Takes this quick quiz to determine your child/teen's daily TV watching average. A recent study found it is way more important than you might think.
DAILY TV AVERAGE QUIZ
In a typical day how many minutes does your child/teen watch television:
- On a weekday morning?
- During a weekday? Be sure to count time at school, work, or daycare.
- On a weekday evening?
- Playing video games on a weekday?
- Watching DVDs on a week day?
- Watching internet video on a week day (i.e. YouTube, Netflix)?
- Repeat 1 through 6 for a typical weekend day. Divide the weekend number by seven days in a week and add that number to your weekday total.
- Divide your total in minutes by 60 minutes in an hour so you have the number of hours your child/teen watches in a typical day.
If they are average, your answer would be 4.5 hours for a preschooler and 4 hours for school age.
The problem is that The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children's total media time be no more than 2 hours of quality programming per day.
Do those two or more hours per day over the recommendation matter? A recent study says, "YES!"
The study followed about a thousand children from birth to age 40. Their television viewing was measured every other year from ages five to fifteen and then compared to their criminal activity as an adult.
They found that each additional hour of childhood television viewing increased the risk of having a criminal conviction by 30%!
They found this result even when controlling for gender, IQ, socioeconomic status, previous anti-social behavior, and parental control.
Though not a focus of the study, they also found that increased television viewing resulted in lower socioeconomic status as an adult.
Parents, please:
- Limit your child/teens TV viewing to 2 hours per day
- Remove the TV from your child/teen's bedroom
- Remove the computer from your child/teen's bedroom
- Cell phones should be given to parents every night an hour before bedtime
- Avoid all video game, cell phone, TV, and computer usage in the hour before bedtime.
(McDonough, P. (2009, October 26). TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High. Retrieved from The Nielsen Company: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2009/tv-viewing-among-kids-at-an-eight-year-high.html) (Robertson, L., McAnally, H., & Hancox, R. (2013, March). Childhood and Adolescent Television Viewing and Antisocial Behavior in Early Adulthood. Pediatrics, 131(3), 439-446. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-1582)
