Is Exposure to Media Intended for Preschool Children Associated With Less Parent-Child Shared Reading Aloud and Teaching Activities?

Tomopoulos, Suzy; Valdez, Purnima T.; Dreyer, Benard P.; Fierman, Arthur H.; Berkule, Samantha B.; Kuhn, Maggie; Mendelsohn, Alan L.

doi:10.1016/j.ambp.2006.10.005

« Previous Next »Ambulatory Pediatrics
Volume 7, Issue 1 , Pages 18-24, January 2007

Is Exposure to Media Intended for Preschool Children Associated With Less Parent-Child Shared Reading Aloud and Teaching Activities?

Presented in part at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, May 2005, Washington, DC.

Department of Pediatrics, New York University School of Medicine, Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY.

Received 10 May 2006; accepted 12 October 2006.

Objective

To determine whether electronic media exposure is associated with decreased parental reading and teaching activities in the homes of preschool children.

Methods

A convenience sample presenting for well-child care to an urban hospital pediatric clinic was enrolled. Inclusion criteria were: child’s age 3 to 5 years and not yet in kindergarten. Electronic media exposure (TV, movies/video, computer/video games) was assessed with a 24-hour recall diary and characterized on the basis of industry ratings. Reading aloud and teaching activities were assessed with the StimQ-Preschool READ and PIDA (Parental Involvement in Developmental Advance) subscales, respectively.

Results

A total of 77 families were assessed. Children were exposed to a mean (SD) of 200.8 (128.9) minutes per day of media, including 78.2 (63.7) minutes of educational young child–oriented, 62.0 (65.6) minutes of noneducational young child–oriented, 14.8 (41.4) minutes of school age/teen–oriented, and 29.2 (56.6) minutes of adult-oriented media, as well as to 16.6 (47.5) minutes of media of unknown type. A total of 79.2% watched 2 or more hours per day. Noneducational young child–oriented exposure was associated with fewer reading (semipartial correlation coefficient [SR] = −0.24, P = .02) and teaching (SR = −0.27, P = .01) activities; similar relationships were not found for other media categories. Children exposed to 2 or more hours of total electronic media per day had 1.6 (95% confidence interval, 0.4–2.9) fewer days per week of reading than children exposed to less than 2 hours (SR = −0.27, P = .01).

Conclusions

This study found an association between increased exposure to noneducational young child–oriented media and decreased teaching and reading activities in the home. This association represents a mechanism by which media exposure could adversely affect development.

Key words: media exposure, parenting, preschool children, reading, teaching activities