Related Experiment Videos
[Television and children: is television responsible for all the evils attributed to it?]
B E Caviedes Altable1, E Quesada Fernández, J L Herranz
1Centro de Salud Dávila, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander.
Insights
Many parents underestimate their children's television viewing time and encourage viewing, even of violent content. Pediatricians should help educate families on healthy media habits.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Media Studies
- Child Development
Context:
- Primary care settings provide opportunities to assess family habits.
- Childhood television viewing is prevalent and influences development.
- Parental attitudes significantly shape children's media consumption.
Purpose:
- To analyze children's television viewing habits.
- To examine parental perceptions of children's screen time.
- To investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status and viewing patterns.
Summary:
- A cross-sectional study surveyed 317 children (3-14 years) and their parents.
- Children watched 106 min/weekday and 141 min/weekend; many viewed alone and during meals.
- Nearly half of parents underestimated viewing time, and over 60% encouraged it, particularly for younger children.
- Younger children preferred violent cartoons; older children (11-14) also selected violent programs.
Impact:
- Highlights a significant educational gap for parents regarding children's media use.
- Suggests a need for increased pediatrician involvement in promoting healthy television habits.
- Underscores the prevalence of violent content in children's programming and its consumption.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to analyze children's television viewing habits and their parents attitudes towards such viewing.
Design:
Cross-sectional descriptive study.
Setting:
Primary care.
Participants:
A survey was undertaken with 317 three to fourteen year old children and their parents as part of the primary care check-up program for healthy children.
Measurements And Main Results:
Time devoted to television viewing was 106 +/- 50 minutes on weekdays and 141 +/- 80 minutes weekends. Despite this, 49.2% of parents thought their children saw little television, especially those with children under six (57.6%). Children of parents in highly qualified positions and of parents in the uppermost socioeconomic group saw television the least, on non-working days (70 +/- 61 minutes and 144 +/- 78 minutes respectively, p < or = 0.0001). Some 71.9% of children watched television alone and 34% did so at meal-times. Altogether 48.3% of parents were unaware as to what their children watched and some 61.5% encouraged television viewing, above all those having children of under six (76%). The youngest children preferred to watch cartoons which were generally of a violent nature. For those aged from 11 to 14, 19.5% chose as their favorite programs those having a high level of violence.
Conclusion:
Television habits are an educational problem for parents, an important shake-up in their attitudes being called for, in which pediatricians should be involved in developing health programs aimed at proper use of the television.