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

The Impact of Television & other
Media on Children’s
Development
Marilyn B. Benoit, M.D.
Past President, American Academy
of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Acknowledgment
Thanks to Susan Villani, MD who
contributed to the preparation of this slide
presentation.
Types Of Media
 Television
 Computers
 Internet
 Music Videos & Songs
 Video Games
Outline
 Background:
• Early childhood
• Brain Research
• Essential Skills Children Need
Outline Cont’d
 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?
Background
 Nature vs. Nurture debate is over!
 Importance of environmental factors on
development.
 Environment and genetic influence.
 Decade of the Brain
 Erickson’s Childhood & Society
 Institute of Medicine’s Neurons to
Neighborhoods
 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.
 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.
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.
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 brain’s
recognition system to allow child to relate
to the familiar and move towards
understanding the unfamiliar.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
What Do Television and Media Have
to Do with Children’s Development?
 Media Industry has a major presence in our
children’s 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.
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.”
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 VCR’s & DVD’s
 70% have video game players
 two thirds have personal computers

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.
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.
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.
Media Usage as % Time
 Television 41%
 Audio media (radio, CD’s and tapes) 24%
 Videotapes and movies 14%
 Print 9%
 Video games 6%
 Computers 6%
Time Spent Watching Television

Age


2-5 years
6-11 years
teenaged boys
teenaged women

*data from 1990 Nielson report on television


Hrs/Min per week
27:49
23:29
21:16
33:40
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
Demographics Cont’d
 African-American youth: 10 hours per day of
media exposure
 Hispanic youth: 9 hours
 White youth: 7 hours
Just the facts...
54% of children in the
United States have a
television in their
room.
 50% have their own
video game system

What are children watching?

Before age 18, the
average American
child will witness over
200,000 acts of
violence, including
16,000 murders.
Eron’s 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.
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
Rock Music and Music Videos
 What does the
research tell us?
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
Australian Research Cont’d
 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.
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
What are the Children viewing?
 Japanese Anime: a new phenomenon with
American adolescents.
 Themes of good vs evil as well as sexual
ambiguity.
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
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
Aspects of Children’s
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
“patience”e.g. “internet time”
Aspects of Children’s
Development Affected by Media
 Motivation
 Aggression
 Choices as consumers
 Interpersonal Relationships (empathy)
 Health Status (obesity, diabetes)
 Sleeping behaviors
Aspects of Children’s
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.
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.
 Family’s baseline functioning is important
e.g. adults’ viewing behavior, substance
use, domestic violence, mental illness.
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?
Factors that Mediate Influence of Media:
Individual Characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
•
temperament
resilience,
current psychosocial risk factors
psychological vulnerabilities
developmental level
social connectedness
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.
Societal Factors Cont’d….
 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.
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.
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.
How Can We Respond?
 American Academy of Pediatric’s Media
Matters Campaign.
 We must become “media literate.”
 Teach families how to use good judgement
about the use of media in the home.
How Can We Respond?
 Public health approach: consider concept
of early preventive intervention.
 Teach parents to match the media
viewing/use to child’s developmental level.
 Consider both the content and context
within which TV and other media are being
used.
Importance of the Media History
to learn how a child
spends his/her time
 to begin to access a
child’s inner world
 to obtain information
about self-soothing
 to learn about parent
availability and
interactive style

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.
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.
Conclusion cont’d...
 Television & other media have a
powerful impact on major aspects of
our children’s development:
 academic
recreational
 social
health behaviors
 moral
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.
