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Neurology
The Effect of Media on Children and Adolescents
a report by
Donald L Shifrin
Professor of Paediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
Joel Bourne, writing in the October 2004 issue of National Geographic The market continues to flourish in the face of the American Academy of
magazine, postulated about the events that would occur if a Pediatrics (AAP) 1999 recommendation that urges parents to “avoid
category 3 or 4 storm changed into a category 5 storm before it hit the television for less than two years, secondary to early brain development
Louisiana coast and New Orleans. The ensuing calamity and damage to showing babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with
the city and its citizens if the levies were breached was exactingly parents”.
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Paediatricians need an increased awareness of how to broach the
detailed as the worst natural disaster in the history of the US. use of media by parents and their young children. A 2003 AAP survey of
Foreshadowing the event, Geologist Shea Penland stated: ”It’s not if it Fellows revealed that 61% stated that they ”almost always or often”
will happen. It’s when.” Less than one year later, Hurricane Katrina discussed the effects of media with patients aged six to 11 years.
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Research
fulfilled those dire predictions. needs to continue into the context and content of parental strategies
regarding media exposure in the face of the AAP’s recommendations. Are
We now read about a different storm. Research articles reveal parents aware and/or concerned about media time? Is media a family affair?
increasing evidence of the impact of electronic media on our children’s Will these kinds of study results influence their decisions?
cognitive, social, behavioural and physical health. Does ongoing
exposure to media erode children’s behaviours and attitudes enough to Barkin’s study on parental media mediation styles in 1,831 children aged
compare them to an impending disaster? between two and 11 years (half were aged between two and five years)
showed that 36% of children with televisions in their bedroom watched
Media immersion begins early. Data now almost three years old one hour more than the average of television each day. A higher level of
reported that 50% of households containing infants aged between parental concern increased the likelihood of restrictive strategies, but a
zero and six years had more than three televisions. Thirty per cent television in the bedroom created “an opportunity for unsupervised
of zero- to three-year-old children and 43% of three- to six-year-old media consumption”. Dr Barkin is not sure what prompts parents to
children had televisions in their bedrooms. Seventy-five per cent install a television in the bedroom of their child, and whether this may
watched DVDs daily, and 72% of parents believed that computers lead to an underestimation of media time.
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“mostly helped”. Fifty-eight per cent said educational videos were
“very important”, 25% owned Baby Einstein videos and 90% of Does the media use of young children continue as they grow into
parents said they had television rules, but 58% would let children teenagers? Children aged between eight and 18 years in Kaiser’s
watch television unsupervised.
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Generation M study spent six hours and 21 minutes with media.
Sixty-eight per cent had televisions in their bedrooms, 31% had
Educational DVDs and interactive games for infants and toddlers represent computers and 50% lived in households with no television rules. Of the
a US$100 million business, fuelled by marketing strategies that tout or other 50% of households with television rules, only one in five reported
intimate cognitive and social development, despite the fact there are no that they were enforced. Total media time exceeded all other activities
scientific studies that prove the benefits of any DVDs, programmes or except sleep. Also noted was the fact that the average total time spent
games available (except Sesame Street television). Companies market to with media was much higher (above nine hours) in certain categories
parental anxieties about giving their children every academic advantage. such as low contentedness (18%) versus moderate or high
Most companies realise the reality that parents rely on the experience of contentedness, heavy video gaming (13%) versus moderate or light
other parents with these products rather than studies or expert advice.
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usage and in those with poorer grades (10% C and D grades).
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Bickham and Rich’s research, Is Television Associated with Social Isolation?,
Donald L Shifrin is a Clinical Professor of Paediatrics at the
University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He is
is certainly of interest within the subgroups of pre-teens and teens. They
an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics
structured their study to report on the effect of television
(AAP). He initiated the first Seattle Times free paediatric
and violent television on peer relationships. They postulated that “lonely
telephone hotline in 1989, and served as a member of
Mediascope, a non-profit organisation that promoted children may turn to television for entertainment and companionship”. Is
responsible depictions of children’s health issues in the media.
more media or specific media consumption a predictor of social isolation?
He is a member of the Medical Executive Committee and the
Foundation Board for Fundraising of Seattle Children’s
When aggressive behaviour or poor grades are noted, attention should be
Hospital. Dr Shifrin received his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine,
given to documenting specific media exposure and total media time.
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Washington DC. He completed his paediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles,
where he served as Chief Paediatric Resident.
Generation Speed, a 2004 study of 1,000 teenagers aged between 12
E: peddoc07@aol.com
and 17 years, was undertaken by Johns Hopkins and reported in
46 © TOUCH BRIEFINGS 2007
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