American Kids Exposed to Too Much Background TV: Study | Healthland | TIME.com http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/20/tv-on-in-the-background-its-still-bad-for-kids/[7/20/2012 9:28:58 PM] TV On in the Background? It’s Still Bad for Kids PARENTING By ALEXANDRA SIFFERLIN | @acsifferlin | April 20, 2012 | Too much television can be detrimental for kids’ development, even when they’re not plopped directly in front of the screen. And your kids might be getting more exposure to such background TV than you think, a new study finds. The researchers found that the average American kid was exposed to 232.2 minutes of background television per day — when the TV was on, but the child was engaged in another activity. Younger children and African-America children were exposed to the most background television on average. “We were ready and willing to accept that the exposure would be high, but we were kind of shocked at how high it really was,” says study author Matthew Lapierre, a doctoral candidate and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. “The fact that kids are exposed to about four hours on average per day definitely knocked us back on our heels a bit.” (MORE : ‘Educational TV’ for Babies? It Doesn’t Exist ) Previous research has found that exposure to background television is linked to lower attention spans, fewer and lower-quality parent-chil d interactions and reduced performan ce in cognitive tasks, the authors said in the study. The current findings came from data gathered in a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,454 America n parents wit h at least one child between the ages of 8 months and 8 years. The parents wer e asked about how often their TV was on when no one was watching and whethe r their chil d had a TV in their bedroom. “For every minute of television to which child ren are directly exposed, there are an additio nal 3 minutes of indirect exposure, making backgr ound exposure a much greater proportion of time in + HELEEN SITTER / GETTY IMAGES All Topic s Recent Topics Autism Diet Exercise Parenting Pregnancy Sleep Editor’s Picks OBESITY Qsymia: What You Need to Know About the New Diet Pill By ALICE PARK VIEWPOINT Does the Internet Really Make Everyone Crazy? By MAIA SZALAVITZ MEDICAL INSIDER ‘July Effect’ Revisited: Why Experie nced Docs May Not Deliver the Best Care By DR. ZACHARY F. MEISEL AND DR. JESSE M. PINES More on TIME.com Follow TIME TIME MAGAZINE PHOTOS VIDEOS LISTS LIFE.COM STYLE OLYMPICS SUBSCRIBE NewsFeed U.S. Politics World Business Money Tech Science Entertainment Opinion Home Medicine Diet & Fitness Family & Parenting Love & Relationships Mental Health Policy & Industry Viewpoint Health Like Tweet SEARCH TIME.COM