Children's Television Use Research Articles

Szülői attitűdök, magatartásformák a tévéhasználatra vonatkozóan egy székelyföldi településen

In my study, I analyse parental attitudes towards children's TV watching in a suburban settlement. I analyze two components of parental attitudes. In my research, I conducted semi-structured interviews with mothers from Sângeorgiu de Mureș who have children in grades 5-8 and attend an educational institution in the settlement. The interviews were structured around three main themes: how parents think about their children's time in front of the television, what kind of regulation they use when it comes to deciding about their children's time in front of the television and when it comes to deciding about content consumption. In my study, I use the resulting text data to analyse statements about children's television use and identify parental attitudes.

Media Use and Children's Perceptions of Societal Threat and Personal Vulnerability

This study examined children's media use (i.e., amount of television and Internet usage) and relationships to children's perceptions of societal threat and personal vulnerability. The sample consisted of 90 community youth aged 7 to 13 years (M = 10.8; 52.2% male) from diverse economic backgrounds. Analyses found children's television use to be associated with elevated perceptions of personal vulnerability to world threats (i.e., crime, terrorism, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods). An interactive model of television use and child anxiety in accounting for children's personal threat perceptions was supported, in which the strength of television consumption in predicting children's personal threat perceptions was greater for children with greater anxiety. Relationships were found neither between children's Internet use and threat perceptions nor between media use and perceptions of societal threat.

Time Well Spent? Relating Television Use to Children's Free-Time Activities

This study assessed the claim that children's television use interferes with time spent in more developmentally appropriate activities. Data came from the first wave of the Child Development Supplement, a nationally representative sample of children aged 0 to 12 in 1997 (N = 1712). Twenty-four-hour time-use diaries from 1 randomly chosen weekday and 1 randomly chosen weekend day were used to assess children's time spent watching television, time spent with parents, time spent with siblings, time spent reading (or being read to), time spent doing homework, time spent in creative play, and time spent in active play. Ordinary least squares multiple regression was used to assess the relationship between children's television use and time spent pursuing other activities. Results indicated that time spent watching television both with and without parents or siblings was negatively related to time spent with parents or siblings, respectively, in other activities. Television viewing also was negatively related to time spent doing homework for 7- to 12-year-olds and negatively related to creative play, especially among very young children (younger than 5 years). There was no relationship between time spent watching television and time spent reading (or being read to) or to time spent in active play. The results of this study are among the first to provide empirical support for the assumptions made by the American Academy of Pediatrics in their screen time recommendations. Time spent viewing television both with and without parents and siblings present was strongly negatively related to time spent interacting with parents or siblings. Television viewing was associated with decreased homework time and decreased time in creative play. Conversely, there was no support for the widespread belief that television interferes with time spent reading or in active play.

Does Children's Watching of Television Cause Attention Problems? Retesting the Hypothesis in a Danish Cohort

To the Editor. In a recent issue of Pediatrics , Christakis et al1 reported an association between the number of hours of watching television close to 2 and 4 years and parents' report on their children's behavior in early school age. Based on the findings, the authors suggest that we generally limit young children's television use. This is probably a good idea, but we question whether this report creates additional evidence for this advice. The authors reported a 9% increase in risk of attention problems for each daily hour of television-watching. The measure of adverse behavior was based on a score of maternal report of child behavior including restlessness, concentration problems, impulsiveness, confusion, and obsession. A similar association …

Book Essays and Reviews

Book Essays and Reviews

Socio-economic Status and Children’s Television Use

This study investigates the relationship between children's television use and the socio-economic status of their parents. The data are based on a representative sample of 890 children living in the Flemish Community of Belgium. Initial results indicated that the SES background of children is indeed related to a range of television-use variables. However, further analyses indicated 1) that the results obtained vary according to the indicator of SES employed, with the education of the mother being more widely and linearly related to children's media use than was the occupation of the father. 2) that the relationship between SES and children's television use becomes spurious when other variables are entered into the analysis. It was concluded that any effects that SES can be postulated to have on children's television use are indirect and that future research should avoid the dangers of over-generalization

A cross‐cultural analysis of children's television use

This study compared uses of U.S. television by foreign children residing in the U.S. and their American counterparts in light of theories of acculturation, cultivation, and uses and gratifications. Compared with U.S. children, foreign children: used television more for learning purposes, were relatively more interested in television programs, spent more time watching television, identified more frequently with television characters, and expressed stronger beliefs in the social reality portrayed by television.

Television Use by Adults and Children: A Multivariate Analysis

Television use by husbands, wives, and children is analyzed in an economic model using multiple regression. The findings show education to be the most important determinant of television use. It was also found that income decreases adults', but increases children's, television use; that number and age of siblings affects children's television use nonlinearly; and that number of television sets is not important in determining television use.