Childhood TV viewing can cause teenage problems by Delia Cruceru

A study published in the September issue of Pediatrics and led by Robert John Hancox of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, reveals that watching TV more than two hours a day during childhood increases the likelihood of attention problems in adolescence. "I wouldn't advocate that watching TV is a good thing," said Tara Stevens, assistant professor of educational psychology at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. She published in 2006 a study finding no link between television viewing and hyperactivity disorder. "I'm just not sure there's a direct relationship between having a disorder and watching TV. I don't think that's definitive. This is one important piece to the argument, but it is still not the end," she added. The study authors determined that if a child between the ages of 5 and 11 watches more than two hours of television daily will increase attention problems in adolescence, with each hour of television viewing increasing the risk of "high adolescent attention problems". "Childhood TV viewing was associated with attention difficulties regardless of what you watch as an adolescent," Robert Hancox explained. "The amount of TV watched between 5 and 11 predicted problems between ages 13 and 15 regardless of what you watch between 13 and 15."

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070904/hl_nm/attention_television_dc;_ylt=AqASAu8fsOIazsIXKzYBik6s0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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