News

Alarming news from a new study of kids and TV finds that found television watching among 2-year-olds can lead to a range of serious behavioral and developmental problems.  This Rodale.com story reviews findings reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, which measured the hours of TV viewing among 1,314 children age 2 years old. When the kids were 10, the researchers obtained parent and teacher reports of the kids’ academic, psychosocial, and health behaviors, as well as body mass index (BMI) measurements.

For each hour per night of TV viewing beyond the average that kids watched at age 2, as 10-year-olds the kids experienced:

• A 7% decrease in classroom engagement
• A 6% decrease in math achievement
• A 13% decrease in time spent in physical activity
• A 10% increase in frequency of bullying by classmates
• A 9% increase in consumption of soft drinks
• A 10% increase in consumption of snacks
• A 5% increase in BMI