Studies Back Evidence Linking
Lots of TV With Poor Academics
Lindsey Tanner, Associated
Press, July 5, 2005
Too much television-watching can harm the ability of children to learn and
even reduce their chances of getting a college degree, three studies
suggest in the latest effort to examine how television affects children.
Critics, however, said the research did not adequately consider the
content of the television watched, but specialists said it bolsters advice
that children should not have televisions in their rooms.
The separate findings were published yesterday in the July issue of
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
One of the studies involved nearly 400 California third-graders. Those
with televisions in their bedrooms scored about 8 points lower on math and
language arts tests than children without sets in their bedrooms. A second
study, looking at nearly 1,000 adults in New Zealand, found lower
education levels among 26-year-olds who had watched lots of television
during childhood. A third study, based on nationally representative data
on nearly 1,800 US children, found that those who watched more than three
hours of television daily before age 3 scored slightly worse on academic
and intelligence tests at ages 6 and 7 than youngsters who watched less.
The effect was only modest but still worrisome, said coauthor Frederick
Zimmerman, a University of Washington researcher.
The studies took into account other factors that might have influenced the
outcome, such as household income. But they largely ignored other research
that "found positive associations between children's educational
television viewing and subsequent academic achievement," according to an
Archives editorial.
Previous research has linked television exposure in young children with
attention problems and difficulty learning to read. The American Academy
of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 not watch television, that
older children watch no more than two hours daily of "quality"
programming, and that televisions be kept out of children's bedrooms.
