TV is full of violence and cynicism and the debate about whether children are damaged by too much TV watching has been ongoing for quite a number of years. Not very much research has been done in trying to link TV watching with violent behaviour; however, we have seen examples of small children having caused damage to others after having watched violence on TV.
An American study of some duration now indicates that watching TV during early adolescence is linked to violent behaviour later in life.
In a study (1) spanning 17 years including more than 700 families, it appeared that 14-year-old boys who watched a lot of TV were very likely to commit acts of violence towards others before they were 22 years old. Actually, this likeliness was twice as high in boys watching three hours of TV a day compared to the ones who only watched one hour of TV a day.
The researchers found a similar, albeit weaker pattern in girls.
Another American study (2) from Stanford University shows that children who have a TV in their own room do not do as well in school as children who do not have their own TV.
Another problem is that when children sit in front of the television for longer periods, they move too little and risk becoming overweight or even obese (3). For some of these children, a large part of their daily caloric intake is consumed in front of the TV in the form of candy and snacks. This worsens this problem (4).
References:
- Johnson JG, Cohen P et al. Television Viewing and Aggressive Behavior During Adolescence and Adulthood. Science 2002; 295: 2468-2471.
- Hancox RJ, Milne BJ, Poulton R. Association of Television Viewing During Childhood With Poor Educational Achievement. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005;159:614-618.
- Eisenmann JC, et al. Physical Activity, TV Viewing, and Weight in U.S. Youth: 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Obesity Research 2002; 10:379-385.
- Taveras EM, et al. The Association of Television and Video Viewing with Fast Food Intake by Preschool-Age Children. Obesity 2006; 14:2034-2041.
