Experts would Pull the Plug on Teens’ TV
Pediatricians and child development experts have repeatedly warned parents that putting a television set in a young child’s bedroom is associated with a host of undesirable outcomes, including poorer school performance, behavior problems and obesity. But what about teenagers? Epidemiologists at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health wondered whether the undesirable outcomes of bedroom television might be blunted at this age.
Apparently not, according to a federally funded study of 781 adolescents between 15 and 18 published in the April issue of Pediatrics.
Daheia J. Barr-Anderson and her colleagues found that the two-thirds of youths who had a bedroom set watched more TV, moved less and had poorer diets and lower grades than those without one.
Those with a personal TV also ate fewer meals with their families, according to questionnaires the students completed in 2003 and 2004.
Boys were more likely to have bedroom TVs than girls (68 percent vs. 57 percent), and there were variations among ethnic groups: Eighty-one percent of black youths had a set, compared with 66 percent of Hispanics, 60 percent of whites and 39 percent of Asians.
One of the most striking findings was viewing time: Sixteen percent of students with a bedroom TV watched more than five hours per day, compared with 8 percent of those who had no set.
The average time the teens spent using computers was roughly the same in both groups.
Parents who are considering whether to put a television in a teenager’s room should refrain from doing so, the authors recommend.
Source: Washington Post, United States
http://tinyurl.com/4gltwq
