The Impact of Background Television on Parent-Child Interaction

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http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/stable/25592076?pq-
origsite=summon&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

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Question:
Does background television cause a disruptive influence on the solitary play of a child and
parent-child interactions?

Hypothesis:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of background television on the quantity
and quality of a parent-child interaction as well as disrupting young childrens ongoing behavior
such as toy play. This study assessed whether background television affects interactions between
parents and very young children and also disrupts childrens solitary toy play.

Methodology:
Data was examined from 51 parents and their child. 16 parents had a child within 1 month of
their first birthday, 17 parents had a child within 1 month of their second birthday, and 18 parents
had a child within one month of their third birthday.

Parents reported that children were exposed to an average of 4.24 hours of television per day,
with an average of 1.57 of those hours being television programs for children to which the target
child paid special attention to.

The study had a mixture of children at each age randomly assigned to play in a room for 1 hour.
In one room there was already a television playing which remained on for the entire hour of play.
In another room the other half of the children played in a room in which the television was on for
a 30-minute program followed by 30 minutes of play without television.

The study used video tape coding to identify verbal behaviors, childrens utterances, level of
involvement and parents and children responsiveness. They were also coded for parental
involvement.

Conclusion:
This study found that early exposure to television is associated with negative developmental
outcomes.
These negative outcomes can be related to the disruptive influences by background television on
toddlers solitary play behavior as well as to disruptions of parent-child interactions.

Parents verbal stimulation is particularly important for cognitive competence and language
ability in their children.

Toddlers exhibited longer play times and more sophisticated play when mothers made
suggestions and were physically involved compared to when mothers were distracted and not
commenting with their children.

This study found that background television disrupts social input and parent engagement as
parents attention is occupied by the television.

The study suggests that the background television noise interferes with parent-child interaction
by interrupting verbal processing and this causes parents ability to verbally stimulate their
children.

Publish:
This article was published by Wiley on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development
on September-October 2009. Child Development, Vol. 80, No. 5. Pp. 1350-1359.

My Critique:
I found this to be very applicable because television is such a part of everyday life for most
people. Parents need to be aware of the negative influence background television can be on the
development of very young children.

It made me realize that many children are actually being neglected by their parents without them
even realizing they are doing it. How sad that a young child can be cognitively or
developmentally behind because his or her parents doesnt take the time to interact with them,
but instead allows television to distract them.

Early Childhood Application:

This study can be applied to early childhood education by educating parents on the importance of
the quality and quantity of involvement with their child.

Parents need to understand that background television noise is a distraction that affects the
development of their children at a very young age.

Childrens cognitive development can be negatively affected by too much television and not
enough play time or interaction with their parents.