Five Year-Olds Who Watch TV for Three or More Hours a Day More Likely to Be Antisocial: But the Risk Is Very Small

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130325202559.htm

sciencedaily.com | Mar 25th 2013

Five year-olds who watch TV for three or more hours a day are increasingly likely to develop antisocial behaviours, such as fighting or stealing by the age of seven, indicates research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

But the risk is very small, say the authors, who additionally found that time spent playing computer/electronic games had no impact on behaviour.

Prolonged screen viewing time has been linked to various behavioural and emotional problems in children, say the authors, but most research has focused exclusively on television, and almost all of it has been carried out in the US.

They wanted to explore what psychological and social impact time spent watching TV and playing electronic games might have on children between the ages of five and seven.

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When they were five, almost two thirds of the children watched TV for between one and three hours every day, with 15% watching more than three hours. Less than 2% watched no TV.

But at this age, they spent considerably less time playing electronic games, and only 3% spent three or more hours engaged in this activity every day.

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But spending a lot of time in front of the TV was not linked to other difficulties such as emotional problems or attention issues. And spending time playing electronic games had no similar impact, the analysis showed, although this might reflect the fact that children spent less time playing games than they did watching TV, say the authors.

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