|
|
Your Child's MindTrusting God's Design to Guide Your Child's Development |
|
|
|
|
This is where we'll announce the most recent research information. If you've visited us before and want to know what's changed, take a look here first. Research on Attention: For many years parents have recognized that there is a connection between attention problems and the amount of time their child spends in front of a screen. Parents are puzzled because their child has no problem paying attention for hours to video games but cannot pay attention to completing the tasks of school work. Christakis published an article on attention in Pediatrics "Early television Exposure and subsequent Attentional Problems in Children" April 2004, vol. 113 pp 708-713. This study evaluated 1278 children age 1, 1345 children age 3 and the data from both groups again at age 7. They found that a 3 year-old who watches TV for 2 hours per day has a 20% increased risk fro attention problems at age 7 compared to the child that doesn't watch any TV. For each additional hour of TV watched the risk goes up 10%. They considered problems with attention to be easy distractibility, impulsiveness, restlessness, and difficulty concentrating. The 1995 Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry VI explains ADHD and the environment in this way. "Thus as the environment becomes more complex and demanding, more children may be encountered who exhibit the symptoms and meet criteria for the disorder, not necessarily because biology is changing, but because biological capacities are increasingly overwhelmed in modern society. That may lead to a cohort effect, such that more ADHD is seen in more children in successive decades.' "It is also possible that today's complex environments are over-stimulating children who assimilate a steady diet of videogames, television, multiple after-school activities, harried parents, and interchangeable caretakers may have their attentional systems down-regulated as means of reducing the noise. They may become used to many novel, complex stimuli, and their attentional system may not respond to the lower level stimuli involved in academic work." P2300. Research on Aggression For many years physicians have recognized negative psychological effects from viewing media violence. And there is lots of it. Lots of media violence and lots of research studies regarding the negative impact on children. The National Institute on Media and the Family has collated some startling statistics. In 1998 61% of TV programs contained violence. 43% of violent scenes contains humor. (Humor is a way to disengage the critical thinking part of the brain.) 44% of the perpetrators of violence are presented in an attractive fashion. 75% of violent scenes show no immediate punishment. It does not take much for us as parents to recognize the negative influence of violent programming. And, our children are regularly desensitized to it, such that they no longer are repulsed by violence. 59% of 4th grade girls and 73% of boys say the majority of their favorite video games are violent (2001) Newer research, however, suggests that TV may be influencing our brain chemistry independent of the content of the programming and making us a more aggressive culture. "Television Viewing and aggressive behavior during adolescence and adulthood," Science 2002 March 29; 295 (5564): 2468-71, was a clean prospective study looking at the effects of TV viewing and aggression. It was completed at Columbia and New York state Psychiatric Institute and followed 707 individuals over 17 years. Its final conclusion was that, "There was a significant association between the amount of time spent watching television during adolescence and early adulthood and the likelihood of subsequent aggressive acts against others." They "Controlled" for certain variables which means they made certain that many other factors that can contribute to aggression were evaluated such as previous aggressive behavior, childhood neglect, family income, neighborhood violence, parental education and psychiatric disorders. The association between TV viewing and later aggression remained "clean" and significant! It was a significant association independent of the content of the programming which was not closely followed. A study on younger children and their subsequent tendency to "bully" was also studied. Frederick Zimmerman Ph.D. at the University of Washington identified a statistically significant relationship between bullying behavior and the amount of TV they watched. The study looked at TV viewing at age 4 and looked again at their behavior at age 6-11. 4 year-olds who watched 3.5 hours of TV per day were 25% more likely to bully. Those watching 8 hours or more were 200% more likely to bully. "Early Cognitive Stimulation, Emotional Support, and Television Watching as Predictors of Subsequent Bullying Among Grade-School Children " Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine,159, April 4, 2005. 384-8. Research on Obesity Obesity is also a very complex topic regarding its interplay with media. Research has shown that children want to eat what they see advertised on TV. These are most frequently foods that are high in calories and low in nutrients (i.e junk food, high sugar cereals). "When Children Eat What They Watch, Impact of Television Viewing on Dietary Intake in Youth" Arch Pediatric Adolescent Medicine 2006; 160: 436-442. However, interesting research at Stanford showed that media is capable of influencing obesity independent of high calorie foods or lack of physical exercise. "Reducing Children's Television viewing to prevent obesity: a randomized controlled trial," JAMA 1999 Oct 27; 282(16):1561-7. In this study, 192 3rd and 4th graders from demographically matched schools participated. In one school the 3rd and 4th graders were taught how to manage and reduce their media consumption. This was done with an 18 lesson 6 month curriculum to reduce television, videotape and videogame use. Children in the intervention group had statistically significant relative decrease in body mass index. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in high fat food intake, moderate to vigorous physical activity and meals eaten in front of the television. How does the lighted screen affect brain chemistry to trigger obesity? This study suggests that there is more to the story than simply eating junk food and being a couch potato. It suggests that there is an effect on brain chemistry resulting in obesity that is not yet completely understood but needs to be investigated. What if we look at very young children. Can being exposed to TV while you are playing and doing other things in the same room cause obesity? Does that sound far-fetched? One recent study tried to investigate this more closely in children from birth to 36 months. "Television Exposure and Overweight Risk in Preschoolers" Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 160 (4) April 2006, 417-422. 1016 children were included in the study. They simply had to be awake in a room with the television on for 2 hours or more per day by maternal report. The investigators in this study reported that, "At age 36 months, 5.8% of children were overweight; at age 54 months, 10.0% were overweight. Exposure to 2 or more hours of television per day was associated with an increased risk of overweight at both age 36 months (odds ratio, 2.92; 95% confidence interval, 1.36-6.24) and age 54 months (odds ratio, 1.71; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-2.83) in unadjusted analyses. Only maternal age altered the concurrent relationship, and the effect of television remained significant (odds ratio, 2.61; 95% confidence interval, 1.21-5.62). Television exposure at age 36 months was no longer a significant predictor of overweight at age 54 months when controlling for covariates. " |
|
Send mail to
info@yourchildsmind.org with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
