How Bad is Watching TV for Children?
How bad is television for young children? Does it really make a difference how much television a child watches? Many parents wonder if long-term television watching has any negative effects on a child’s future behavior. Could it impair social skills later on in the child’s life?
A recent study analyzed data collected from the Healthy Steps for Young Children evaluation. Not surprising, the study showed that sustained television viewing of more than two hours per day resulted in children with fewer social skills. These heavy television watching children also tended to demonstrate reduced cooperation, lower self-confidence, and less emotional reactivity. Quite interesting, it was noted that those children who only had heavy television viewing in early childhood but not at age 51/2 years showed no consistent relation between social skills and television watching.
Children who had a television in their room tended to have greater sleep problems and less emotional reactivity at age 51/2 years than those children without a television in their room.
Thus, it is important for parents to remember that heavy television viewing in young children should be limited. Parents should encourage other interesting non-television activities for the children.
