Transcript No Slide Title

Early Television Exposure is related to Executive
Functioning and Comprehension in Preschoolers
Rachel Barr, Beverly Good, Alexis Lauricella, Nancy Miller, Kim Nyugen,
Gabrielle Strouse, Lorena Valencia, Elizabeth Zack & Sandra Calvert
Georgetown University
Introduction
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 1999) recommended that parents should not
expose children under the age of 2 to television. In practice, however, most children are
exposed to about 1-2 hours of television each day.
Many parents have a positive attitude toward exposure to educational television programs
designed for children known as foreground television (Rideout, Vandwater & Wartella,
2003), and there are beneficial effects of foreground television on children’s cognitive
development as early as age 2 (Anderson & Pempek, 2005).
Why the AAP recommendation? At a time of very rapid brain development, infants may be
particularly vulnerable to television exposure for two major reasons. First, they are often
exposed to background television, containing content that is designed for an older
audience and thus incomprehensible to infants. Exposure to background television
interrupts the duration of play bouts in 1-year-olds (Anderson & Pempek, 2005), and play is
a documented contributor to early cognitive development (see Singer & Singer, 2005).
Furthermore, during background television exposure, parents and caregivers attend to
television content and reduce their interactions with children.
Moreover, a recent study found a relationship between heavy early television use and
subsequent attention problems that resembled ADHD (Christakis, Zimmerman,
DiGiuseppe, & McCarty, 2004). While the study included a large sample and controlled for
multiple potential risk factors, there were also limitations: 1) there was a delay between
initial assessment and the follow-up 7 years later; and 2) the measure was only a 5-item
checklist, not a true measure of attention or attention deficits.
The present study examines how infants’ early media use subsequently affects 4-year-olds’
attention, executive functioning, and media comprehension.
Method
Participants. 48 (19 boys, 28 girls) 4-year-olds who had participated as infants. Families
were mainly Caucasian, had college-educated parents & had middle to high incomes.
Infant television exposure was measured using a 24-hr media diary in which parents of 12to 18-month-olds reported television use in the household, including the amount, the
content, and who was viewing.
Preschool measures
1. Comprehension of media was measured by 10 multiple-choice questions per
media type.
Table 2: Correlations between early television exposure and executive functioning
BRIEF-P
Total
Background
Foreground
Household TV
TV
TV
Inhibit
.018
-.172
-.144
Shift
-.128
-.204
-.020
-.422**
-.319*
Emotional Control (EC)
-.196
Working memory (WM)
-.005
-.259
.003
Plan/organize (P/O)
-.101
-.195
-.178
Inhibit + EC index
-.117
-.213
-.168
+
-.348*
-.302
Flexibility index (Shift +EC)
-.139
Cognitive index (WM + P/O)
-.077
-.240
-.043
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
+
Correlation is a trend p < 0.07 (2-tailed).
Executive functioning is moderated by early media exposure. Higher levels of background
television exposure during infancy were related to poorer emotional control
and flexibility of thinking but exposure to foreground television was not.
Table 3: Correlation between media comprehension measures (n =46)
Books
Computers
Videos
Bear Shadow CCM
Elmo
Penguin
Sagwa
Dora
CCM
.471**
Elmo
.527**
.416**
Penguin
.443**
.221
.361*
+
.256
Sagwa
.424**
.389**
.077
Dora
.307*
.340*
.517**
.244
.229
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
+
Correlation is a trend at p < .10 (2 tailed).
In general, the comprehension measures were highly correlated across media type, i.e., tv,
computer, and book platforms. Put another way, story comprehension transcends platform.
As shown in Table 4, higher levels of early television exposure does predict comprehension
with children from higher TV households having poorer comprehension scores on books.
Table 4: Correlations between early TV exposure and media comprehension
Books
Computer
Videos
TV exposure (hrs)
CCM
Bear Shadow Elmo Penguin Sagwa Dora
+
-.350(*)
-.288
Household TV
-.156
.034
-.097 -.018
Background TV
-.238
-.195
.150
-.054
-.079
.072
Foreground TV
-.014
-.216
.053
.224
.200
-.060
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
+
Correlation is a trend at p < .07 (2 tailed).
a) Books: Bear Shadow and Click Clack Moo (CCM)
Discussion
b) Videos: Dora the Explorer and Sagwa the Kitty
Main findings
c) Electronic books: Elmo and Little Penguin
2. Executive Functioning was measured with the BRIEF-P, a 63-item multiple-choice
parent report measure regarding child behavior over the last 6 months.
Five factors:
a) Inhibit: ability to resist impulses and stop behaviors.
b) Shift: ability for the child to move from one situation to another.
c) Emotional control: ability to modulate emotional responses
d) Working memory: ability to hold information in the mind in order to complete a
task or make a response
e) Planfulness and organization: ability to plan steps and combine elements to
effectively achieve a goal.
Results
Descriptive Statistics. We calculated the total amount of television usage per household
and the amount of foreground and background television that infants were exposed to per
day. Our sample consisted of relatively low- to medium-viewing households and viewing
was typical to that of a national sample of infants in this age range (Rideout et al., 2003).
Table 1: Parent report of average infant exposure to television (n=41).
Diary Measures
Min
Max
Mean
Total Household Television
0 hrs
5 hrs 30 min
1 hr 53 min
Infant Exposure to Children’s Programming
0 hrs
4 hrs
33 min
Infant Exposure to Adult Programming
0 hrs
2 hrs 45 min
37 min
A very special thank you to all the families who made this research possible and to members of the Georgetown
Early Learning Project for help in data collection and coding. Support for this research was provided by the
Georgetown University Graduate School Pilot Grant and Stuart Family Foundation, an NSF Center Award
(#0126014), and a Georgetown University GUROP awards.
1. Poorer executive functioning. Higher levels of overall household television
exposure, particularly to adult programming, during late infancy was linked to poorer
emotional control and flexibility in preschoolers, a potential issue for early school
readiness and success.
2. Story comprehension is similar across media platforms. Preschoolers can learn well
from all platforms but comprehension of books is negatively related to high levels of
exposure to television during infancy.
Implications and Future Research
• Caveat: Although early TV viewing may contribute to later emotion regulation
problems, it is also possible that children with attention disorders are motivated to
watch more television and/or are encouraged to do so by parents. It could also be a
by-product of less parent-child interaction per se (Vandewater et al., 2006).
Consistent with other findings, other forms of attention are unaffected such as
working memory (Stevens & Mulsow, 2006).
• Early media exposure could be affecting information processing and attentional
patterns such that infants with more screen exposure comprehend books less at a
later time. We are currently examining whether parent interaction mediates that
process.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Public Education. (1999). Media education. Pediatrics, 104, 341-342.
Anderson, D. & Pempek, T. (2005). Television and very young children. American Behavioral Scientist, 48, 505-522.
Christakis, D. A., Zimmerman, F. J., DiGiuseppe, D. L., & McCarty, C. A. (2004). Early television exposure and subsequent
attentional problems in children. Pediatrics, 113, 708-713.
Rideout, V., Vandewater, E., & Wartella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers, and
preschoolers. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Stevens, T. & Mulsow, M. (2006). There is no meaningful relationship between television exposure and symptoms of
attention- deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. Pediatrics, 117, 665-672.
Singer, D. G. & Singer, J. L. (2005). Imagination and play in the electronic age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vandewater, E., Bickham, D. S., & Lee, J. (2006). Time well spent? Relating television use to children's free-time activities.
Pediatrics, 117, 181-191.