Early television viewing is associated with protesting turning off the television at age 6.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
The effects of early exposure to television remain poorly defined. Although some have speculated that television may be habit-forming, evidence is lacking especially in young children.

OBJECTIVE:
To test the hypothesis that television viewing in the first 4 years of life is associated with protesting having the television turned off at age 6.

METHODS:
We used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Parents reported how much television their children watched before the age of 4. They also reported how often their children protested having the television turned off at age 6. Their responses to this question were dichotomized to almost never vs other. Multivariate logistic regression was used to test the independent association of early television watching with subsequent protest at turning off the television, controlling for externalizing behavior scores at age 6, parenting style, and other covariates.

RESULTS:
Data were available for 1331 children. Sixty-three percent of children protested having the television turned off at age 6. In a logistic regression model, hours of television viewed per day before age 4 was associated with increased odds of protesting at age 6 (1.08 [1.02-1.15]).

CONCLUSION:
Early television exposure is associated with resistance to turning off the television at school age.

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Author information

Author/s: Christakis, Dimitri A (DA); Zimmerman, Frederick J (FJ);

Affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. dachris(-atsign-)u.washington.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: MedGenMed : Medscape general medicine (MedGenMed), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-; vol 8 (issue 2) : pp 63

Dates: Created 2006/08/23; Completed 2007/01/26;

PMID: 16926802, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Female
Humans
Male
Television - utilization
Time Factors

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