Effects of Media on Children

A recent book, The Learning Habit, (Pressman, Pressman and Jackson, 2015) highlights a study conducted over a three year period (2011-2013), in collaboration with the New England Center for Pediatric Psychology, Brown University Alpert Medical School,Children’s National Medical Center and Rhode Island College Psychology Department, where 50,000 families from all 50 states were surveyed. Families were also interviewed. To date, this is the largest survey of family routines conducted. The results of the surveys are interesting.

One chapter in the book deals with sleep and media consumption. Sleep and media consumption are closely related, more that the researchers expected. Researchers found that few negative effects were realized by children, regardless of the device (TV, computer, tablet etc.) when children consumed 45 minutes or less of media time. With more than 45 minutes, sleep was affected. After 180 minutes of media time, the effect on sleep was substantial. Sleep deprivation symptoms include: changes in mood, attention problems, decreasing grades, hyperactivity, lethargy. An increase or decrease of 30 minutes of sleep can have a dramatic impact on the way a child functions in school. Media consumption is a prime contributor to having trouble falling asleep.

Children who gamed more than 90 minutes a day were twice as likely to have social problems such as difficulty making friends, inability to join others in play, fear of trying new things or being unable to effectively communicate their feelings and needs.

Across all grade levels, decreases in grade point averages were observed as the child entered the 31-60 minute range of time spent on media consumption per day. Spending 45 minutes or more on media consumption (all types combined) will likely result in decreased academic performance. At 90 minutes of media consumption, on average, the middle school students’ grades dropped one grade level. At 300 minutes, the risk of a student failing was twice as great.

Children who played games with friends or family members were more resistant to the harmful effects of video games. Surprisingly, extremely violent video games, when played with a parent, seemed to have little measurable negative impact on a child. This was NOT true when the child played these games alone.

Children have a 45 minute threshold for television consumption. With more daily viewing time than this, most children at most grade levels will show academic, social and emotional declines. After 1.5 hours of TV, a student’s grades can rapidly decline. After 4 hours of daily TV consumption, a student has virtually no chance of academic success. Anxiety is a hallmark of children who spend too much time in front of screens.