Middle school students who spend their after-school hours watching cable TV programs and playing video games could see their school performance suffer, say researchers from Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire.
Researchers surveyed 4,508 5th through 8th graders about their grades during the last year and the amount of time they spent watching TV and movies and playing video games. The kids also noted whether they had cable channels and whether their parents restricted the content of the TV and movies they watched.
Both the amount of time and the content of TV, movies, and video games were linked to school performance, researchers found. Poorer school performance was associated with more time spent watching TV during the week and the availability of cable movie channels.
Kids whose parents put few or no restrictions on the content of their TV viewing also tended to have lower grades. And compared with kids whose parents never allowed them to watch R-rated movies, those who did watch them were more likely to have poorer academic scores.
Despite these findings, weekend time spent watching TV or movies or playing video games wasn't linked to lower grades.
What This Means to You. The results of this study suggest that media use, especially during the school week, may adversely affect students' grades and school performance. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids older than 2 years spend no more than 2 hours watching TV or movies or playing video games daily. The authors further suggest limiting media use to no more than 1 hour on school nights, and restricting access to adult media — including cable movie channels and R-rated movies and videos — to support better school performance.
Source: Iman Sharif, MD, MPH; James D. Sargent, MD; Pediatrics, October 2006.
Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: October 2006
