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.