More bad news about TV

New research shows that the side effects of television viewing in toddlerhood are showing up in grade school. Here's an excerpt from an article in this week's School Library Journal:

Photo: Flickr by Rocketeer.

Children exposed to television between the ages of two and four appear to have more problems in school and poorer health behaviors when they reach the fourth grade, says Linda S. Pagani of Université de Montréal in Canada. She and colleagues studied 1,314 children between  the ages of 29 months and 53 months and asked parents to report their weekly hours of TV watching.

Then when the children reached the age of 10, parents and teachers were also asked to report on children’s academic and health behaviors, as well as their body mass index (BMI). Here’s what they found—each additional hour of television in early childhood resulted in a 7 percent decrease in classroom engagement, a 6 percent decrease in math achievement, and a 13 percent decrease in time spent doing weekend physical activity.

“With respect to indicators of sedentary habits in the fourth grade, every additional hour of exposure in 29 months corresponded to a 10 percent unit increase in video game use,” the study says.

At the same time, for each additional hour of TV watching in early childhood, research showed 9 percent higher scores for consumption of soft drinks and 10 percent higher scores for consumption of snacks, as well as a 5 percent increase in BMI.

TV-watching toddlers also showed 10 percent increase in classmate victimization at the fourth grade.

“The long-term risks associated with higher levels of early exposure may chart developmental pathways toward unhealthy dispositions in adolescence,” Pagani and her colleagues stated. “A population-level understanding of such risks remains essential for promoting child development.”