"We see violence as a more logical and acceptable solution to conflict," Rich said

"The evidence has gotten to the point where it's overwhelming," said Jeffrey G. Johnson of Columbia University, lead author of a study that found watching more than one hour of TV daily is followed by increases in the rate of assaults, fights, robberies and other aggressive acts in later years.

One of the most definitive studies yet to link watching television with violent behavior finds both men and women are affected by violent programs on television - but teen-age boys are especially at risk.

CBS News Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports that despite inroads by the National Association of Broadcasters to cut back on television violence, TV still exposes young people to an extraordinary amount of trauma and aggression.

The average hour of prime time viewing has three to five violent acts. An average of seven people are killed on TV every night.

According to pediatrician Michael Rich, it's no surprise that kids become desensitized to violence and its consequences.

"We see violence as a more logical and acceptable solution to conflict," Rich said. "We see more dating violence among young people we see more violence being used for people to get their way."

The increase in aggressive behavior with more TV watched held true both for people who had previous violent incidents and for those who had not had shown earlier aggression. That means the findings are not merely the result of people already prone to violence being more avid viewers.

"Our findings suggest that, at least during early adolescence, responsible parents should avoid permitting their children to watch more than one hour of television a day," said Johnson, who is also affiliated with the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Johnson's research team studied more than 700 people for 17 years.

While other studies have linked watching violent television to later aggressive behavior, Johnson said this is the first to investigate the total amount of time individuals spent watching and to follow those people over many years.

"I was surprised to see a five-fold increase in aggressive behavior from less than one hour to three or more hours," Johnson said in a telephone interview. "I found that quite remarkable."

The study is appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Among youths who watched less than an hour of television daily at age 14, just 5.7 percent were involved in aggressive acts by the ages of 16 to 22, the study found.

But for those who watched between one and three hours the aggression rate jumped to 22.5 percent, and the rate was 28.8 percent for those who watched three hours or more, the study found.

The effect was most pronounced for boys, with rates of 8.9 percent committing aggressive acts for those who watched - http://ccmixter.org/api/query?datasource=uploads&search_type=all&sort=ra... less than an hour of TV at age 14, 32.5 percent for one to three hours and 45.2 percent for those watching more than three hours of television. For https://www.mfvpyou5.online - https://www.mfvpyou5.online girls the rates were 2.3 percent, 11.8 percent and 12.7 percent.

A researcher whose 1998 analysis found increased violent behavior in youths who watched more than six hours of television daily welcomed - http://news.sky.com/search?term=welcomed the report.

Mark I. Singer of Case Western Reserve University, who was not connected to the new research, said it was "an important study" that covered a significant period of time and took into account potential outside influences.

He said part of the importance of the new report is the indication that there is a relationship in both sexes between television viewing and aggressive behavior.

The American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians and American Psychiatric Association also have reported connections between viewing violent television and aggressive behavior.