March 25, 2013

expert reaction to new research into screen time and children’s psychosocial adjustment

Five year-olds who watch TV for three or more hours a day have a very slightly increased risk of developing antisocial behaviours, indicates research published in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Professorial Research Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London, said:

“Children are born into a media-saturated world. Rather than focus on the possible adverse effects – and this study shows that they are tiny – it would be better to focus on the positive neural and cognitive changes that occur when the child actively engages with screen exposure.”

Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology, London School of Economics, said:

“At last we have a robust, longitudinal study that reveals a balanced picture. If five year olds watch more than three hours of television per day, research detects a small but noticeable negative effect on their conduct problems, though no effect on hyperactivity or emotional problems. So, no cause for panic, but good reason to ask why some children spend so much time watching television – perhaps the pressures on their parents are too great, or perhaps there are no play spaces nearby? Or maybe what matters is how children watch television: research also shows that children benefit the most from opportunities to talk, interact and play – and this can be done in front of the television as well as elsewhere.”

‘Do television and electronic games predict children’s psychosocial adjustment? Longitudinal research using the UK Millennium Cohort Study’ by Alison Parkes et al. published in Archives of Disease in Childhood on Monday 25th March.