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The value of reanalysis: TV viewing and attention problems
E Michael Foster1, Stephanie Watkins
1Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. emfoster@unc.edu
Child Development
|March 25, 2010
Summary
Early childhood television viewing does not appear to cause attention problems in children. Reanalysis indicates that any association is minimal and disappears when controlling for other factors.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Pediatrics
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Recent studies suggest a link between early childhood television viewing and later attention problems.
- The robustness and causality of this association require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To reexamine the relationship between early television viewing and attention problems at age 7.
- To assess the impact of covariates and unobserved confounding on this association.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 1,159).
- Employed nonlinear specification and fixed-effects estimation to analyze the data.
- Included covariates in regression models to control for confounding factors.
Main Results:
- A potential association between television viewing and attention problems was observed only at very high viewing levels.
- Adding covariates to the model eliminated this modest effect.
- Fixed-effects estimation found no meaningful relation between television viewing and attention problems.
Conclusions:
- The previously suggested causal link between early television viewing and attention problems is not robust.
- Findings indicate no significant relationship when accounting for confounding variables and unobserved factors.
