is precisely the time when .

Like it or not, pain is an inevitable part of childhood. In Canada, children receive . From the time that toddlers begin walking, everyday pains or “boo-boos” — minor injuries that result in bumps and bruises — are extremely common,.

  • Co-author of this article with , University of Bath

Media can be powerful influence on preschoolers and kindergarteners at a crucial period of development when fears about pain (especially needles) develop.

Pexels/Ketut Subiyanto

By the time they reach adolescence,. This means pain lasting for three months or more, like headaches and stomach aches. Chronic pain is a rising epidemic around the world,. If these youth do not receive proper treatment, chronic pain during adolescence can lead to pain and  (PTSD, anxiety, depression,) into adulthood.

Simply put, pain is a big part of childhood. Yet, as a society we avoid, undertreat and stigmatize pain. Despite decades of research showing how to effectively manage children’s pain (for example, using numbing creams or distraction techniques), studies show that many clinicians still , and neither acute (short-lasting) nor chronic () pain is well-managed.

Children who experience chronic pain  and often . These deeply ingrained societal beliefs about pain likely influence how children learn to experience, respond and empathize with pain.

So where does this social stigma of pain come from? What do Disney, Pixar and Netflix have to do with your child’s pain?

Children’s media exposure

Children are growing up saturated with mass media and . The COVID-19 pandemic has only fuelled this further. While the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that preschool-aged children watch , the majority of children .

, we used popular culture lists to capture the most popular movies and TV shows seen by millions of four-to-six-year-old children. The final list included Despicable Me 2,The Secret Life of Pets,Toy Story 3Ի4,Incredibles 2,Inside Out,Up,Zootopia,Frozen,Finding Dory,Sofia the First,Shimmer and Shine,Paw Patrol,Octonauts,Peppa PigԻDaniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood.

We watched all 52.38 hours of media and all instances of pain were captured. We used established coding schemes drawn from the procedural and everyday pain literature to code details of the pain experience, including both the sufferers’ and the observers’ responses, the type of pains depicted and the degree to which observers showed empathy to the characters in pain. We examined gender differences in the pain experiences of boy versus girl characters.

Research showed that pain was depicted approximately nine times per hour in children’s media.

Pexels/Victoria Borodinova

When characters experienced pain, they rarely (only 10 per cent of the time) asked for help or showed a reaction, perpetuating an unrealistic and distorted perception of pain that shows pain as being quickly swept aside. Although 75 per cent of pain instances were witnessed by observers, they rarely responded to characters experiencing pain, and when they did, they showed very low levels of empathy or concern toward the sufferer.

Across the media, boy characters experienced the vast majority of pain, despite girls experiencing higher rates of pain problems in real life. This underrepresentation of pain in girl characters could be teaching young children that girls’ pain is less frequent, real and worthy of attention from others. Indeed, we found that girl characters were less likely to seek help when they experienced pain than boy characters.

Boy characters experienced more severe and distressing pain than girls; however, observers were more concerned about, and likely to help, girl characters. Observers were more likely to show inappropriate responses (laughter) to boy sufferers. Boy observers were more likely to laugh and offer verbal advice to sufferers, whereas girl observers were more empathetic toward sufferers.

Frequent and unrealistic portrayals of pain

These findings reveal that popular media are perpetuating unhelpful gender stereotypes about pain, with girls being depicted as damsels in distress who show more caring and empathy and require more help, and boys being portrayed as stoic and uncaring towards others.

Children are growing up saturated with mass media and rates of screen time are rising.

Pexels/Karolina Grabowska

At critical developmental periods when young children are learning about themselves, others and the world, they are seeing pain frequently portrayed in their favourite TV shows and movies. In children’s media, pain is frequently depicted (nine times per hour), it is unrealistically and often violently portrayed, empathy and helping is rarely depicted, and unhelpful gender stereotypes abound.

These messages are potentially harmful as we know that children turn to their favourite characters to understand and make sense of their everyday experiences such as pain and importantly, to learn how to respond to their own pain and pain in others.

These findings highlight a pervasive societal stigma around pain that is being communicated to young children. This highlights the responsibility that we all have in dismantling and changing these societal narratives about pain to ensure that this powerful social learning opportunity is not missed and we are raising more prepared and empathic children for the inevitable pains they will encounter throughout their lives.

This story is part of a series produced by SKIP (Solutions for Kids in Pain), a national knowledge mobilization network whose mission is to improve children’s pain management by mobilizing evidence-based solutions through co-ordination and collaboration.

is an associate professor of clinical psychology at the ݮƵ and a full member of the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.