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.