We have many emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, romance, and so on. Based on those emotions, there are many types of movies: comedy, horror, romantic, motivational movies, etc.
Horror movies are made for eliciting your fear and create psychological anxiety in audiences.
The primary intention of horror movies is to bestow unconscious fear onto you. Though some people like horror movies, some people can not tolerate horror films at all. But horror movies have the power to attract people because horror movies are full of fantasy and everyone loves fantasy more than reality.
Experts say horror movies can convey harmful impacts on people, especially on weak-hearted persons. Moreover, horror movies are not a children’s thing. Adult people can understand the artificial aspects but children can not. So it is a psychological barrier for children.
Here we will discuss the effects of horror movies on child psychology. If you are a parent and conscious about your child psychology, you must read the article carefully. We will also give three super tips for parents to handle the problem appropriately.
Why People Watch Horror Movies?
- It is fascinating to make guesses about what will happen next.
- When people watch scary movies they feel emotions such as terror and excitement, which can be pleasurable.
- People like to witness the pain of others (in a safe environment).
- Feeling scared or terrified can cause an adrenaline rush, which can cause excitement.
- Some people like to use scary movies as a source of inspiration for their own creativity, such as writing or art.
- Some people watch horror films because they don’t have the nerve to experience real fear in dangerous situations and feel that watching horror films is a safer way to face their fears.
Child VS Horror Movie
Horror movies are scary, the story of horror movies about monsters or evils, but the interesting thing is most children love horror movies. The reason is the outstanding illustration and fantasy full story. However, being a child, watching a horror movie is not a good idea. Horror movies can harm the child mentally, psychologically as well as physically. Children have a fresh brain, they have the power to learn easily compared with an adult.
They can not differentiate between the fantasy and imaginary environment of a horror movie from the real world. They started to imagine their real world with the imagined story. Besides, they could have believed in monsters or evil power. This is not a satisfactory scenario to you for sure.
Effects Of Horror Movies On Child Psychology
Children are not so strong physiologically. They have not gathered many experiences of life. They think simply. Horror movies can affect child psychology badly. We will introduce some of those bad effects to you.
1.Increasing The Level Of Anxiety And Aggressiveness
Horror movies increase the level of anxiety in children. The frightening pictures and phenomena produce an anxious background and children can not understand the man-made story, they become aggressive seeing the monster in horror movies. Aggressiveness is not a pleasant factor of a human being. If your child becomes aggressive, it will be very difficult to control him or her. Similarly, anxiety will give him or her depression which is not an easy thing to recover from.
2.Disturbance And Nightmare
Horror films are made based on negative thoughts. And negative thoughts are very injurious for child health. They can face nightmare problems repeatedly. You know that whatever you think in the day, you will dream about the same matter at night. Children are no exception to this. If they watch horror movies regularly, they will start to illustrate the scene and the nightmare will generate disturbance in the child.
3.Sleep Disorder
Watching a horror movie will take you to a situation when you can not sleep properly. This situation takes the worst face when it happens with a child. They begin to visualize the scary story, feel like they are in the story and can not sleep properly. If this condition continues for a long period, the child will suffer from a sleep disorder.
4.Stimulating Fear
Horror movies stimulate fear in children. They start to believe the story and characters of the horror movies. And it becomes hard to believe in real life. They can fear you as a simple person because they can not distinguish between real-life characters and movie characters. This fear becomes the enemy for developing a child’s brain and also his or her life.
5.Self-Injurious Behaviour
When a child will suffer from anxiety, depression, aggressiveness with too much fear, a child will develop self-injurious behaviour. They can harm themselves at any time. They will want to get out of anxiety and depression but can not do that. They will think that they are responsible for this condition. With self-injurious intention, they can be harmful to others also.
Why Are Horror Movies Bad For Children?
Study shows that when a child views a horror film, they have a long-lasting effect on their psychology. It can affect their growth and brain development. They grow with anxiety, aggressiveness, trauma, this is not a beautiful thing. This is the worst thing for a child, and also for their parents.
Children start to think of imaginary characters in them and around them, it is called “Munchausen Syndrome”. This condition can destroy a child’s future. They can become mentally unstable. So, parents should not allow their children to watch horror movies. It can impress the child for a certain period but in the long run, they will suffer a lot. Horror movies are very dangerous for child psychology.
Three Super Tips For Parents
1.Give Adequate Time With Your Child
The most important thing is to give proper time to your child. Most of the parents remain busy with their work and forget to share times and sweet moments with their children. If you do not give your time and attention to your child, they will feel lonely.
Then they will spend their time with phones, pads or laptops watching movies, cartoons and doing different activities. When you will be careful about your child and will spend enough time with your child, they will not spend much time on tv or laptop. They will not be fascinated to watch horror movies and will grow, develop suitably.
2.Talk About The Positive Matter
Always keep in your mind that children learn from you. According to your taste, your child’s tastes develop. So if you watch a horror movie regularly, your children will watch horror movies. So behave yourself at first to stop your child from watching horror films. Talk about positive matters, never discuss any negative things in front of your child. Give them nice animation cartoons books to read, you also can give them religious books and you also should read books with your child.
2.Never Stress Them For Doing Any Job
Parents tell their children many stressful words like do this or ghosts will come. But this is not the appropriate way to convince your child. You should not do that. Giving fear is not the right option. From here children start to imagine ghosts or evil powers then they become interested in watching horror films. So never fear your children for doing your work further.
Final Verdict
Horror movies are interesting but can affect child psychology badly. Children should not watch horror movies. Scary movies initiate them to be aggressive and build negative thoughts in their mind. If you are an aware parent, you should save your children from watching horror movies. By getting three super tips I hope it becomes easy for you to control your child. I hope now you know about the effects of horror movies on child psychology.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1: Can Horror Films Cause Trauma For A Child?
Ans: Yes, according to the research of the University of Toronto, horror movies can cause trauma for people and children are awful victims. Watching horror movies increases fear, can give anxiety. If a child watches horror movies regularly the anxiety starts into depression.
Furthermore, if any bad scene of the horror movie comes to be related to his or her life, he or she can traumatize vastly. And healing this trauma becomes very tough. Growing with trauma is a crush for a child. Neither he/she enjoys their childhood nor can they grow peacefully.
2: Why Are Children Not Permitted To Watch A Horror Movie?
Ans: Children are not permitted to watch a horror movie, you can notice on the notifications at the beginning of the movie. Children cannot understand artificial manufacturing, they think all the events are true and start to imagine real life with the imaginary movie. It is a barrier for them to appreciate the real world and real life. This is why children are not permitted to watch a horror movie.
3: At Which Age, Children Can Watch A Horror Movie?
Ans: After the age of 16, anyone can watch a horror movie according to the law. But, if you do not feel comfortable watching a horror movie at 30, you should not watch horror movies.
4: What Are The Psychological Effects Of Watching A Horror Movie For A Child?
Ans: The psychological effect of children watching a horror movie is long lasting and risky. Some of the psychological effects are:
- Children become tense and aggressive.
- Suffering from anxiety and depression.
- Start to imagine his or her life with an imaginary character.
- Can get scared by natural things.
- Undergo stress, shock, and pressure.
- Release harmful hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine. Those hormones increase the stress level of a person and harm physically and mentally. Those hormones are deadly to your nervous system.
- Destroy the concentration power of a child.
Now, you can realize how bitterly a horror movie affects child psychology.