Does Television Exposure in Childhood Lead to Adolescent Attention Problems?

In a prospective longitudinal study, TV viewing for more than 2 hours daily during childhood was associated with inattention in adolescence.

Many studies have reported associations between children’s television viewing and poor academic performance (Journal Watch General Medicine Aug 16 2005. But few longitudinal studies have examined the relation between television viewing during childhood and attention problems in adolescence.

Investigators followed a population-based cohort of 1037 New Zealand children born in 1972 and 1973 and collected information on their average weekday TV viewing every 2 years from ages 5 to 15. At ages 13 and 15, measures of attention were combined from parents, teachers, and the children to give a composite score for adolescent attention problems.

The mean number of hours of TV viewed daily at ages 5 through 11 was positively associated with attention pr…

Reviewing Author

Cornelius W. Van Niel, MD

Disclosures

EquityMedtronic; Express Scripts; Johnson & Johnson; Merck

Cornelius W. Van Niel, MD

Disclosures

EquityMedtronic; Express Scripts; Johnson & Johnson; Merck