Television and Video Game Exposure and the Development of Attention Problems

DOI: 10.1542/peds.2009-1508 2010;126;214-221; originally published online Jul 5, 2010; Pediatrics

Edward L. Swing, Douglas A. Gentile, Craig A. Anderson and David A. Walsh Problems

Television and Video Game Exposure and the Development of Attention

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Television and Video Game Exposure and theDevelopment of Attention Problems

WHAT’S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Television exposure isassociated with attention problems in children.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: The association of video games andattention problems is similar to the association of television andattention problems. These associations appear in middlechildhood and late adolescence/early adulthood.

abstractOBJECTIVES: Television viewing has been associated with greater sub-sequent attention problems in children. Few studies have examined thepossibility of a similar association between video games and attentionproblems, and none of these has used a longitudinal design.

METHODS: A sample of 1323 middle childhood participants were as-sessed during a 13-month period by parent- and child-reported televi-sion and video game exposure as well as teacher-reported attentionproblems. Another sample of 210 late adolescent/early adult partici-pants provided self-reports of television exposure, video game expo-sure, and attention problems.

RESULTS: Exposure to television and video games was associated withgreater attention problems. The association of television and videogames to attention problems in themiddle childhood sample remainedsignificant when earlier attention problems and gender were statisti-cally controlled. The associations of screen media and attention prob-lems were similar across media type (television or video games) andage (middle childhood or late adolescent/early adult).

CONCLUSIONS: Viewing television and playing video games each areassociated with increased subsequent attention problems in child-hood. It seems that a similar association among television, videogames, and attention problems exists in late adolescence and earlyadulthood. Research on potential risk factors for attention problemsshould be expanded to include video games in addition to television.Pediatrics 2010;126:214–221

AUTHORS: Edward L. Swing, MS,a Douglas A. Gentile,PhD,a,b Craig A. Anderson, PhD,a,c and David A. Walsh,PhDb

aDepartment of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa;bNational Institute of Media and the Family, Minneapolis,Minnesota; and cCenter for the Study of Violence, Ames, Iowa

KEY WORDSattention deficit, television, video games

ABBREVIATIONSADHD—attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorderASRS—Adult ADHD Self-Report ScaleBSCS—Brief Self-Control ScaleBIS-11—Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11OR—odds ratioCI—confidence intervalAAP—American Academy of Pediatrics

www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2009-1508

doi:10.1542/peds.2009-1508

Accepted for publication Apr 15, 2010

Address correspondence to Edward L. Swing, MS, Iowa StateUniversity, W112 Lagomarcino Hall, Department of Psychology,Ames, IA 50011-3180. E-mail: [email protected]

PEDIATRICS (ISSN Numbers: Print, 0031-4005; Online, 1098-4275).

Copyright © 2010 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The authors have indicated they haveno financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.

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Attention problems, often manifestedin the form of attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder (ADHD), are associ-ated with negative outcomes for chil-dren and adolescents, includingpoorer school performance and in-creased aggression.1,2 Research hasexamined exposure to television andvideo games in childhood and adoles-cence as a potential risk factor for sub-sequent attention problems.3–18 It hasbeen hypothesized that most televisionshows are so exciting that childrenwho frequently watch television havemore difficulty paying attention to lessexciting tasks (eg, school work).3 Oth-ers have hypothesized that becausemost television programs involverapid changes in focus, frequentexposure to television may harmchildren’s abilities to sustain focuson tasks that are not inherentlyattention-grabbing.14

Most research on media and attentionhas looked exclusively at television, yetthere are conceptual reasons to sus-pect that video games could show asimilar pattern. Many video gamesseem to share many features (eg, highexcitement, rapid changes in focus)that have been identified as potentiallyrelevant to the television associationwith attention problems, making asimilar association between videogame playing and attention problemsplausible. Most cross-sectional stud-ies (single time point) have found tele-vision exposure to be associated withgreater attention problems.4–7 Longitu-dinal studies of television viewing havegenerally found a similar link, provid-ing evidence that television viewing isa risk factor for subsequent attentionproblems3,8–11; however, a few studieshave not found a statistically signifi-cant association (single time point orlongitudinal) between television view-ing and attention problems.12–14 Fewerstudies to date have examined the pos-sibility that video games can produce a

similar increase in attention prob-lems. Some single time point studiesfound an association between videogame playing and attention problemsand/or ADHD diagnoses.10,17,18 Otherstudies associated violent televisionand/or video game playing with poorerexecutive functioning and proactivecognitive control, which may be re-lated to attention problems.19,20 Moreresearch is clearly needed to examinethe effects of video game playing onattention problems, particularly by us-ing longitudinal designs.*

Although some research has indicatedthat television increases attentionproblems only among children in thefirst 3 years of life,3,11 others have notfound evidence for this early childhoodvulnerability.10 Some other studieshave found prospective effects of tele-vision exposure on attention problemsin adolescent samples, providing addi-tional evidence that television viewingmay increase attention problems be-yond early childhood.8,9 Given these dif-fering findings, more longitudinal re-search is necessary to provide a morecomplete picture of the ages at whichscreen media can influence attentionproblems. Furthermore, only 1 pub-lished study has examined televisionexposure in relation to attention prob-lems beyond age 16.9 More researchwith samples of late adolescents andadults would be valuable in establish-ing the persistence of the associationof television exposure and attentionproblems into late adolescence andearly adulthood. These studies ad-dressed 3 questions: (1) Are both tele-vision and video game exposures asso-ciated with greater concurrentattention problems? (2) Are television

and video game use associated withchanges in attention problems overtime inmiddle childhood? (3) Are asso-ciations of television and video gameexposures with attention problemsdifferent in middle childhood com-pared with late adolescence/earlyadulthood?

METHODS

Participants

This research includes 2 samples ofmales and females: 1 sample frommiddle childhood and another samplefrom late adolescence/early adult-hood. Table 1 displays sample sizes,gender composition, and age rangesfor these 2 samples. The middle child-hood sample was recruited from 10schools in 2 Midwestern US states. Thedata for this sample were collected aspart of the SWITCH obesity preventionproject.25 This intervention had 3majorgoals: reducing screen media expo-sure, increasing physical activity, andincreasing fruit and vegetable con-sumption. These children were third-grade (430), fourth-grade (446), andfifth-grade (423) students at the initial

*Other studieshave identified improvements in visualattention after repeated video gameplaying21–24; how-ever, it should be noted that these improvements invisual attention consist of the rapid and accurate ex-traction and processing of information from the vi-sual field, abilities quite distinct from the attentionproblems that are associated with disorders such asADHD.

TABLE 1 Sample Characteristics

Characteristic Sample

MiddleChildhood

LateAdolescence/Early Adulthood

Age range, y 6–12a 18–32b

Sample size 1323 210Female gender, % 53 60Study design Longitudinal Single time pointTime lag betweenfirst and lastassessments,mo

13 NA

NA indicates not applicable.a Age is reported as measured at the first wave of datacollection. A total of 98.8% of this sample was between 8and 11 years at this time. Analysis that excluded those whowere younger than 8 or older than 11 did not differ mean-ingfully from analysis that used the full sample; therefore,participants of all ages were included in the reportedanalyses.b A total of 96.2% of this sample was between 18 and 24years at the time of assessment. Excluding thosewhowereolder than 24 years did not meaningfully change the re-sults of the analyses; therefore, participants of all ageswere included in the reported analyses.

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assessment (mean age: 9.6 years). Re-ports were collected from children,parents, and teachers at 4 points dur-ing a 13-month period (only 3 timepoints include all measures).† The 13-month follow-up rates for children,parents, and teachers were 86%, 70%,and 88%, respectively.

The late adolescent/early adult sampleconsisted of undergraduate studentsfrom a large public research univer-sity in the Midwestern United States(mean age: 19.8 years). This samplewas assessed in a single laboratorysession. These participants wererecruited from introductory psychol-ogy courses and received partialcourse credit for their participation.All ethical procedures of the AmericanPsychological Association were fol-lowed, and local institutional reviewboard approval was obtained.

Television and Video GameExposure

Both samples completed similar mea-sures of television viewing and videogame playing.26 Television exposurewas based on the average time spenton weekdays during 4 time periods (6AM to 12 PM, 12 PM to 6 PM, 6 PM to 12 AM,and 12 AM to 6 AM) and separately onweekends during those same 4 timeperiods. These questions were then re-peated for video game exposure. In themiddle childhood sample, both par-ents and children completed thesequestions regarding the child’s weeklytelevision and video game exposure.‡

For the late adolescent/early adultsample, only self-reports of televisionand video game exposure werecompleted.

Attention Problems

Attention problems were assessed inthe childhood sample by teacher re-port. Teachers answered 3 items thatmeasured attention problems in theclassroom on a 5-point scale, with re-sponses ranging from “never true” to“almost always true” (eg, “This child:has difficulty staying on task; has diffi-culty paying attention; often interruptsother children’s work.”). These itemsshowed good internal reliability (� �.91 at time 1 and .92 at time 4). Atten-tion problems were assessed in thelate adolescent/early adult sample byusing a composite of 3 self-reportmea-sures: the Adult ADHD Self-ReportScale (ASRS; 18 items), the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS; 13 items), and theBarratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11;30 items).27–29 The ASRS, BSCS, andBIS-11 all showed good internal reli-ability coefficients (� � .89, .85, and.84, respectively) in this sample. Miss-ing values on these scales were re-placed with mean response for theitem for participants who were miss-ing no more than 20% of the items onthe scale. The ASRS is intended as ascreening tool for ADHD, showing con-vergent validity with clinical ADHD di-agnosis, suggesting a clear conceptuallink to attention problems.26 De-creased ability to exert self-controland a tendency to behave in more im-pulsive ways are viewed by some re-searchers as a central impairment inADHD,30 suggesting the potential use-fulness of measures of trait self-control (BSCS) and impulsiveness(BIS-11) in identifying those with atten-tion problems. In this sample, the

ASRS, BSCS, and BIS-11 were highlycorrelated with each other (absolutevalues of r from 0.65 to 0.75), and allwere moderately correlated with self-reports of a past diagnosis with an at-tention disorder, such as attention-deficit disorder or ADHD (absolutevalues of r from 0.23 to 0.36). Eachscale total was converted to a stan-dard score, and these scores were av-eraged (with self-control reversed) toform ameasure of attention problems.

RESULTS

To examine the strength of the overallassociation between various types ofmedia exposure and concurrent atten-tion problems, we computed correla-tion coefficients among weekly televi-sion exposure, weekly video gameexposure, weekly total screen mediaexposure (ie, combined weekly televi-sion and video game exposure), andattention problems within the middlechildhood and late adolescent/earlyadult samples. Table 2 reports thesecorrelation coefficients and corre-sponding odds ratios (ORs).31§ Televi-sion exposure and video game expo-sure showed small to moderatecorrelations with concurrent attentionproblems in both samples (r between0.17 and 0.23), with substantially over-lapping confidence intervals (CIs)across samples and type of screenmedia.

Because the data from these samples(particularly the middle childhoodsample) are potentially relevant to theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)recommendation that children spendnomore than 2 hours per daywith tele-vision and video games combined, wecomputed logistic regressions com-paring the risk for being above the me-

†Correlational analyses for this sample are basedon a weighted average of the 3 time points contain-ing relevant data. Only the baseline and final as-sessment are used in longitudinal analyses. Theconcurrent and time-lagged associations of televi-sion, video games, and attention problems werenot meaningfully different between the interven-tion and control groups, so data that are based onthe full sample are used in all reported analyses.‡There was no a priori reason to consider 1 re-porter more accurate (children may have difficultyestimating or bias their responses, but parentsmay be unaware of their child’s behavior or simi-larly bias their responses), so an average weekly

amount was calculated by averaging the parentand child reports. Very similar results for the keyanalyses were obtained with only parent or onlychild reports of television/video game exposure.

§These ORs correspond to a median split of themedia and attention variables. In other words,these ORs reflect the odds that a child or an ado-lescent/adult above themedian in a particular typeof media exposure would also be above the medianin attention problems.

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dian in attention problems for partici-pants above and below the AAP-recommended television and videogame levels.32,33 Those who exceededthe AAP-recommended amount of dailytelevision and video game exposurewere more likely to be above averagein attention problems (ORs: 1.67 [95%CI: 1.27–2.21] and 2.23 [95% CI: 1.13–4.39]) for the middle childhood andlate adolescent/early adult samples,respectively.�General linear models were computedto examine the longitudinal associa-tions of television and video game ex-posure with attention problems in themiddle childhood sample (Table 3) andto control statistically for gender andgrade level in both samples (Tables 3and 4).¶ These general linear models

and all other subsequent analyses arebased on continuous predictor andoutcome variables. Such models pro-videmore sensitive tests of the hypoth-eses than the logistic models, becausethey use information in the data thatdichotomous logistic analyses ignore.

Models 1 through 4 (Table 3) examinedthe middle childhood participants’teacher-reported attention problemsat time 4, including gender, grade, andteacher-reported attention problemsat time 1 as covariates to providemorerigorous tests. Across models 1

�Similar estimates can be obtained for the risk forbeing above the 95th percentile in attention prob-lems (which should more closely match the preva-lence of ADHD in these populations) on the basis ofbeing above or below the AAP-recommendedamount of screen media exposure (ORs: 2.05 and2.92 for the middle childhood and late adolescent/early adult samples, respectively). Given the rela-tively small numbers of those with such high levelsof attention problems in these samples, the powerfor this analysis is considerably reduced, givingthese estimates much wider 95% CIs (1.00 to 4.25and 0.36 to 23.44 for the middle childhood and lateadolescent samples, respectively).¶We also tested the possibility that the effect of addi-tional screen timeon later attentionproblemsoccursonly for thosewhose screen time is relatively high, byincludingaquadratic term inpreliminaryscreen timeanalyses. There was no evidence of a curvilinear ef-fect of screen time, so the quadratic terms weredropped in all reported analyses.

TABLE 2 Amount of Media Exposure Associations With Concurrent Attention Problems

Parameter MeanDailyExposure

MedianDailyExposure

CorrelationCoefficient,r

95% CI OR 95% CI

Middle childhood sampleTelevision exposure 2.92 2.29 0.17 0.11–0.23 1.55 1.33–1.79Video game exposure 1.34 0.66 0.23 0.18–0.29 1.82 1.57–2.11Total screen media exposure 4.26 3.86 0.23 0.17–0.29 1.81 1.56–2.11Late adolescent/early adultsampleTelevision exposure 3.75 3.29 0.20 0.07–0.33 1.68 1.19–2.37Video game exposure 1.07 0.29 0.23 0.10–0.36 1.82 1.29–2.56Total screen media exposure 4.82 4.36 0.27 0.14–0.40 2.04 1.45–2.88

Correlation coefficients are based on analysis of continuous variables; ORs are based on a median splits of media andattention variables. Means and medians of daily exposure are included to provide context.

TABLE 3 General Linear Models Predicting Attention Problems in Middle Childhood

Parameter Test Statistic P � SE

Model 1Attention problems (wave 4) F4,1012� 116.90 .000Total screen mediaexposure

t1012� 2.72 .007 .083 0.031

Attention problems (wave 1) t1012� 18.89 .000 .520 0.028Grade t1012� �2.85 .004 �.073 0.026Gender t1012� 3.07 .002 .083 0.027

Model 2Attention problems (wave 4) F4,1014� 116.33 .000Television exposure t1014� 1.95 .051 .059 0.030Attention problems (wave 1) t1014� 19.04 .000 .525 0.028Grade t1014� �2.87 .004 �.074 0.026Gender t1014� 3.65 .000 .096 0.026

Model 3Attention problems (wave 4) F4,1013� 117.78 .000Video game exposure t1013� 3.07 .002 .099 0.032Attention problems (wave 1) t1013� 19.32 .000 .524 0.027Grade t1013� �2.75 .006 �.071 0.026Gender t1013� 2.22 .027 .063 0.028

Model 4Attention problems (wave 4) F5,1011� 94.11 .000Television exposure t1011� 0.54 .588 .019 0.035Video game exposure t1011� 2.43 .015 .090 0.037Attention problems (wave 1) t1011� 18.92 .000 .522 0.028Grade t1011� �2.77 .006 �.071 0.026Gender t1011� 2.29 .022 .067 0.029

TABLE 4 General Linear Models Predicting Attention Problems in Late Adolescence/Early Adulthood

Parameter Test Statistic P � SE

Model 5Attention problems F3,203� 5.21 .002Total screen media exposure t203� 3.62 .000 .257 0.071Age t203� �0.11 .916 �.007 0.069Gender (female� 0, male� 1) t203� 0.50 .620 .036 0.072

Model 6Attention problems F4,203� 4.12 .003Television exposure t202� 2.17 .031 .152 0.070Video game exposure t202� 2.55 .012 .198 0.078Age t202� �0.06 .953 �.004 0.069Gender (female� 0, male� 1) t202� 0.13 .898 .010 0.077

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through 4, time 1 attention problemswere strongly predictive of time 4 at-tention problems (r from 0.52 to 0.53),showing high stability of attentionproblems over time, as would be ex-pected. Gender also showed a positiveassociation with attention problems inmodels 1 through 4 (r from 0.06 to0.10), indicating that males were morelikely than females to experience in-creased attention problems from time1 to time 4. Grade level at time 1 wasnegatively associated with changes inattention problems (r from �0.07 to�0.08), indicating that children in thelower grade were more likely thanthose in the higher grades to experi-ence increased attention problemsfrom time 1 to time 4.

Model 1 showed that total screen me-dia exposure (television and videogames combined) was associated withgreater subsequent attention prob-lems, even after controlling for gen-der, grade, and time 1 attention prob-lems. Models 2 and 3 showed that bothtelevision and video game exposureswere separately associated withgreater time 4 attention problems, al-though television exposure was only amarginally significant predictor inmodel 2 (P � .051). Model 4 includestelevision exposure and video game ex-posure as separate, unique predictorsof attention problems. These are con-servative tests of the unique associa-tions of television and video game ex-posure with attention, because thecollinearity of these types of media(r� 0.46) reduces their ability to pre-dict attention problems uniquely. Inmodel 4, video game exposure but nottelevision exposure remained a signif-icant unique predictor of time 4 atten-tion problems. This indicates that ex-posure to video games was a morerobust predictor of attention problemsin this sample.

Models 5 and 6 (Table 4) tested theconcurrent association between tele-

vision and video game exposure (as asingle, combined predictor and asunique predictors) and attention prob-lems in the late adolescent/early adultsample, with participants’ age andgender included as covariates. In thelate adolescent/early adult sample,both television and video game expo-sure uniquely predicted attentionproblems. Neither age nor gender wasassociated with attention problems inthe late adolescent/early adult sample(r� 0.04). Exposures to television andvideo games both were associatedwith greater attention problems whencombined (model 5) or as unique pre-dictors (model 6).

To illustrate further the association oftelevision and video game exposure onlater attention problems, we gener-ated a maximum likelihood structuralequation model on the basis of 3 sepa-rate correlation matrices (1 for eachgrade of the middle childhood sample)by using LISREL 8.5 procedures (Fig1).34 This model fit the data quite well(�2(19) � 17.93, P � .50, normed fitindex (NFI)� 0.967, comparative fit in-dex (CFI) � 1.000, root mean squareerror of approximation (RMSEA) �0.000, 90% CI: 0.000–0.044). Allowingthe path from total screenmedia expo-sure at time 1 to time 4 attention prob-lems to vary by gender or by gradelevel did not improve model fit

(changes in �2 were nonsignificant),suggesting that gender and gradelevel do not moderate this effect. Inother words, the longitudinal effect oftime spent watching television andplaying video games was essentiallythe same for boys and girls and forthird-, fourth-, and fifth-graders.

DISCUSSION

In addition to replicating some past re-search on television exposure in chil-dren, these studies fill several impor-tant gaps in the research literature onscreen media and attention problems.First, these studies demonstrate thatamount of time spent playing videogames is associated with greater at-tention problems. Second, the videogame association to attention prob-lems was similar in magnitude to thetelevision association. In fact, the videogame association in the middle child-hood sample proved more reliablethan the television association to at-tention problems, but caution is war-ranted in drawing conclusions aboutthe relative importance of video gameplaying and television viewing on thebasis of these data. In the late adoles-cent/early adult sample, both televi-sion viewing and video game playingwere uniquely associated with atten-tion problems. In both samples, the to-tal time spent with screen media (both

AttentionProblems

SexFemale = 0

Male = 1

Total ScreenMedia

Exposure

AttentionProblems

Time 1 Time 413 months

.22

.18.55

.10

.21

FIGURE 1Longitudinalmodel of exposure to screenmedia (television and video games) and the associationwithattention problems, assessed 13 months later, in middle childhood. Path coefficients are standard-ized. All paths are significant.

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television and video games) was posi-tively related to attention problems.Future research should include moredetailed measures of both televisionand video game exposure to deter-mine which features (eg, rapid scenechanges) are most important. It mayalso prove useful to examine otherforms of electronic media use (eg,films, music, cellular telephones) forsimilar associations with attentionproblems.

The middle childhood sample provideda third important new finding. Expo-sure to screen media was associatedwith later attention problems evenwhen earlier attention problems andgender were statistically controlled.This provides stronger evidence thananalyses of single time point data thatscreen media may influence attentionproblems; controlling for earlier atten-tion problems makes it less likely thatthe association of each type ofmediumwith attention problems is attributableto other potential influences on atten-tion problems. For example, it rulesout the possibility that the associationbetween screen media use and atten-tion problems is merely the result ofchildren with attention problems be-ing especially attracted to screen me-dia. To our knowledge, no previous lon-gitudinal study has examined videogame playing and subsequent atten-tion problems. These studies providesome early evidence that video gameplaying in middle childhood may in-crease later attention problems.

It should be noted that the � for thetime-lagged association of televisionand video game exposure (� � .10) isrelatively small and that the link be-tween initial attention problems andattention problems 13 months later(� � .55) is large. This suggests con-siderable stability of attention prob-lems over this period. It may be, assome authors have contended, that at-tention problems are less malleable

after early childhood.3 Nonetheless,public health concerns (eg, the effectof lead intake on IQ in children) areoften based on small effect sizes, andeven such a small effect may be of con-siderable social importance given theubiquity of television and videogames.35**

A fourth important finding is that tele-vision viewing and video game playingwere associated with attention prob-lems in both middle childhood and lateadolescent/early adult samples. Thatthese associations were very similarin strength is somewhat surprising,given the different methods of assess-ment used in each sample: self-report,parent report, and teacher reportsamong children compared with self-report only among adolescents/youngadults. These similar associationsacross age groups raise an importantpossibility about the persistence oftelevision or video game exposure ef-fects on attention problems. Whateverthe ages at which watching televisionor playing video games may increaseattention problems, the consequencesmay be quite long lasting or cumula-tive. Longer term longitudinal studies,perhaps including a randomly as-signed intervention, are needed to testthese hypotheses.

Although these studies provide use-ful evidence for television and videogame effects on attention problems,there are several limitations. Be-cause both studies rely on correla-tional data rather than randomly as-signed treatments, this limits theability to make causal conclusions.Some unmeasured variable that issystematically associated with tele-

vision or video game exposure mayaccount for some of the changes inattention problems. Controlling forearlier attention problems in themiddle childhood sample likely re-moves the effects of most other influ-ences on attention problems, but itcannot account for variables thathad a new impact on attention prob-lems between initial and final mea-surements of attention problems(eg, if children began taking medica-tions for attention disorders duringthe study). The late adolescent/earlyadult sample is measured at a singletime point, making conclusionsabout the direction of causality inap-propriate within this sample.

Another limitation of these studies isthat the television and video gameexposure measures were global. It ispossible that certain types of televi-sion programs and video games areassociated with attention problemswhereas others are not. For exam-ple, there is some evidence that edu-cational television is not associatedwith increased attention problems.10

Educational television may differfrom noneducational television interms of pacing or violent content orother features (although we are notaware of any evidence to date of suchdifferences), which might accountfor such a difference. Similarly,there are many differences in fea-tures among video games, differ-ences that may lead to differentialeffects on attention problems. As fu-ture research examines televisionand video games and their influenceon attention problems, differencesthat are based on finer grained anal-yses of screen media featuresshould be examined.

Despite these limitations, these stud-ies extend knowledge about televisionand video game effects on attentionproblems. There are several areas inwhich additional research would be

**Also, note that the � of .10 represents a very con-servative estimate of the potential effect of screenmedia exposure on attention problems. Just as thesimple correlation of .23 may include variance thatis not attributable to the predictor and thus be anoverestimation of the true effect, the partial corre-lations and �s may exclude some variance thatactually is attributable to the predictor and thus bean underestimation.

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beneficial, such as differences that arebased on features. It will be importantto replicate the findings of a videogame playing association with atten-tion problems in other longitudinalsamples. Most of the research evi-dence thus far supports the conclu-sion that exposure to television andvideo games increases the risk forsubsequent attention problems.These studies demonstrate that the

risk could be reduced if parents fol-lowed the recommendation of theAAP to limit children’s exposure totelevision and video games to nomore than 2 hours per day.32,33 Fur-thermore, there are theoretical rea-sons to believe that slower paced ed-ucational, nonviolent content is lesslikely to cause attention problems,but more studies on this issue areespecially needed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Data for the middle childhood samplewere partially sponsored by MedicaFoundation, Healthy and Active Amer-ica Foundation, Fairview Health Ser-vices, and Cargill, Inc. Switch activelifestyles from MediaWise is a regis-tered trademark of the NationalInstitute on Media and the Family(Minneapolis, MN).

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The Human Genome Project at Ten Years: Still a Work in Progress:While wecelebrated the tenth anniversary of the human genome project this past June,genetic scientists remain cautious as to whether or not knowledge of the ge-nome will truly result in new pharmaceutical approaches to treating diseases.According to an article in The New York Times (Pollack A, June 15, 2010), onlyover the past year or so have drugs that block the effects of genetic abnormal-ities and that are thought to contribute to tumor growth, osteoporosis, andlupus began to reach the market. In fact while research and developmentspending by major pharmaceutical companies has doubled in the past de-cade—reaching $46 billion—the number of new drugs approved each year hasnot changed (25 in 2009). Drugmanufacturers attribute the status quo to stiffertesting requirements by the Food and Drug Administration rather than to theinability of the human genome project to yield what was hoped to be amyriad ofnew pharmacotherapeutics. Robert R. Ruffolo Jr, who oversaw research anddevelopment at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals until 2008, said that “If on the first daywe had discovered a new molecular target [as a result of the human genomeproject], it’s still going to take 15 to 20 years tomake the drug. Genomics did notspeed up drug development. It gave us more rapid access to new moleculartargets.” Perhaps the 20th anniversary of the genome project will bear morefruit than the 10th.

Noted by JFL, MD

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