The Impact of Television & other Media on Children’s Development

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The Impact of Television other Media on
Childrens Development

• Marilyn B. Benoit, M.D.
• Past President, American Academy of Child
  Adolescent Psychiatry

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Acknowledgment

• Thanks to Susan Villani, MD who contributed to
  the preparation of this slide
• presentation.

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Types Of Media

• Television
• Computers
• Internet
• Music Videos Songs
• Video Games

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Outline

• Background
• Early childhood
• Brain Research
• Essential Skills Children Need

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Outline Contd

• Extent of use of media by American children and
  youth.
• Influence of Media Aspects of development
  affected.
• Factors that mediate influence of media.
• What can we do to shape how our children use the
  media?

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Background

• Nature vs. Nurture debate is over!
• Importance of environmental factors on
  development.
• Environment and genetic influence.

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• Decade of the Brain
• Ericksons Childhood Society
• Institute of Medicines Neurons to Neighborhoods

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• Brain and its reciprocal and dynamic relationship
  with the environment. environment shapes and
  modifies the very architecture of the brain, as
  the brain influences how a person interacts with
  the environment.

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• Critical periods essential brain function is
  established or a particular event occurs in the
  brain e.g pruning of dendrites.
• Developmental plasticity capacity of the brain
  to be influenced in its growth.

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Lessons from Early Childhood Education

• Stimulation sets course for optimal brain
  development regardless of inherited intelligence
  potential.
• Need for appropriate and sufficient stimulation
  in infancy and preschool years.
• Imitation and modeling are important social
  learning modalities.

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Lessons from Early Childhood Education

• Maria Montessori and the concept of the
  environment developing the mental flesh of the
  brain.
• Piaget and his schemata internal mental
  representations that are brains recognition
  system to allow child to relate to the familiar
  and move towards understanding the unfamiliar.

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Brain Research

• Neural networks webs of interconnecting nerve
  fibers traversing the brain that develop in
  response to environmental stimulation. Density
  of neural connections greater with increased
  stimulation.

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Brain Research

• Neuroscience mantra Neurons that fire together
  wire together.
• Helps in understanding associative memory. The
  more sensory systems that are recruited during an
  experience, the more reinforced is memory for
  that event.
• If the pleasure center is activated, activity is
  reinforced.

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SUMMARY

• Environment provides stimulation through its
  content and context.
• Accesses the brain via the sensory systems.
• Learning and behavior are reinforced with
  gratifying experiences, especially if
  gratification is immediate and repetitive.
• Media provides models to our children.

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What Do Children Need?

• Sense of mastery and competence.
• To acquire self-regulation
• regulation of attention
• regulation of affect
• manage mood states and anxieties
• manage impulsivity
• manage their overall behaviors

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What Do Children Need?

• To develop a capacity to self soothe in the face
  of disappointment.
• To develop frustration tolerance
• Delay gratification
• To develop a motivational system that facilitates
  prosocial adaptation.

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What Do Television and Media Have to Do with
Childrens Development?

• Media Industry has a major presence in our
  childrens lives in America. (Children spend more
  time with the media than any other activity
  besides sleeping).
• Hence, television and other media function as a
  major school of social learning.

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Kaiser Family Foundation Study

• Documented a potentially revolutionary
  phenomenon in American society the immersion of
  our very youngest children, from a few months to
  a few years old, in the world of electronic and
  interactive media.it is an issue that demands
  immediate attention from parents, educators,
  researchers and health professionals.

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Media Ownership in United States

• In 1950, only 10 of American homes had a
  television. By 1960, that percentage had grown
  to 90.
• Today, 99 of homes have a television set.
• 97 have VCRs DVDs
• 70 have video game players
• two thirds have personal computers

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Seduction of the Media

• Multimedia environment of sight and sound with
  many bells and whistles is very exciting to
  kids.
• Television causes children to be sedentary and
  passive.

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Seduction of the Media

• Children often eat drink high fat, high
  calorie, low nutritious foods while viewing
  television, videos playing at video arcades.
• This is a climate of high gratification.

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Just the Facts

• American young people will spend 15,000 hours
  watching television by the time they graduate
  from high school, versus 12,000 hours spent in
  formal classroom instruction.

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Media Usage as Time

• Television 41
• Audio media (radio, CDs and tapes) 24
• Videotapes and movies 14
• Print 9
• Video games 6
• Computers 6

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Time Spent Watching Television

• Age Hrs/Min per week
• 2-5 years 2749
• 6-11 years 2329
• teenaged boys 2116
• teenaged women 3340
• data from 1990 Nielson report on television

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Demographics

• 78 whites vs. 55 African-Americans and 48
  Hispanics live in computer equipped households
• 59 boys homes vs. 32 girls homes contain a
  video game system

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Demographics Contd

• African-American youth 10 hours per day of media
  exposure
• Hispanic youth 9 hours
• White youth 7 hours

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Just the facts...

• 54 of children in the United States have a
  television in their room.
• 50 have their own video game system

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What are children watching?

• Before age 18, the average American child will
  witness over 200,000 acts of violence, including
  16,000 murders.

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Erons Research 1972

• Research which tracked the viewing habits of
  single individuals found that 8 year old boys who
  viewed the most violent programs were most likely
  to engage in aggressive, delinquent behaviors by
  age 18, and serious criminal behavior by age 30.

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Science 2002 by Johnson et.al

• 707 individuals followed for 17 years
• Random sample from northern New York
• Significant association between the amount of
  time spent watching television during adolescence
  and early adulthood and the likelihood of
  subsequent aggressive acts

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Rock Music and Music Videos

• What does the research tell us?

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More recent research data

• 247 students in an Australian high school were
  studied for musical preferences and psychological
  health and lifestyle
• 74 of the girls preferred pop music
• 70 of the boys preferred rock/heavy metal
• significant association between preference for
  rock/heavy metal and suicidal thoughts, acts of
  deliberate self-harm, depression, delinquency,
  drug taking and family dysfunction

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Australian Research Contd

• A subgoup of these adolescents with pre-existing
  family problems for whom the music resonated with
  their own feelings stated that the music made
  them feel better.
• Another subgroup, representing 11 of the study,
  stated that the music made them sadder.

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What are the Children viewing?

• 50 of MTV videos contain episodes of frank
  violence
• 20 of rap videos portray violence
• a weapon was displayed in 19 of rap and rock
  videos
• 25 of MTV videos portray tobacco use
• 25 of MTV videos portray alcohol use

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What are the Children viewing?

• Japanese Anime a new phenomenon with American
  adolescents.
• Themes of good vs evil as well as sexual
  ambiguity.

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What are our Children Watching?

• 15 of videos showed instances of interpersonal
  violence
• In those videos, 80 of the time, the aggressor
  was an attractive role model
• Males are 3 times as likely to be the aggressor
• Females are most often the victims
• African-Americans were over-represented as both
  aggressors and victims compared to actual
  demographics

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Research Results

• Violent video game play was a predictor of
  delinquency
• Positive correlation between violent video games
  and aggressive personality
• Total time spent playing has a detrimental effect
  on grades

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Aspects of Childrens Development Affected by
Media

• Learning amount of time spent reading
• Attention span
• Behavior (modeling, imitation e.g. WWF)
• Affective states esp. in vulnerable kids.
• Physiological arousal (excitatory states)
• Perception of time development of
  patiencee.g. internet time

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Aspects of Childrens Development Affected by
Media

• Motivation
• Aggression
• Choices as consumers
• Interpersonal Relationships (empathy)
• Health Status (obesity, diabetes)
• Sleeping behaviors

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Aspects of Childrens Development Affected by
Media

• Sexual behaviors earlier sexual debut for high
  TV viewers.
• Drug, alcohol tobacco use associated with high
  users of various media.
• Pro-social vs. antisocial development related to
  viewing aggressive acts.

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Factors that mediate influence of media Family
Variables

• Parents used to have role of being protective
  barrier between the outside world and their
  children.
• Media is now very intrusive into the home.
• Familys baseline functioning is important e.g.
  adults viewing behavior, substance use, domestic
  violence, mental illness.

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Family Factors...

• Family culture of use of media technology.
• Is it used for education of life events or
  specific topics ?
• Used to minimize interactions between and among
  family members?
• Do children have entertainment centers in their
  bedrooms?

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Factors that Mediate Influence of
MediaIndividual Characteristics

• temperament
• resilience,
• current psychosocial risk factors
• psychological vulnerabilities
• developmental level
• social connectedness

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Societal Factors.

• First amendment right makes regulation of media
  industry very challenging.
• Media industry has resisted making substantive
  changes that would protect children and youth.
• Advertising industry dominates all forms of media.

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Societal Factors Contd.

• Direct to consumer (including children and
  adolescents) marketing defines what is desirable
  and imparts status among peers.
• Disposable income is high in United States.
• Society glamorizes sex violence .
• Children of all ages are less supervised (latch
  key kids) by adults.

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Adverse Side Effects of Media

• Technological advances have always been met with
  ambivalence throughout history.
• With the progress these advances bring they also
  have adverse consequences, both calculated and
  unintended.

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Adverse Side Effects of Media

• Television and other media have become the
  techie blankie and technological babysitter for
  many children.
• The Internet simulates friendships that do not
  help in the development of negotiation and
  compromise skills.

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How Can We Respond?

• American Academy of Pediatrics Media Matters
  Campaign.
• We must become media literate.
• Teach families how to use good judgement about
  the use of media in the home.

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How Can We Respond?

• Public health approach consider concept of early
  preventive intervention.
• Teach parents to match the media viewing/use to
  childs developmental level.
• Consider both the content and context within
  which TV and other media are being used.

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Importance of the Media History

• to learn how a child spends his/her time
• to begin to access a childs inner world
• to obtain information about self-soothing
• to learn about parent availability and
  interactive style

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How Can We Respond?

• Utilize parental controls on the Internet, know
  what our children are watching, what videos they
  are playing, and use V-Chip on the television.
• Encourage discussion of violent, sexual,
  discriminatory, stereotypic, traumatic or
  otherwise disturbing themes seen in news,
  documentaries or other programs.

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Conclusion...

• Environment plays a significant role in how
  children learn and behave, and the adults they
  become.
• Remember that the environment influences actual
  brain development.

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Conclusion contd...

• Television other media have a powerful impact
  on major aspects of our childrens development
• academic recreational
• social health behaviors
• moral

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How Can We Respond?

• Most of all, let us utilize Television and other
  media to promote adaptive functioning in our
  children. There is a lot that can be positive
  about the media.
• Research shows that children who use TV in
  educational manner early in life, continue to do
  so into adulthood.
• Support parents role in shaping and managing the
  media environment for their children.

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