Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 52, Issue 2, 1 February 2011, Pages 104-108
Preventive Medicine

TVs in the bedrooms of children: Does it impact health and behavior?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2010.11.019Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

To (1) determine socio-demographic characteristics associated with a TV in the bedroom (BTV) and (2) examine relationship of BTV, independent of total viewing time, with social and behavioral characteristics.

Methods

Children 6–17 years from the 2007 US National Survey of Children's Health were included (n = 48,687). BTV, daily TV viewing time, demographic, behavioral and social outcomes (community involvement, social skills, health habits and status, and family) were examined using logistic regression, and adjusted for total viewing time.

Results

Overall prevalence of BTV was 49.3% in American children. Older age, non-Hispanic Black (71.3%), Hispanics (56.3%), higher level of poverty (> 56.2%), non two-parent biological family structure (> 62.6%), Midwest (47.1%), Northeast (46.7%), South Atlantic (56.4%) and South Central (59.8%) region of the country were associated with higher odds of BTV. Female gender (52.7%) and residence in Alaska (33.0%) were associated with lower prevalence of BTV. BTV was associated with higher prevalence of exhibiting problematic social behaviors (29%) and overweight status (44%). BTV was significantly associated with lower prevalence of regular family meals (13%), engagement in school (16%), participation in extracurricular activities (31%), regularly sleeping enough (20%), and participation in community service (25%) after adjustment for total viewing time.

Conclusions

BTV appears associated with more social and behavioral indices than previously reported, in addition to total viewing time.

Introduction

Among children in industrialized countries, television (TV) viewing is one of the most commonly reported sedentary behaviors (Gorely et al., 2004, Rideout et al., 2010). An average of 2–4 hours/day is dedicated to watching TV (Marshall et al., 2006, Rideout et al., 2003, Rideout et al., 2010). Moreover, approximately 33% of children in the U.S. exceed American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations of ≤ 2 hours/day of TV and video viewing; this increases to 47% when screen-time is considered (Sisson et al., 2009). Greater time in TV viewing have been associated with a number of clinical, academic, social, developmental and behavioral risk factors (Carson et al., 2010, Strasburger et al., 2010). Additionally, high amounts of childhood TV viewing tracking into risk factors in adulthood (Hancox et al., 2004), independent of adult TV-watching behaviors (Erik Landhuis et al., 2008).

Children having a TV in the bedroom (BTV) spend approximately 1.5 more hours/day (Rideout et al., 2005) watching TV than those without. Moreover, 71% of youth have BTV and this number has risen since 1999 (Rideout et al., 2010). BTV may be associated with a myriad of negative behaviors and outcomes—such as lower standardized test scores (Borzekowski and Robinson, 2005), less physical activity (Barr-Anderson et al., 2008), poorer dietary habits (Barr-Anderson et al., 2008), fewer family meals (Barr-Anderson et al., 2008), poor academic performance (Barr-Anderson et al., 2008), less sleep (Mistry et al., 2007), greater likelihood of smoking (Jackson et al., 2007), and poorer social skills (Mistry et al., 2007). However, not all studies adjust for total TV viewing time in reporting these associations, so it remains unclear whether BTV itself results from, promotes or reinforces these outcomes or whether the increased TV viewing time is in fact the culprit.

The current study expands on prior work by considering the independent effect of BTV on health and social behaviors BTV in a nationally-representative sample of youth. Therefore, the purposes of this study are to (1) to describe the socio-demographic characteristics associated with presence of BTV and (2) to examine the association of BTV, independent of total TV viewing time, with health and social behaviors in a nationally-representative sample of U.S. youth.

Section snippets

Data

Data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) were used for this study (Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, 2007, Blumberg et al., 2009). Telephone interviews, administered in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese, were conducted between April 2007 and July 2008 with the parent or guardian who knew most about a specific randomly-selected child. The total number of completed interviews was 91,642 with a response rate of 46.7% (Blumberg et al., 2009).

Sample

Results

Nearly half (49.3%) of American youth have BTV and 49.0% watch > 1 hour/day of TV (Table 1). BTV was associated with higher odds (OR: 95% CI; 1.69: 1.54-1.86) of watching > 1 hour/day of TV. Table 2 presents the odds ratios, 95% CI, and adjusted population prevalence of characteristics predictive of BTV. Older age, non-white race/ethnicity, higher level of poverty, non-two parent-biological family structure, and non-West region of the country (excluding Alaska) were associated with higher odds of

Discussion

Several socio-demographic attributes were associated with BTV, and BTV, independent of total TV viewing time, was associated with undesirable health, social and behavioral characteristics in American youth. Almost half (49.3%) of children in the U.S. have BTV; less than previous reports (62–71%) (Barr-Anderson et al., 2008, Jordan et al., 2006, Rideout et al., 2010). In support of previous reports (Rey-Lopez et al., 2010, Springer et al., 2010), BTV is associated with more viewing time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, several socio-demographic characteristics, such as older age, non-white race/ethnicity, male gender, higher level of poverty, non-two parent biological family structure, and region of the country (Midwest, Northeast, South Atlantic and South Central versus West) were associated with greater likelihood of having BTV, supporting previous findings. Alaskan residence was associated with lower likelihood of having BTV. This study adds to previous research by examining BTV and several

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest for any of the authors.

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