Children's Health
This article is from the WebMD News Archive
Too Much TV May Hurt Kids at School
July 5, 2005 -- Children who watch too much TV or have a television set in their bedroom may suffer in school and cut their chances of graduating from college, according to new research.
Three separate studies provide new evidence that can have a negative effect on their academic achievement later in life in many ways. These include:
- Having a TV in the bedroom was linked to lower scores on standardized math, language, and reading tests in the third grade.
- Children who watched the most TV between the ages of 5 and 11 were less likely to graduate from college.
- Each hour of daily television viewing before age 3 was associated with lower developmental scores at ages 6 to 7.
Researchers say the impact of the findings could be substantial, as more than 70% of U.S. children have a TV in their bedroom.
and violent behavior. Researchers say the long-term effects of television on academic achievement have been less clear.
TV in Child's Bedroom Hurts Test Scores
The first of the studies, which appear in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, looked at the relationship between children's use of media (television and computers) and academic achievement in about 350 third-graders at six public elementary schools in northern California in 2000.
More than 70% of the children said they had a TV in their bedroom, and these children scored between seven and nine points lower on standardized math, reading, and language arts tests than those who didn't have a television in their bedroom.
Overall, children with a bedroom TV watched an average of nearly 13 hours of television per week compared with an average of less than 11 hours per week among those without a bedroom television.
The study also showed that children who had access to home computers scored higher on these tests than those who didn't have access to a computer at home.
"This study doesn't prove that putting a television in your child's bedroom will decrease his or her test scores, but it does add to the increasing evidence that it's not a good idea," says researcher Thomas Robinson, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, in a news release.
"A television in a child's bedroom has become the norm," says Robinson. "From the parent's perspective, it keeps kids amused and out of trouble. But with this arrangement parents are giving up any control of how much and what their children are watching."
TV Cuts Children's College Chances
In the second study, researchers in New Zealand followed the television viewing habits of about 1,000 children for about 15 years and then collected information about their educational achievement at age 26.
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