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The Pediatric Forum |

Something Else Is Missing From Research on Children's Television Viewing and Academic Performance

Jonathan M. Breslin, PhD
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Copyright 2006 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Applicable FARS/DFARS Restrictions Apply to Government Use.

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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160(1):109-109. doi:10.1001/archpedi.160.1.109-a
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Chernin and Linebarger1 do an excellent job of providing the grain of salt that should be taken with the research on children’s television viewing and academic performance presented in the July 2005 issue of the ARCHIVES. Given how research on this topic has advanced from studies of total television viewing time to content-specific studies, research that focuses on total television viewing time seems to represent a regression rather than a progression in research.

However, there is one other major shortcoming of these and other studies on this topic; they focus exclusively on academic performance and skills like reading comprehension and mathematics, completely ignoring the role that television programs can play in the emotional development of children. Some of my 3-year-old daughter's favorite shows and videos over the past year have been those that would not be considered “educational”—shows like the Berenstain Bears and Madeline, for example. Although these kinds of shows don’t teach academic skills, they do teach very important life lessons and opportunities to develop emotional intelligence. For example, these kinds of shows often teach children lessons about such things as empathy, fairness, kindness, honesty, sharing, safety, and so on, as well as the full range of human emotion. Even popular noneducational videos, such as Finding Nemo, introduce young children to emotions like fear, sadness, and joy. When used appropriately and combined with active parenting, these kinds of shows and movies can provide parents with endless teachable moments. In terms of future research opportunities, I would like to see some research on the link between content-specific television viewing and the cultivation of emotional intelligence.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Correspondence: Dr Breslin, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, Toronto, Ontario MG5 1L4, Canada (jonathan.breslin@utoronto.ca).

Chernin  AR, Linebarger  DL. The relationship between children’s television viewing and academic performance Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2005;159687- 689
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Chernin  AR, Linebarger  DL. The relationship between children’s television viewing and academic performance Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2005;159687- 689
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