The impact of leisure-time television viewing on institutionalized children with mental disturbances is virtually unexplored. Preliminary data collected by our laboratory at a state children's psychiatric center suggest that television viewing is a prevalent daily activity, and that inpatients may be differentially affected by such exposure. An extensive literature has already documented such effects in normal children. The subjects in the proposed research will be 120 children in a state children's psychiatric center. The study will explore the assumption, based on published research with normal children, that a videotaped diet of prosocial programming selected from existing commercial television (in contrast to the usual violence-laden commercial programming) can induce positive, or prosocial, behavior. In addition, post-program discussions will be conducted with the children by trained personnel as a means of labelling and encouraging prosocial attitudes and behaviors. Four different experimental conditions will be imposed on-site in the wards and will involve combinations of normal and prosocial programming with the presence or absence of post-program discussions. A variety of measures will be used to evaluate changes in children's prosocial/aggressive behaviors and psychological functioning. We believe this study is a needed first step in determining how exposure to a regular diet of commercial television affects emotionally disturbed, institutionalized children and how aspects of television viewing can be modified to serve as a more positive influence in the daily lives of these children.