American children's use of electronic media in 1997

Abstract

Within a weighted, nationally representative sample of 2902 children, differences in electronic media use by age and sex were examined. The data collected were part of the University of Michigan's Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), and included two 24-h time-use diaries, one from a weekday and one from a weekend day. Children and their parents reported the titles of television programs, videotapes, and electronic games (both computer and platform) that the children used. These titles were coded by genre, and differences in total time and in time spent with specific genres within each medium were examined. Main effects of age and sex on total use and use by genres are reported. Among other results, oldest boys were found to spend more time watching sports programs and playing electronic sports games while the oldest girls spend more time watching relationship dramas and not a large amount of time playing video games. The results indicate the diverging media interests of boys and girls. Use patterns may also suggest a lack of availability of appropriate electronic games for older girls.

Introduction

Over the course of the 20th century, broadcast and electronic media became an increasingly important part of the environments in which children grew up. As the 21st century begins, the variety of options available on television and the range of other media activities available are increasing almost exponentially. In the majority of American homes, children have 50–100 television channels as well as video tape players; many also have video game equipment and computers that support interactive software and that provide access to the Internet (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, & Brodie, 1999). Children spend an average of about 3 h a day with television Huston & Wright, 1997, Rideout et al., 1999, and video and computer games are rapidly becoming a frequent activity for many children. Both theory and popular speculation award these media an important role in children's development, but solid information about who uses them and what they use is scarce.

In this article, we describe age and gender differences and similarities in the patterns of electronic media use (television and video/computer games) in a large nationally representative sample of children ages 0 to 12. A core assumption in this research is that the genre and content of media used by children are critical to understanding their role in children's lives. This assumption is supported by a large body of evidence from television research indicating that educational programs can teach academic and prosocial skills, while viewing general entertainment is associated with lower levels of school readiness and academic performance Anderson et al., in press, Huston et al., in press, Huston & Wright, 1997. Moreover, viewing preferences for particular television genres are quite stable over time (Tangney & Feshbach, 1988).

Computers and video games allow interaction, problem solving, and challenge — all qualities that many people think make them more stimulating than the “passive” processes alleged to be involved in television viewing. Yet, because such games and software range from cognitively simple perceptual–motor activities to highly abstract, complex, and difficult problems, it is important to differentiate them by content. Despite the fact that interactive electronic media surround many American children from birth onward, there is relatively little information about very young children's patterns of use of media other than television, or about age differences in early and middle childhood use. However, the more extensive television literature may provide hints as to what will be learned about interactive media use.

Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies show that television viewing time increases with age from infancy to around age 6, declines at school entry, then increases again into early adolescence, peaking around 10–12 Comstock, 1991, Huston et al., 1999, Timmer et al., 1985. In one investigation, 2- and 3-year-olds spent considerable time in “secondary” viewing (that is, viewing that accompanied another activity) of general audience programs, probably because they spent time near adults who were viewing, but such secondary viewing declined with age (Wright & Huston, 1995). Genres of programs viewed also change with age. Educational program viewing peaks around age 4; cartoon viewing increases to about age 5, then levels off Funk et al., 1997, Huston et al., 1999, Huston et al., 1990. By the early years of middle childhood, situation comedies are typically the most popular shows (Condry, 1989).

Children's use of computers and video games also changes as they mature. As with television, changes in media-use habits as children grow older appear to result from changes in use opportunities and from cognitive and social developmental changes (Huston et al., 1992). Analyses of longitudinal time-use data for children from ages 2 through 7 showed that video game play increased with age, particularly for boys (Huston et al., 1999). In a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample, Rideout et al. (1999) reported that 2–7-year-olds spent an average of 40 min a day using computers for games and other purposes; 8–18-year-olds averaged 1 h and 40 min. Buchman and Funk (1996) found that total time playing interactive games decreased as a function of age for fourth through eighth graders.

Unfortunately, most studies do not provide information about the content or type of game or activity. In one study of 4th through 8th graders, younger children were more likely to prefer educational games than were older children (Buchman & Funk, 1996). Among the 8–18-year-olds surveyed by Rideout et al. (1999), only about one-fourth of their computer time was devoted to games; the remainder was spent on Internet uses and work or study tasks.

Previous research shows small, but fairly consistent gender differences in total television viewing, although these change with age. During the preschool years, boys are more frequent viewers than girls, particularly of cartoons and action adventure programs Huston et al., 1990, Singer & Singer, 1981, Wright & Huston, 1995. That difference continues at least until late childhood McKenzie et al., 1992, Ridley-Johnson et al., 1984, Timmer et al., 1985. Patterns of gender differences are less consistent for adolescents Brown et al., 1990, Timmer et al., 1985. On the whole, however, adolescent boys watch more cartoons, action adventure, and sports programs than girls (Comstock, 1991).

By contrast, there are large and consistent gender differences in computer use that begin as early as ages 3 or 4 (Huston et al., 1999). Boys use computers more than girls do, particularly to play video and computer games Funk et al., 1997, Greenfield, 1994, Huston et al., 1999, Rideout et al., 1999. Boys also tend to monopolize computer-use time in the classroom, particularly in periods of uncontrolled access Cassell & Jenkins, 1998, Kinnear, 1995. Many explanations have been proposed, including the characteristics of boys' social networks, advertising, content of games, parental socialization practices, and classroom management strategies by teachers, as well as a growing general cultural expectation of gender-typed usage.

The few studies that have included information about game content demonstrate that boys and girls have different preferences. Gailey (1996) observed game playing in a small sample of urban children (N=21) ages 6 to12; boys preferred violent action games, and girls preferred spatial relations games. In a survey of nine hundred 4th through 8th grade children, girls preferred educational games or those containing cartoon fantasy violence, while boys preferred sports games and those containing realistic human violence Buchman & Funk, 1996, Funk et al., 1997. Gender differences are probably influenced by the pervasive masculine themes of speed and fighting in the vast majority of video games Johnson & Swoope, 1987, Kinder, 1996, Kubey & Larson, 1990.

The goal of the present study was to describe children's patterns of television and interactive game use by age and gender in recently collected data. Despite the volume of literature on television use, available studies generally have one of two weaknesses: poor quality measures of viewing, or small, convenience samples (Huston & Wright, 1997). With the exception of the large-scale survey by Rideout et al. (1999), investigations of computer use suffer from these same weaknesses. The data used for this study suffer from neither of these problems. Our data come from the Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a large-scale investigation designed to provide a range of assessments of a nationally representative sample of approximately 3000 children ages 0 to 12 years old.

The method in our study was a detailed time-use diary in which respondents reported all of their activities; media were not given special emphasis over other activities, as they are in methods based on media-use diaries or other forms of self-reported media use. Most important for our purposes, respondents recorded titles of television programs and video games when either were used, permitting analyses by program genre and game type.