Psychological factors of excessive TV viewing in senior pupils

Abstract

Media influence on a person qualifies in the context of negative evaluations of a person's dependence, especially children, on the media. The aim of this study was to reveal the influence of TV news on psycho-emotional state of youth audience, and the extent to which psychological traits determine their propensity for television watching. Forty-two healthy volunteers aged 14–17 years, the senior pupils of one of high schools in Chernihiv, Ukraine, participated in this study. Participants recorded the time they spend watching TV news and commercials during the month. We used Temperament and Character Inventory by Cloninger, Cloninger Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, Technique of Diagnostics of Ability to Predict by Regush, School Anxiety Test by Philips, Beck Depression Inventory, Technique of Diagnostics of a Potential of Communicative Impulsiveness by Losenkov, the Method of Diagnostics of the Level of Empathic Abilities by Boyko, Maddi Hardiness Survey, and the Emotional Intelligence Self-Evaluation by Hall. We found that excessive TV viewing has been linked to the development of depression among the participants. There was an inverse correlation between the cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms of depression and the reward dependence, mediated by the noradrenergic brain system. The main independent determinants influencing excessive TV viewing were low levels of the reward dependence and the novelty seeking (which reflects the activity of dopaminergiс brain system). We argue that the propensity for watching TV and depression development can be predicted by psychological traits, related to the activity of monoaminergic brain systems.