Study: TV Viewing Habits Have Lasting Effect

There is a new wrinkle in the long-simmering debate about the influence of television on the development of attention problems in children. A long-term study of 1,037 children published in the current issue of Pediatrics found that those who watched more television when they were 5 and 7 were more likely to show signs of difficulty paying attention at ages 13 and 15, according to New Zealand scientists.

Previously, most studies of TV viewing and attention problems were of shorter duration.

Using assessments from parents, teachers and the youths themselves, researchers at the University of Otago in Dunedin compared reports of attention difficulties in adolescence to the time parents said their children logged in front of the tube at ages 5, 7, 9 and 11.

Psychologists independently rated each child's attention span and ability to concentrate at ages 3 and 5.

Even after factoring in gender, cognitive ability, socioeconomic status and TV viewing in adolescence, researchers found that those who watched more than three hours per day between the ages of 5 and 11 had more symptoms of attention problems as teenagers than those who watched two hours or less.

The reason for the apparent relationship between heavy television viewing and later attention difficulties remains elusive, noted Carl Erik Landhuis, a researcher in the department of preventive medicine at the university's Dunedin School of Medicine, and his colleagues.

One theory is that the rapid scene changes on TV may affect the development of the brain at the time it is most malleable. Another is that television viewing displaces other activities and makes ordinary life seem boring.

Landhuis and his colleagues suggest that parents heed the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics and limit daily viewing to two hours.

-- Sandra G. Boodman