Kids' TV Watching Reflects Parents' Habits

July 15, 2013

If you watch a lot of TV, your kids will, too. That's the main finding of a study published July 15. Researchers surveyed 1,550 parents with children up to 17 years old. They also surveyed their 629 older children who were ages 12 through 17. Generally, the study found that children watched more TV if their parents did. The journal Pediatrics published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it July 15.

By Claire McCarthy, M.D.
Harvard Medical School

What Is the Doctor's Reaction?

If parents want to change their children's television habits, they should take a look at their own.

That's the main message of a study just released in the journal Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania surveyed parents (and also any teenage  children of those parents) about their TV habits.

They found that every hour of parental TV viewing, their kids watched an extra  23 minutes.  In fact, the authors found that TV viewing by parents was the strongest predictor of child TV viewing. This had a bigger effect than any of  the other factors they looked at.

The authors weren't sure why this was the case. They said that it may be that the parents were role models for their children, who did what they did. For many families,  TV  also may be part of the family culture and routines. It may be a big part of how they spend time together.

Here are some other interesting facts from the study:

• Parents watched an average of 4 hours of TV a day.
• Homes had an average of 3 TVs.
• One-third of parents sometimes restricted the TV viewing time of their children, and about one-quarter often restricted it. The rest rarely or never did.
• Half of the children overall in the survey had TVs in their bedrooms; among teenagers, two-thirds did.
• One-fifth of all children, and more than one-third of teens,  had Internet access in their bedrooms.
• On average, parents reported that their children watched almost 3 hours of TV daily.
• Parents of teenagers  reported that their kids  watched TV for 3.3 hours; the teens  themselves reported 4.1 hours.

What Changes Can I Make Now?

It's a good idea for families to look closely at their media habits. Excessive TV  viewing can lead to obesity, poor sleep, lack of exercise  and poor academic achievement. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children not spend more than 2  hours a day watching TV. No TV at all is recommended for  children under the age of 2.

Television is not intrinsically evil, and there are plenty of healthy, well-adjusted, successful children who watch more than two hours a day. But it's worthwhile for both parents and children to be thoughtful about TV  viewing.  And it's really important to remember that children pay more attention to what you  do than what you  say.

As you  reach to turn on the TV, just  stop and think: Why am I doing this? Is this something I really want or need to watch? Is there something else I might be doing that would be better for me -- or my family?

Try having screen-free days, or at least screen-free evenings. Have a family game night. Go for a walk together. Bake cookies -- or a whole meal -- with your children. The idea is to try out some new and different habits. You might just find that they make everyone happier (and healthier) than TV viewing.

What Can I Expect Looking to the Future?

More and more, TV and other media  are  becoming part of our daily lives. They have  much to offer us, but there are definite downsides. Our challenge will be to find ways to minimize those downsides. Studies like this one help us do just that.