The Impact of Television on Children
Introduction
Over four decades, various studies have produced conflicting results based on the impact of television exposure on cognitive development. Some argue that television exposure is associated with long-term benefits on cognitive development while other correlation studies argue that television exposure affects attention and language in children. However, various methodologies have shown correlation evidence that TV exposure affects children’s cognitive and behaviors, and also increases BMI. Children who are exposed on television at an early age are likely to conduct real-life demonstration especially when they watch inappropriate content. In addition, children experience slow cognitive development by spending more time on television and little time on activities which promote development. Note that children spend more time on watching and little time on physical activities. During this time, they like consuming unhealthy foods which they normally watch being advertised and the time spent causes sleep disturbances. These and other factors increase BMI since children do not get enough time to engage in meaningful activities. Generally, TV exposure leads to unfavorable developmental outcomes on children and adolescents.
The relationship between television exposure and children’s cognition and behaviour: A systematic review
Summary
The topic on television exposure and cognitive development is explained further by social learning theory by Bandura. He states that cognitive and behavioral development is influenced by people’s interaction. In other words, people create positive or negative behavior through observing other people’s behaviors. For example, when children are exposed to inappropriate content of television programs, they learn from that behavior, imitate them and develop negative actions (Engler, 2008). In Bobo Doll experiment, Bandura shows that children observes an adult acting aggressively and when children are allowed to play with the Bobo Doll, they act aggressively and the behavior is influences by what they watched. According to social learning theory, aggression is behavior which is socially constructed and this means that children who develop aggressive behavior are being connected with violent action from media and other social setting (Engler, 2008).
Main study
In the study, relevant published literature such as MedLine (PubMed), ERIC and others were searched. Key words used were as follows child, television and attention, behavior, cognition, language and more. In the literature, researchers ensured that the review included participants aged 14years and below and the review had to be associated with television exposure and attention. In addition, researchers’ focuses on ‘real-life’ televisions and videos and various methodologies such as cross-sectional correlation studies and experiments were used. Total articles which were used in the study were 76 and they were divided into three groups. The first studies focused group of television exposure and academic performance, the second group of studies focused on television exposure and attention problems and the third group of articles focused on television exposure and language development (Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon 2017).
Results
In cross-sectional correlation studies, it was found that there is an association between television exposure and poor academic performance. Given that all participants were 14years and below, correlation studies reviewed children aged 4 years who had been exposed in television. The study found that these young children developed poor executive function and performance. On attention problems, the correlation studies found that children aged 4yeras who were exposure to television had developed attention problems (Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon 2017). In addition, correlation studies on population-based studies showed that children aged 4-12 years were exposed to television 3h/day and this affected their health as they developed poorer psychosocial adjustment. Last, correlation studies on language development showed that young children aged 2years and who were highly exposed on television had a high risk of language delay. In general, cross-sectional studies show that there is television exposure is associated with negative associations especially on attention and cognitive behaviors. These negative effects affect the educational outcome as it is stated by literature. This study contain some strength in that it employs a number of variables such as well-validated measures, family context and this produces a better understanding of television exposure and its effect on children development (Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon 2017). However, it contains some weaknesses in that it lacks potential moderators and precise viewing.
According to longitudinal correlation studies¸ family context which acts as a variable, helps understand the association between television exposure and executive functions. Children aged 4years and below developed poor executive functions and poorer cognitive performance. However, the content in television programs is a key determinant since children who were exposed to child-directed programs did not show poor performance but children who watched adult-directed content developed poor executive function (Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon 2017). On attention problem, longitudinal correlation studies show that child behavior is a key determinant in that children exposed in television at an early age develop attention deficits. On language development, high exposure is associated with poorer communication skills. An important point to note is that children educational programmes and adult programming diminished language growth. Generally, longitudinal studies show that television exposure affects cognitive and educational outcomes. This mostly affects children who started watching inappropriate content at an early age and this means that the age of exposure is a key determinant. This study has weaknesses as it lacks precise viewing measures and omits important content such as cognition/attention assessment (Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon 2017). However, the strengths of the longitudinal study are that it employs various variables which help the reader understand the television exposure and attention problems. Experimental studies from the published literature shows that television exposure and its effect on children developed is determined by child-parent interactions. For example, parent spends more time on television and this hinders child growth due to lack of parental verbal communication to children. In addition, lack parent-child communication leads to poor language development and poor academic performance. The studies show some weaknesses in that it lacks enough content and experimental research to explain the children’s behavior (Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon 2017).
Heavy Childhood Television Use Persists into Young Adulthood and is Associated with Increased BMI
Summary
Cognitive development theory states that a child develops intelligence through interacting with environment. In addition, a child must go through some stages in order to develop behaviors and ideas. This article introduces the issue on TV exposure and high BMI. This theory is related to this topic in that first, the article by Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon (2017) has shown that TV exposure leads to sleep disturbances. The latter affects cognitive performance through impairing the working memory. Cognitive performance is affected by inattentiveness, slowed responses and more. When sleep affects cognitive performance, children experience slower cognitive development which means that the child lacks cognitive stimulation which improves cognitive control network and stimuli response (Oakley, 2004).
Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis reveals that TV exposure is associated with high body mass index. In the study, a survey data is used to examine the socioeconomic and health outcomes of families. The University of Michigan’s PSID has been collecting data from both individual-level and family-level but since 1997, PSID collect data on children where they measure TV exposure and BMI. In measure in BMI, child height from parents was taken and adults’ height was self-reported. In calculating the BMI for both children and adults, the standard formula was used and other valuables (Chance, 2016). On measuring TV exposure, two variables were used on evaluating the time spent on children and adult on TV on weekday. In addition, control variables were used in measuring BMI. For example, investigators focused on race, age, time spent on video games, time spent on physical activities, level of education of the ‘head of the household’ and the level of income. In measuring the TV exposure on BMI on both children and adults, a recursive path was used (Chance, 2016). The results showed that during childhood and adolescents, TV exposure increases BMI. The reason for this is due to different factors namely; sedentary behaviors. This means that children and adolescents spend more time sitting or lying down and this makes then not to engage in physical activity. In addition, sedentary behaviors increase screen time which leads to heath effects. Thus, sedentary behavioral and lack of physically exercise are associated with high BMI. The second factor is snacking while viewing. This means that children and adolescents like snacking while watching TV and causes an impairment of memory of food intake and after watching, children eat more. The study shows that the behavior increases BMI and weight disorders since they consume unhealthy foods with full of fats and sugars (Chance, 2016). Other factor is exposure to advertisement. This means that fast-food advertising increases the consumption of fast-food which is full of calories and sugar. These food leads to health problems such as obesity. The last factor is sleep disturbances. This means the more children spend more time watching TV, the more they experience sleep problems. Lack of sleep leads to obesity and this occur when ghrelin (‘hunger hormone’) increases hunger and forces an individual to eat high-calorie foods to control the hunger. The finding show that there a therapeutic rationale that frequent behaviors performed in childhood such as watching TV are likely to be used in future life. In other words, high TV exposure develops TV ‘habit’ which creates a concurrent effect of BMI in adulthood (Chance, 2016). An important point is that high exposure leads to sleep deprivation and the latter makes children and adolescents to consume calorie which increases weight.
What I learned.
From the two articles, I have learned that TV exposure is associated with negative effects. The appalling thing is that children’s cognitive and developmental skills are affected due to high exposure. Children in preschool years or at the age of 4 years are able to understand the nature of television and during this period, they are exposed to all TV programs which contain violent and non-educational programs (Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpon 2017). The exposure contributes to attention deficit and lack of self-regulation. Even though the articles mainly focus on revealing the negative impact of TV exposure on children development, I have also learned that television programs with appropriate content helps children develop social skills. Thus, content is a key determinant and this means that some children are likely to develop cognition and behavioral problems than others. Other important thing is that high exposure increases BMI and this happens when children watch advertisement on high-calorie junk food, when they develop sleep problems, when they watch while snacking and when they spend much time sitting and lying down and less time on physical activities (Chance, 2016). This topic is important and more studies should be done to save children from health risks. In specific, studies should offer solution based on amount of time that children should use in watching TV in weekly basis and the programs which children should watch. In addition, the study should show the importance of parent-child interaction and reduce screen time.
Reference
Chance Y. (2016). Heavy Childhood Television Use Persists into Young Adulthood and is
Associated with Increased BMI. School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kent
State University, Kent, Ohio, USA. 24, 924–928. doi:10.1002/oby.21453
Kostyrka-Allchorne K., Cooper R. Nicholas & Simpon Andrew. (2017). The
relationship between television exposure and children’s cognition and behaviour: A
systematic review. Developmental Review 44 (2017) 19–58
Oakley L. (2004). Cognitive Development. Routledge modular psychology. Psychology Press
Engler, B. (2008). Personality theories: An introduction. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
