TV and children equals aggressive behaviour

Published: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:30:00

Young children who are exposed to a lot of television may be more likely to display signs of aggressive behaviour, researchers have said. Three-year-old children who are exposed to more TV appear "to be at an increased risk for exhibiting aggressive behaviour", a report in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine has found. Various predictive factors for childhood aggression were studied, including parents' discipline style, neighbourhood safety and media exposure.

"After music, television is the medium children aged 0 to three years are exposed to the most," the researchers said. Jennifer A Manganello of University at Albany, State University of New York, and Catherine A Taylor, of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, analysed data from 3,128 mothers of children born from 1998 to 2000 in 20 large US cities to "examine associations of child television exposure and household television use with aggressive behaviour in children". About two thirds of mothers reported that their three-year-old child watched more than two hours of television per day. On average, children were exposed to an additional 5.2 hours of household TV use per day, while a 15-point scale was used to assess aggression levels.

Direct child TV exposure and household TV use were both "significantly associated" with childhood aggression, after accounting for other factors such as parent, family, neighbourhood and demographic characteristics, the researchers said. "One explanation that could link both child and household TV measures with aggression involves the parenting environment," the authors write. "Households with higher rates of TV use may have fewer restrictions on children's viewing habits such as exposure to unregulated television content. Increased household television use may also affect daily routines such as eating and communication patterns and may decrease time spent on other activities."

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