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Kiddos with television in their bedrooms score lower on school tests and are more likely to have sleep problems, struggle with obesity, and are at a higher risk for smoking.
The link between TV and these findings might start with the most obvious: children who have TVs in their bedroom end up watching more TV, and the time they spend doing so is unsupervised, so parent's don't necessarily know what their children are watching.
A study in Buffalo, NY, of 80 children ages 4 to 70 found that the presence of TV in the bedroom increased the average viewing time by nearly nine hours a week--bring the average hours of TV watched per week up to 30 hours! Interestingly, parents of those children were more likely to underestimate their child's TV viewing time.
"If it's in the bedroom, the parents don't even really know what the kids are watching," said Leonard H. Epstein, professor of pediatrics and social and preventive medicine at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Science at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
The results of various studies have found that children with bedroom TVs read less than their peers, snack more, and and score "significantly and consistently lower on math, reading and language-arts tests." Still other data shows that kindergartners with bedroom TVs had more troubled sleep.
All the evidence seems to point in the same direction. If you want your child to stay healthy and do well in school, keep the TV out of his/her bedroom. What do you think?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-11-2008 @ 4:04PM
Anji said...It absolutely amazes me that anyone would put a television in their child's room. Shitty parenting at its worst.
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3-11-2008 @ 4:21PM
Ethel said...Well, this study is a big "Well DUH!"
Of course, for me it was the radio and listening to the Shadow (rerun, I am NOT that old) until way past my bedtime.
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3-11-2008 @ 5:32PM
Ethel said...Well, at least I finally have some ammo for when granny buys my kids another dvd tv combo for their room. I'm still in the dog house for the last one I said we couldn't accept.
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3-11-2008 @ 5:44PM
ame s said...Absolutely no television in my children's bedrooms. Neither seem to be suffering for the lack of it ; I do allow them a cd/cassette player. We read an above age-level book at bedtime, such as Harry Potter or Artmis Fowl, then they listen to the chapter we read on audio cd. I don't allow handheld games in their rooms at bedtime.
On the occasional Saturday night that they are home with me instead of spending the night with my parents, I will let them watch something on their personal dvd players at bedtime.
I find that the older they get (now 8 and 10) the less tv they watch.
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3-11-2008 @ 6:10PM
Kerri said...I was bummed when I was young, and Mom said I couldn't have a TV in my room. But now that I'm a parent myself, I see no reason that any child, no matter their age, should have a television in their room. It's just opening the door for them to be watching stuff that they shouldn't be. In our house, it's TVs in the living room and my and my hubby's bedroom- that's it.
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3-11-2008 @ 9:27PM
Eva said...I think not only should children not have TVs in their rooms, but they shouldn't watch TV, period. There is no real benefit and it only decreases their interest and ability to do things that are good for them.
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3-12-2008 @ 8:35AM
Erika said...I had a TV in my room as a kid...probably beginning in 6th grade. But I'd never put one in my son's room. It's hard enough to resist the temptation to plunk him down in front of the one in the living room! I saw a Supernanny-type show one time with a little boy who couldn't fall asleep without the TV (in fact, the whole family did that) and it just seemed so disruptive.
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3-17-2008 @ 11:58AM
Laura said...are you f'ing kidding me? Did you NOT just report this exact same story last week?
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