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TV Viewing and Kids
Mew report report, "The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Their Parents," is based on a national survey of 1,051 parents with children age 6 months to 6 years old and a series of focus groups across the country.
key findings from the survey and attached are sample quotes from the focus groups:
Parent's Viewing Habits
* Children whose parents use screen media for more than 2 hours a day (42% of all parents) spend an average of 28 minutes more (1:14 vs. 0:46) watching TV than children whose parents watch for less than an hour (30% of all parents).
Media in the Bedroom
* Among those with TV in their bedroom, a third (33%, or 11% of all children) spend half or more of their TV-watching time watching in the bedroom.
* Among children with a TV in their bedroom, 37% (or 12% of all children) go to bed with the TV on half the time or more.
Youngest Children -- Under 2 Years Old
* More than four in ten (43%) children under 2 years old watch TV every day and nearly one in five (18%) watch videos or DVDs every day.
* Most parents say they are in the same room with their child while they're watching TV either all or most of the time (88% of those whose children this age watch TV in a typical day).
* One quarter (26%) of parents with children younger than 2 years old say their child has never watched TV.
Computer Use -- Digital Divide
* Eight in ten (78%) children 6 years old and under live in homes with a computer, and about seven in ten (69%) have Internet access from home. Three in ten (29%) have more than one computer.
* Among all children six and under, 43% have used a computer, and 27% use a computer several times a week or more. Among children ages four to six, 43% use a computer several times a week or more.
* There is a large gap in computer ownership, by income and parent education. For example, just over half (54%) of children in lower-income households (less than $20,000 a year) have a computer in the home compared to 95% of those from higher income homes ($75,000 a year or more).
TV and Children's Behavior
* Two-thirds (66%) of parents say they've seen their child imitate positive behaviors from TV, while 23% say they've imitated aggressive behavior, like hitting or kicking. Older boys are more likely to imitate aggressive behavior from TV (45% of 4-6 year-old boys).
* Over half (53%) of parents say that TV tends to calm their child down, while about one in six (17%) say that TV gets their child excited.
Changes in Household Media Environment and Media Use
* Since a similar survey in 2003, there have been increases in the share of children in households with at least one computer (from 73% to 78%), with Internet access (from 63% to 69%), and with high-speed Internet access (from 20% to 42%).
* There was a small but statistically significant decrease in the percent of children living in households where the television is kept on always or most of the time, from 37% in 2003 to 32% in 2005, and of children living in households where the television is on during meals always or most of the time, from 35% in 2003 to 30% in 2005.
* Among children who do each activity in a typical day, children are spending an average of 17 minutes less per day listening to music and 10 minutes less per day watching TV.
According to the study, in a typical day more than eight in ten (83%) children under the age of six use screen media, with those children averaging about two hours a day (1:57). Media use increases with age, from 61% of babies one year or younger who watch screen media in a typical day (for an average of 1:20) to 90% of 4 to 6 year-olds (for an average of 2:03).
In many homes, parents have created an environment where the TV is a nearly constant presence, from the living room to the dining room and the bedroom. One in three (33%) children this age has a TV in their bedroom (19% of children ages 1 year or younger, 29% of children ages 2-3 years, and 43% of those ages 4-6 years). The most common reasons parents give for putting a TV in their child's bedroom is to free up other TVs in the house so the parent or other family members can watch their own shows (55%), to keep the child occupied so the parent can do things around the house (39%), to help the child fall asleep (30%), and as a reward for good behavior (26%). As one mother who participated in a focus group in Irvine, CA said, "Media makes life easier. We're all happier. He isn't throwing tantrums. I can get some work done."
Children whose parents have established these heavy TV environments spend more time watching than other children: for example, those who live in households where the TV is on all or most of the time spend an average of 25 minutes more per day watching TV (1:16 vs. 0:51), and those with a TV in their bedroom spend an average of 30 minutes more per day watching (1:19 vs. 0:49).
At a time when there is great debate on the merits of educational media for children, many parents are enthusiastic about its use. For example, two-thirds of parents (66%) say their child imitates positive behavior from TV, such as sharing or helping. A large majority of parents (69%) say computers mostly help children's learning, and a plurality (38%) say the same about watching TV (vs. 31% who say TV "mostly hurts" and 22% who say it doesn't have much affect either way).
The study found that how parents feel about TV's benefits is related to how much time children spend watching. Children whose parents say TV mostly helps learning spend an average of 27 minutes more per day watching than children whose parents think TV mostly hurts. In focus groups, parents noted many specific benefits of TV viewing for their children, such as spurring imaginative play, teaching letters and words, and learning a foreign language. One mother form Irvine, CA stated, "Anything they're doing on the computer I think is learning" and another from Columbus, OH noted, "Out of the blue one day my son counted to five in Spanish. I knew immediately that he got that from Dora." Another Columbus mom said, "My daughter knows her letters from Sesame Street. I haven't had to work with her on them at all."
The following are additional
Methodology
The survey
The survey is a nationally representative, random-digit-dial telephone survey of 1,051 parents of children ages 6 months to 6 years old. The survey was conducted from September 12 through November 21, 2005. It was designed and analyzed by staff at the Kaiser Family Foundation, in consultation with Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Fieldwork was conducted in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source, LLC. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is +/-3 percentage points. The margin of error for subgroups is higher.
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