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Waist to Hip Ratio
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But the new study is at odds with much of the
previous research, experts say
Watching more than two hours of television daily during childhood
increases the likelihood of attention problems in adolescence, ac
cording to a new study.
Yet far from settling the debate, the findings add more confusion to
the debate on whether television viewing might contribute to attention
problems. The new research largely agrees with one previous study
but disagrees with two others.
"I wouldn't advocate that watching TV is a good thing," said Tara
Stevens, assistant professor of educational psychology at Texas Tech
University in Lubbock,
who in 2006 published "
a study finding no link
between television
viewing and hyper
activity disorder. "I'm
just not sure there's
a direct relationship
between having a dis
order and watching
TV. I don't think that's
definitive. This is one
important piece to the
argument, but it is still
not the end," she said.
The current study is
published in the Sep
tember issue of Pedi
atrics and led by Robert John Hancox of the University of Otago in
Dunedin, New Zealand. His team monitored the television-viewing
habits of more than 1,000 children born in Dunedin in 1972 and 1973
between the ages of 5 and 1 5, as well as reports of attention problems
at ages 13 and 15.
The authors determined that watching more than two hours of tele
vision per day between the ages of 5 and 1 1 increased the likelihood
of attention problems in adolescence, with each hour of television
viewing increasing the risk of "high adolescent attention problems"
that is, the top 10 percent of attention difficulties -- by about 40
percent. This association held even after accounting for gender,
socioeconomic status, early attention problems and early cognitive
ability.
"We found the amount of television did predict the amount of prob
lems at age 13 and 15," Hancox said. "And these effects were not
explained by early attention problems."
The team further found that TV watching during childhood and
adolescence were independently associated with attention problems,
suggesting that time in front of the television leads to both short- and
long-term effects.
"Childhood TV viewing was associated with attention difficulties
regardless of what you watch as an adolescent," he explained. "The
amount of TV watched between 5 and 1 1 predicted problems between
ages 13 and 15 regardless of what you watch between 13 and 15."
That doesn't mean it would be pointless to curtail your child's view
ing habits now, he said. But it might only relieve short-term damage
and not any longer-term effects.
"You may not be able to reverse what happened in childhood, but
you can stop compounding the problem," he said.
The take-home message, Hancox concluded, is that parents should
heed the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendations, which
say that children under 2 should watch no television at all, and that