Monday, April 19, 2010

Essay 3

Kristine Obert
kmobert@mail.usi.edu
Eng. 201.022
Essay 3, Rough Draft
Word Count: 1, 215

Television, Not So Good

Barney, Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues, and many more characters are children’s idols while growing up. What if these characters did more harm to a child then good? Research has recently found out that toddlers and children who watch television while they are young can cause lifelong illnesses. Many children develop hypertension, obesity, irregular sleep patterns, and also can cause young children to develop type II diabetes. Studies have shown that children who watch television regularly do poorly in school, do not play with friends, and even lose their imagination.
Many years ago, children did not watch as much television as kids do now. Children before the eighty’s and ninety’s would spend their time helping the family businesses or tending to the family farms. Most of the time children did not have time to think about sitting in the house all day watching their favorite television shows come on the networks every hour. Children started spending time watching a lot of television in the eighty’s and ninety’s. According to the University of Michigan Health System states that children between the ages two through five spend an average of thirty- two hours a week in front of a television watching either TV, DVD’s, DVR and videos, or game consoles. Kids that are six to eleven spend about twenty-eight hours a week in front of a television (Boyse,2009).
Many children replace many activities to watch television. Children do not spend as much time with friends, doing physical activities, playing outside and getting fresh air, playing imaginative, doing homework, and even doing chores. Children believe that watching imaginary characters on television helps them be more imaginative, but it certainly does not. The charters allows the children to imagine what they are seeing while show also shows visually how to see each scene. Research has show that many programs so not even teach children what parents want their child to learn. Parents say that shows are filled with stereotypes, rude behavior, and also violent situations to problems.
Much of the shows are shown on different television programs and cable channels, specifically for young children and babies. Many of the networks provide shows that teach children how to read, spell, and even life lessons, but researchers believe that this may cause brain development for children in their future. According to Pediatrics for Parents stated, that children who has watched a lot of television before the age of three has a higher potential developing attention regulations, aggressive behavior, and a slower reading and math skill development by the time they reach elementary school (Zimmerman, 2007). Also some research believes that television can harm some children by creating sleep problems, obesity, and even children having a slower language development.
In 2004, Disney developed a product called Baby Einstein. They sold books, CD’s, and DVD’s. Parents were told that if their child watched these DVD’s that the child would provide the child with whatever skill the parents wanted to learn. Whether it would learn music and making the child a music prodigy, or another one to make the child a math genius, or become an astronomer. In 2006 the Federal Trade Commission complaint, Disney stopped claiming that Baby Einstein videos were educational for infants, but the company made no move to compensate parents who purchased them (Business Pundit, 2009). Research shows that the DVD’s do not make babies smarter, so in 2009 parents that purchased Baby Einstein were able to be refunded back if you were not satisfied.
Children who sit around watching television at a young age can replace doing different school activities such as doing homework, reading, pursing hobbies or even getting enough sleep. Studies have shown that children who watched more television increased the chances of dropping out of school and decrease in a college degree (med.umich.edu, 2009).
One of the biggest risks for children that watch a lot of television at a young age is obesity. Children are known to become obese by watching television because they become bored so they eat some food while they are watching their favorite show, many children do not become physically active and do not run around outside to burn off fat, and the biggest problem with television and children’s obesity is all the commercial’s shown during just one program. According to National Institute on Media and the Family, obesity in children increases the more hours they watch television (2009).
Children are at high risks for being overweight due to the commercials on television and the eating habits shown on the shows they are watching. Children see about 40,000 commercials a year including everything from junk food, toy advertisements, and children’s favorite cartoon characters promoting different foods (kidshealth.org, 2008). According to commercialalert.org, between the years of 1977 to 1995 the percentage of meals and snacks eaten at fast-food restaurants doubled. Also between the same years the consumption of soda among the ages of twelve to nineteen years old increased seventy-five percent in boys and forty percent in girls (2003).
Other risks parents should have for children who watch a lot of television is illnesses that stay with them throughout their lifetime. Many children now have high blood presser, type II diabetes, and many other health and social problems due to watching television. Studies show that even if the child is not obese they still have a high chance have hypertension. According to Pediatrics for Parents, a study of 546 children, ages four to seventeen years old, found that children who watch two to four hours of television each day were two-and-half times more likely to have high blood pressure than children who watch less than two hours of television per day” (2008).
Children who watch television regularly have irregular naptime and sleep schedule. Many children have a hard time falling asleep at night because they are still acting out the super hero or the cartoon they just finished watching. According to the University of Michigan Health System, teens who watch three or more hours of TV per day had higher risk of sleep problems by early adulthood (2009).
Many television networks and programs allow children to see violence. Two out of three television shows contain some kind of violence, averaging about six violent acts per hour (kff.org, 2003). Kids who are exposed to the violence imitate the characters which may in the future influence their behavior. Children who watch the television violence can lead to three potential harmful effects. One an increase in aggressive behavior or becoming antisocial, accepting violence in the real world and not caring about other people’s feelings, and lastly an increase in fear of becoming a victim in a violent act. Kids may think nothing of these violent acts they are watching, but in the future it can become a major problem.
Many people believe that watching television cannot harm children but research has shown otherwise. Children watching less television can decrease obesity in the country, young children getting lifelong illnesses, and help children have a better sleep pattern. Also many kids will stay in school and will get a better education to exceed in the future. If children did not watch so much television they would be able to do so much more in their life. They would be able to achieve so much more and be able to live a healthier life.
References
Gavin, M.D., M. L. (2008, October). How TV Affects Your Child. In Kids Health. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html#
Frederick J Zimmerman. (2007, July). Early Television - Widespread, with Uncertain Consequences for Children's Development. Pediatrics for Parents, 23(7), 4-5. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from Health Module. (Document ID: 1338329581).

After Controversy, Disney Issues Baby Einstein Recall. (2009, October 26). Business Pundit. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.businesspundit.com/after-controversy-dinsey-issues-baby-einstein-recall/

The Fast Food Trap: How Commercialism Creates Overweight Children. (2003, October 31). Commercial Alert. Retrieved April 18, 2010, from http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/health/childhood-obesity/the-fast-food-trap-how-commercialism-creates-overweight-children

Media Use And Obesity Among Children. (2009, June). National Institute on Media and the Family. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tvandobchild.shtml
Anonymous, . "Television, Hypertension, and Obesity. " Pediatrics for Parents 1 Sep. 2008: Health Module, ProQuest. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

TV Violence. (2003). Key Facts. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/ Key-Facts-TV-Violence.pdf

University of Michigan Health System [Television and Children]. (2009, November). Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm

Friday, April 16, 2010

Research Summary

The past days while I have been researching have I have found out more things I can add to my paper. This has helped me find websites and articles that I would not even consider using in throughout my paper. Looking at all this research made me find more reasons television is harmful to children. I believe that many of the articles and websites that I have found this week will be incorporated in my paper to inform the readers. The graphs that I found gave me a lot of information that I never knew about children watching who watched much television throughout the day before researching this topic. When I write my paper I plan on informing the readers about the causes and effects television causes to children’s health throughout their lifetime.
While doing research the past few days I have learned even more about how television is not good for a child. Even though many shows, characters, and movies seem educational for the child, some research has shown that it is worse for children to watch television while learning. Also I think it is ironic that before children watch a lot of television doctors and scientist have not heard much about autism and now that children watch television no stop every day it has become a very popular disease around the world .
I am not going to change my game plan very much. I will just add more about autism in children but everything that was in my game plan is what I found when I researched because they are the most popular in children’s health. My working thesis for this paper so far is an excess amount of television for children is detrimental for their health and development.

World Count:292

April 16th Research

1. American children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily. Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may:
• become "immune" or numb to the horror of violence
• gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems
• imitate the violence they observe on television; and
• identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers
Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness. Sometimes, watching a single violent program can increase aggressiveness. Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see. Children with emotional, behavioral, learning or impulse control problems may be more easily influenced by TV violence. The impact of TV violence may be immediately evident in the child's behavior or may surface years later. Young people can even be affected when the family atmosphere shows no tendency toward violence.
Children and TV Violence. (2002, November). American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://aacap.org/
page.ww?name=Children+and+TV+Violence§ion=Facts+for+Families

This article lets viewers know how much violence on television is bad for children. I can use this in my paper because it also tells parent how to prevent it and keep their child safe while watching television.

2. Objective. Violent media exposure has been associated with aggressive behavior, and it has been suggested that child health professionals counsel families on limiting exposure. Effective violence prevention counseling requires an understanding of norms regarding parental attitudes, practices, and influencing factors. Both theories of reasoned action and planned behavior emphasize that subjective norms and attitudes affect people's perceptions and intended behavior. Few data exist on violent television viewing and monitoring from a cross-section of families. By understanding the spectrum of parental attitudes, community-sensitive interventions for violence prevention can be developed. The objective of this study was to assess attitudes about and monitoring of violent television viewing from the perspective of parents.
Methods. An anonymous self-report assisted survey was administered to a convenience sample of parents/guardians who visited child health providers at 3 sites: an urban children's hospital clinic, an urban managed care clinic, and a suburban private practice. The parent questionnaire included questions on child-rearing attitudes and practices and sociodemographic information.
Results. A total of 1004 adults who accompanied children for health visits were recruited for the study; 922 surveys were completed (participation rate: 92%). A total of 830 (90%) respondents were parents and had complete child data. Of the 830 respondents, 677 had questions on television viewing included in the survey and were the focus of this analysis. Seventy-five percent of families reported that their youngest child watched television. Of these, 53% reported always limiting violent television viewing, although 73% believed that their children viewed television violence at least 1 time a week. Among television viewers, 81% reported usually or always limiting viewing of sexual content on television and 45% reported usually or always watching television with their youngest child. Among children who watched television, parents reported that they spent an average of 2.6 hours per day watching television. Limitation of television violence was associated with female parents and younger children.

Cheng, MD,MPH, T. L., Brenner, MD,MPH, R. A., Wright, MD,MPH, J. L., Sachs,MD, H. C., Moyer,BS, P.,
& Rao, MEgg,DrPH, M. R. (2004, July). Children's Violent Television Viewing: Are Parents
Monitoring? . In Pediatrics. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/114/1/94

This article will really help me for my paper talking about violence. There have been many doctors that have researched violence in the media and how it effects children. This website tells all the statics they made based on the research they made and how much of an impact it is to children
3. OUR CHILDREN are spending more time than ever in front of the television. Their viewing opportunities are no longer contained to afternoons and Saturday mornings; many networks are devoted to entertaining them all day. While parents may be cognizant of the negative effects that excessive sedentary behavior can have on children, we may not be as aware of the persistent messages children receive from advertisers about unhealthy foods. The food industry spends billions of dollars each year to woo our children to their high calorie products that possess little or no nutritional value. On average a child watching TV sees a commercial from the food industry every five minutes.
Childhood obesity is a rapidly spreading epidemic in the United States. Since 1980, the proportion of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled, and the rate for overweight adolescents has tripled. The connection between television viewing and obesity was established almost two decades ago, yet our habits have not changed to protect our children.
A study in Boston revealed that 60 percent of middle school age children have a television in their bedroom, and a national study showed that 75 percent of parents do not care how much television their children watch.
Gortmaker, S. (2004, October 19). Twin child scourges: obesity and television. In The Boston Globe.
Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/
2004/10/19/twin_child_scourges_obesity_and_television/

This will help me with my research because the article tells how television affected child obesity in just one city. In just one city the numbers were amazing, just imagine what it would be like throughout America or even the world!

4. It's no secret that sedentary behavior contributes to obesity and chronically poor health. But not all sedentary behaviors are created equal, according to a new study that examines the link between blood pressure in children and their choice of inactive pastimes, including watching TV, using the computer and reading.
Researchers in the U.S. and Spain collaborated on the study of 111 children ages 3 to 8 and found that of all the forms of inactivity they examined, television-viewing was the worst. It was linked to significantly higher blood pressure in children — the more TV kids watched, the higher their blood pressure — and the effect held true regardless of whether a child was heavy or at a healthy weight. What's more, other sedentary behaviors, like using a computer, were not associated with similar blood-pressure hikes, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
Park, A. (2009, August 4). Watching TV:Even Worse For Kids Than You Think. Time, 2. Retrieved from
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914450-1,00.html

This article is some of the news statistics that researchers have found about health problems with children who watch a lot of television. I will use this article because it has the newest numbers that I will need to use to be accurate in my paper.

5. Last month, I speculated in Slate that the mounting incidence of childhood autism may be related to increased television viewing among the very young. The autism rise began around 1980, about the same time cable television and VCRs became common, allowing children to watch television aimed at them any time. Since the brain is organizing during the first years of life and since human beings evolved responding to three-dimensional stimuli, I wondered if exposing toddlers to lots of colorful two-dimensional stimulation could be harmful to brain development. This was sheer speculation, since I knew of no researchers pursuing the question.
Easterbrook, G. (2006, October 16). TV Really Might Cause Autism. In Slate. Retrieved April 16,
2010, from http://www.slate.com/id/2151538/

This website believes that television is linked to children with autism. Researchers have studied that children who watch a lot of television may develop autism when they get older. I will use this in my paper because I think it is ironic that autism was becoming a worse disease when television were becoming more popular.
6. The association between television viewing and childhood obesity is directly related to children's exposure to commercials that advertise unhealthy foods, according to a new UCLA School of Public Health study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The study, conducted by Frederick J. Zimmerman and Janice F. Bell, is the first to break down the types of television children watch to better determine whether different kinds of content may exert different effects on obesity.
The researchers gathered data from primary caregivers of 3,563 children, ranging from infants to 12-year-olds, in 1997. Through time-use diaries, study respondents reported their children's activities, including television viewing, throughout the course of an entire weekday and an entire weekend day.
University of California - Los Angeles (2010, February 10). Childhood obesity: It's not the amount of TV, it's the number of junk food commercials. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2010/02/100209095753.htm
This article can help me with my paper because some researchers believes that children who watch television do not become obese, they say it’s the junk food commercials that are shown on television.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

April 14th Research

1. Educational DVD and videos geared towards enriching babies and toddlers, such as "BabyGenius," "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein," which proclaim to "encourage discovery and inspire," have no benefits, researchers said.
This echoes a similar finding published in the August issue of Pediatrics. Researchers from the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute found no evidence of benefit from baby DVDs and videos and suggested that it may be harmful. Infants who watched the videos understood fewer words than those who did not watch them.
Pediatrician Dr. Michael Rich, a co-author of the latest study from Boston, calls baby educational DVDs and videos "just wasted time."
"At the very best, they steal time from much more productive cognitive developmental activities," he said. "Ultimately, what it's about is to make parents not feel guilty about an electronic baby sitter."
Park, M. (2009). Study: Want a smart baby? TV's not going to help. In CNN. Retrieved April 14, 2010,
from http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/03/babies.watch.TV/index.html

I can use this in my essay because this has been studied from the past year. This article tells readers what the newest studies have shown over the past years where there has been more children network and more children shows on television.

2. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.
The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.
As kids get older, too much screen time can interfere with activities such as being physically active, reading, doing homework, playing with friends, and spending time with family.
Of course, television, in moderation, can be a good thing: Preschoolers can get help learning the alphabet on public television, grade schoolers can learn about wildlife on nature shows, and parents can keep up with current events on the evening news. No doubt about it — TV can be an excellent educator and entertainer. Gavin, M.D., M. L. (2008, October). How TV Affects Your Child. In Kids Health. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html#

This article will help me because it has information how to help parents with their child and also has statistics I can use.

3. Advertising-effects research based on the vulnerable child paradigm
assumes that children lack the cognitive skills to protect themselves against
advertising messages. It is believed that children are more susceptible than
adults to the seductive influences of commercials. Research within the vulnerable
child paradigm typically concentrates on the unintended effects of
advertising, which are the secondary, usually negative, effects of advertising
exposure.
Research into the unintended advertising effects has mostly focused on
three dependent variables: materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness.
Research attention to these effects started in the early 1970s and
reached its peak in the second half of the same decade. Remarkably, a few
years later, interest in the topic began towane again. Since the 1980s, very little
scholarly research has addressed the unintended effects of advertising.Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2003, October). The Unintended Effects of Television Advertising. In SFU. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.sfu.ca/media-lab/archive/2007/386/Resources/ articles%20for%20presentations/BuizenValkenburg.pdf

In this article explains the how different advertising companies pertain to children. This article will help me understand why advertisers sell to children instead of adults.

4. Children, ages 8 to 18, spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives except sleeping (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005).

Approximately 30.3% of children (ages 6 to 11) are overweight and 15.3% are obese. For teens (12 to 19) the rate is almost identical: 33.4% overweight, and 15.5% obese (American Obesity Association, 2006). Further the incidence of Type II diabetes in children, the diabetes linked with obesity, has increased significantly in the past few decades.
As obesity becomes more of a health problem for our children it is increasingly important to encourage children to become more active. Limiting screen time and removing televisions from bedrooms can be important first steps to encouraging children into a more physically active lifestyle.Media Use And Obesity Among Children. (2009, June). National Institute on Media and the Family. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tvandobchild.shtml

This article will tell facts and statistics about obesity with children that watch a lot of television as they grow up and the influences that the media portrays.

5. "The study, by Professor Dimitri Christakis from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute in America, looked at 78 studies published over the past 25 years... A 2008 study in Thailand, also published in Acta Paediatrica, found that if children under 12 months watched TV for more than two hours a day they were six times more likely to have delayed language skills."

"The scientists found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them."
"Can the noise level inside your house actually make it harder for your baby to learn to talk? Researchers now say turning down the TV can actually help your child find their voice faster. "
"Children under the age of three who are allowed to watch too much television have below-average reading abilities by the time they are six, a new study claims."
"Watching TV programmes or DVDs aimed at infants can actually delay language development, according to a number of studies. For example, a 2008 Thai study published in Acta Paediatrica found that if children under 12 months watched TV for more than two hours a day they were six times more likely to have delayed language skills. Another study found that children who watched baby DVDs between seven and 16 months knew fewer words than children who did not." -
TV Statistics- How Much Do Kids Watch. (n.d.). Does TV Make You Smarter. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/young.html

This article has many graphs with statistics about children watching too much TV. It will help me see visually how bad television is bad for children.

6. The authors conducted a study with 500 parent-child dyads. The sample comprised 254 boys and 246 girls. The children were grouped into 5 age groups (1 group for each age from 7 to 11 years), with each group comprising 100 children. The survey regards discrepancies between children and their parents on attitudes toward TV advertising to determine how TV commercials affect children's developmental stages and, particularly, their credence, behavioral intentions, and TV enjoyment. Regarding enjoyment and purchase dimensions, the group of 7-year-old children claimed that they enjoyed and are influenced in their consumer attitude more than did the groups of 8-11-year-old children. Credence decreased significantly with age. This study showed that parents tended to undervalue TV advertising's influence on their children. Parents' conformity was a significant predictor of children's attitude toward TV advertising. Results indicated that a high level of parental conformity was linked to the number of brands children claimed to possess

Baiocco, R., D'Alessio, M., & Laghi, F.. (2009). Discrepancies Between Parents' and Children's Attitudes Toward TV Advertising. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 170(2), 176-91. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from ProQuest Health and Medical Complete. (Document ID: 1717824801).

In this article will show numbers of statistics of different age groups that advertising affects. It will help me show what products are the best to advertise for children.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Game Plan

Kristine Obert
kmobert@mail.usi.edu
Eng. 201.022
Word Count: 1,198

I have chosen for my last writing prompt is to do the first one. It says to imagine that I was writing a story for a publication company. The story needs to written for young adults that are in colleges across the country. I chose this prompt because it fits my topic for the best and I will be able to inform viewers with information they need to know. I hope that my paper will provide people with information they need to know about for young children.
i. Why do you want to research your chosen topic?
I want to research this topic because I feel like this is a big problem in our country and also parents need to know the causes of watching too much television.
ii. What experience or connection do you have to the topic (work experience, reading, classroom work, hobbies)?
I do not have a connection with this topic but I think that people should know all the life threaten illnesses television can cause.
iii. What have you learned about your topic so far?
I learned that children, who start watching television at a very young age, can cause mental illnesses, slower development, and also obesity. Studies have shown that many children have high blood presser from watching too much television and being around a TV most of the day.
iv. How much can you expect your classmates and instructor to know about the topic?
I expect that my classmates and instructor will learn a lot from this topic because many people do not know the causes to health from watching television. Not only is television bad for your health but also children do not use their imagination as much with all the different cartoons on television.
v. What is your overall goal for the paper—what purpose will it serve?
My overall goal is to inform people about the dangers in television. Even though a TV screen does not look harmful or that it can cause illness in the future, it is very harmful to young children and I want people to know that.

My topic for this paper is Generation Television. I am going to explain all the negative aspects watching television as young kids are for their health, behavior, and also their future. The paper will explain how studies show that over the years children has developed high blood presser, television has made children they have became obese, and also how their brain activity has developed slower for children who has watched television since they were infants.
i. How have you limited the time period of the topic?
I am going to find articles from the past ten years. Most of the research I have already found has conducted studies from a few years ago. If scientist started this study when I was younger, they would have found the results out just a few years ago that would be interesting to the reader since it was around their age.
ii. How have you limited the topic geographically?
I am only going to look at the downside of watching television. There is many good reasons to watch TV, but there is a lot of problems watching television can cause.
iii. What special circumstances (gender, age, income, etc.) limit the topic?
I am going to look at results between boys and girls, also at their ages between young infants to teenagers. I am going to look at the different daycares that let the children watch television and see how long the children are allowed to watch it. Do only let the children to watch one program or a whole afternoons worth of shows.

The audience that would read my topic would be new parent or couples that are going to have children in the future. Also younger adults or even teenagers who would like to be parents some day may want to read this essay. Many younger people should read this article if they are want them to have a long healthy life. Even though many would not think just sitting watching their favorite cartoon character on television would cause long term effects on their life.
a. Describe the demographics of your reading audience.
Many new parents would want to read this to know that their child’s health is at risk letting the child watch television. Also young adults who believe that they will become parents one day and will want to have a child without life long illness due to watching too much television.
b. Explain how your research is topical—why is it of interest now?
Not too long ago in the papers, scientist found that baby’s that watched too much TV have developed slower and that it is not good for that young of children to watch television.

In this paper I will mostly use article websites that talk about the effects television can cause to children. I will use mostly the cause and effect mode of writing for my paper and also some comparison and contrast.
a. Describe the type of sources (books, articles, magazines, databases, online journals, etc.) and any special techniques (field research, surveys, etc.) you intend to use to gather information.
I will mostly use articles, magazines, and online journals for this topic. Since more studies on television have recently come to the public, there will not be many books to choose from for this article.
b. What expert quotations will best serve your thesis?
“The average American child watches 19 hours and 40 minutes of TV per week--more than a thousand hours each year. (10) That means an annual exposure to thousands of commercials for junk food and fast food. Then there’s all the lost playtime--during those 20 hours each week, children are not physically active.” Or “two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day.”
c. What images (graphs, charts, photos, etc.) do you plan to incorporate into your essay?
In many of the sources that I have looked up have had charts that show the results to different topics about how bad television is for a child.

The different research that I have done is mostly statistics that caused children bad health with television and the different effects television has caused for young children. I plan to look up more diseases television can cause for children and how far behind children that develop slowly are.
a. How successful has your research been so far? What’s your best source so far?
My research has been very useful for this topic. I have found many sources that I will use in the paper and that will help me tell readers about television.
b. What difficulties or trouble have you had locating source material?
So far I have not had any trouble locating sources. There have been many sources about the troubles television has on children
c. What additional source support do you need? What type of source material do you hope to find on your research days this week?
I hope that I will be able to find out how slowly children are developing that has sat in front of the television since they were toddlers.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Research

1. To test the hypothesis that maternal mental distress is associated with excessive television viewing by infants and toddlers. We used data from maternal respondents to the National Survey of Early Childhood Health, a nationally representative cross-sectional study on the health of children aged 4-35 months. Our main outcome measure was television hours viewed per day. Our main predictor was the Mental Health Inventory 5, a short screening tool used in this study to identify mothers with mental distress. We used a previously validated cutoff score of 21. Multivariate negative binomial regression was used to determine the independent association between maternal mental distress and a child's television viewing per day. Data were available from 1793 mothers. A total of 21% of mothers were found to have mental distress. Children of mothers without mental distress watch significantly less TV (1.6 hours per day; 95% confidence interval, 1.5-1.7) than children of mothers with mental distress (2.1 hours per day; 95% confidence interval, 1.7-2.5) (P = .02). In a multivariate regression model, children of mothers with mental distress watch 25% more television per day than children of mothers without mental distress (rate ratio 1.25 [1.03-1.51]). The numbers in the brackets refer to the 95% Confidence Interval. For children younger than 3 years, having a mother with mental distress is associated with increased television viewing. The mental health of mothers should be considered in any intervention aimed at reducing television viewing time in this population.
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2. The amount of time watching television is an Independent risk for hypertension - even if the child Is not obese.
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3. "It appears from our results that reducing screen time among young children seems to be important in (preventing obesity)," [Sonia Miller] said. "The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids this age, three-year-olds, spend no more than one to two hours participating in screen time per day, and we just hope our results may provide clinicians, as well as parents and policy-makers, with an understanding of why this recommendation regarding screen time is understandable."
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4. In a U.S. study of children age 8-16 years, watching four or more hours of television per day resulted in a higher BMI. Children are increasingly being influenced by advertising of unhealthy food choices and "super-sized" proportions. In a study in the U.S., 69% of girls reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of the perfect body-image.
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5.According to a new study, parents who allow their young children to watch too much television are increasing children's risk of later developing attention disorder. The study showed a direct relationship between hours of television watched per day and the likelihood of developing attention problems later in life, which can cause difficulties at home, school and in social settings. According to the authors of the study, the brain develops rapidly during the first few years of life, and evidence suggests that environmental exposures and types of stimulation profoundly affect such development.
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6. Potential Harm My and others' research has shown that children who watch a lot of television before age three have a higher risk of problems of attention regulation, of aggressive behavior, and of slower reading and math skill development by the time they get to elementary school. Parents should also spend that much time researching what television shows can be helpful for their child's development, and how the wrong kind of television can slow down learning and create behavior problems.
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7. The present paper examines the relationship between social factors, food consumption during television viewing, and overall television viewing and how these are associated with BMI when the role of familial and social factors are considered in a population-based birth cohort of pre-school children from Québec (Canada).
Methods
The analyses were performed using data from the Longitudinal Study of Child Development in Québec (1998-2002) (LSCDQ). The study follows a representative sample ( n 2103) of children born in 1998 in the Canadian province of Québec. A nutrition assessment was conducted on 1549 children aged 4·5 years and included a 24 h dietary recall, an eating behaviour and television viewing questionnaire, and a measurement of children's heights and weights. Statistical analyses were performed.
Results
Nearly one-quarter of children ate at least twice daily in front of the television. Children who consumed snacks while watching television on a daily basis had higher BMI than children who did so less frequently. Children who ate snacks in front of the television every day, or some times during the week, ate more carbohydrates (total), more fat and less protein, fewer fruits and vegetables, and drank soft drinks more often than children who never ate snacks in front of the television.
Conclusions
Health professionals should target parents of children at risk of overweight/obesity with focused strategies to help children change the types of foods consumed during television viewing and to reduce the time spent watching television, particularly during meal times, which may change children's dietary intake and eating patterns.
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8. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of TVs in the bedrooms of an urban, largely racial/ethnic minority population of children and parents' reasons for putting the TV in their child's room. The authors surveyed 200 parents of children age 2 to 13 years in a primary care clinic; 57% of the children were non-Hispanic black, 33% were Hispanic. Sixty-seven percent of all children had a TV in the room where they slept; high rates of TVs were present in bedrooms of black (70%) and Hispanic (74%) children compared with white children (22%). The top 3 reasons parents cited for putting a TV in the room where their child sleeps were (a) to keep the child occupied so that the parent could do other things around the house, (b) to help the child sleep, and (c) to free up the other TVs so that other family members could watch their shows.
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9.Mansoor reviews a study by Schmidt et al that examines the impact of background television on the play interactions of young children. Findings evidenced that background television was disruptive to the play of young children. Specifically, children who were exposed engaged in less play overall, had shorter play episodes, and exhibited briefer periods of focused attention compared with those who were not exposed to background television. Results further indicate that children frequently looked at the television for short periods of time; however, the frequency decreased after the first 6 minutes of the show. The level of play disruption was highly correlated with the frequency of looks at the television screen.
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10.Although the link between media consumption and eating disorders has been widely studied, relatively little is known about the development of this link in childhood. A longitudinal panel survey of 315 White and Black preadolescent boys and girls revealed that television exposure, after controlling for age, perceived body size, selective exposure to ideal-body television, and baseline disordered eating, significantly predicted disordered eating 1 year later for girls but not for boys. Findings suggest that disordered eating as an outcome of television exposure is an important issue for Black girls as well as White girls. Results also highlight the need for continued investigation into gender differences in the effects of media exposure on eating disturbance in childhood.
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11.Television viewing has been associated with increased violence in play and higher rates of obesity. Although there are interventions to reduce television viewing by school-aged children, there are none for younger children. OBJECTIVE: To develop and evaluate an intervention to reduce television viewing by preschool children. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial conducted in 16 preschool and/or day care centers in rural upstate New York. PATIENTS: Children aged 2.6 through 5.5 years. INTERVENTION: Children attending intervention centers received a 7-session program designed to reduce television viewing as part of a health promotion curriculum, whereas children attending the control centers received a safety and injury prevention program. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Change in parent-reported child television/video viewing and measured growth variables. RESULTS: Before the intervention, the intervention and control groups viewed 11.9 and 14.0 h/wk of television/videos, respectively. Afterward, children in the intervention group decreased their television/video viewing 3.1 h/wk, whereas children in the control group increased their viewing by 1.6 h/wk, for an adjusted difference between the groups of -4.7 h/wk (95% confidence interval, -8.4 to -1.0 h/wk; P =.02). The percentage of children watching television/videos more than 2 h/d also decreased significantly from 33% to 18% among the intervention group, compared with an increase of 41% to 47% among the control group, for a difference of -21.5% (95% confidence interval, -42.5% to -0.5%; P =.046). There were no statistically significant differences in children's growth between groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to show that a preschool-based intervention can lead to reductions in young children's television/video viewing. Further research is needed to determine the long-term effects associated with reductions in young children's television viewing.
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Monday, March 29, 2010

Ten Things Your Reader Won’t Know About Children Watching Too Much TV.

1. The concern over increasing rates of obesity and associated health issues has led to calls for solutions to the potentially unhealthy influence of television and food advertising on children's diets.
Life Sciences; New life sciences in children study results from Yale University, Department of Psychology described
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2. More than one in five children in the U.S. have insufficient access to nutritional and affordable food today, the result of a challenging economy that continues to affect low-income Americans.
AmeriChoice; Sesame Workshop and AmeriChoice Partner on National Healthy Habits Outreach Project
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3. According to the USDA, more than 49 million people, including nearly 17 million children, live in households that experienced hunger multiple times throughout the year.
AmeriChoice; Sesame Workshop and AmeriChoice Partner on National Healthy Habits Outreach Project
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4. two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day
How TV effects your child.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html
5. Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.
How TV effects your child.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html
6. Children ages 8-12 years who view violence are often frightened that they may be a victim of violence or a natural disaster.
Television and Children
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm
7. The number of sex scenes on TV has nearly doubled since 1998, with 70% of the top 20 most-watched shows by teens including sexual content
Television and Children
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm
8. The average American child watches 19 hours and 40 minutes of TV per week--more than a thousand hours each year. (10) That means an annual exposure to thousands of commercials for junk food and fast food. Then there’s all the lost playtime--during those 20 hours each week, children are not physically active.
The Fast Food Trap: How Commercialism Creates Overweight Children
http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/health/childhood-obesity/the-fast-food-trap-how-commercialism-creates-overweight-children
9. Between 1977 and 1996, soda consumption among 12 to 19 year olds increased 75 percent for boys, 40 percent for girls. (20) According to a study in The Lancet, for each can of soda drunk each day, a child is 1.6 times more likely to become obese, all other things held constant.
The Fast Food Trap: How Commercialism Creates Overweight Children
http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/health/childhood-obesity/the-fast-food-trap-how-commercialism-creates-overweight-children
10. According to their parents, children six and under spend an average
of about two hours a day with screen media (1:58), about the same
amount of time that they spend playing outside (2:01), and three
times as much time as they spend reading or being read to(39 minutes).
Zero to Six
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Zero-to-Six-Electronic-Media-in-the-Lives-of-Infants-Toddlers-and-Preschoolers-PDF.pdf