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Children's Television-Viewing Frequency: Individual Differences and Demographic Correlates.
June Price Tangney1, Seymour Feshbach2
1Bryn Mawr College.
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|July 27, 2018
Summary
Children's television viewing habits are strongly influenced by ethnicity, with Black children watching significantly more than White children. Viewing frequency is a stable individual trait over time, regardless of demographic factors.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Media Psychology
- Sociology of Media
Background:
- Demographic factors like ethnicity and socioeconomic status are linked to children's TV viewing.
- These factors are often overlooked in research connecting viewing habits to psychological and social variables.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between demographic factors and television viewing frequency in children.
- To determine the stability of television viewing behavior over time.
Main Methods:
- Study involved three samples of upper elementary school students.
- Data collected on television viewing frequency and demographic variables.
- Longitudinal analysis of viewing frequency over 1- and 2-year periods.
Main Results:
- Ethnicity significantly determined television viewing amounts; Black children viewed nearly twice as much as White children.
- Parental education was inversely related to viewing frequency.
- Viewing frequency was a stable behavioral trait for individual children over time, irrespective of demographic subgroups.
Conclusions:
- Ethnicity is a primary determinant of children's television viewing habits.
- Television viewing frequency is a stable individual characteristic.
- Methodological considerations for future research on media behavior are highlighted.