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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