Center on Media and Child Health

Baby Einstein No Longer Advertised as Educational

Last Summer we reported on a study of baby videos that showed children who regularly watched these programs scored about 10% lower on language skills than those who did not watch them. 

After this study was released, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) asked Disney, the parent company of Baby Einstein, to "release research showing that Baby Einstein videos are beneficial to babies or publicly acknowledge that no such research exists."

The CCFC has announced that this plea has resulted in a complete redesign of the Baby Einstein website, which no longer promotes their DVDs as educational.  Though the implication of the name Einstein remains the same, it's a step in the right direction. 

3 Media Articles in November Pediatrics

There are 3 media-related articles in the new issue of Pediatrics:

Zimmerman and Christakis:  Associations Between Content Types of Early Media Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems

• See news article
• Conclusion:  "Preschool boys exposed to violent television -- even cartoons -- are more likely to become aggressive later in life."

Christakis and Zimmerman:  Violent Television Viewing During Preschool Is Associated With Antisocial Behavior During School Age

• See news article
• Conclusion:  "Every hour per day that kids under 3 watched violent child-oriented entertainment their risk doubled for attention problems five years later." 

Dworak et al: Impact of Singular Excessive Computer Game and Television Exposure on Sleep Patterns and Memory Performance of School-aged Children

• Conclusion:  "The results suggest that television and computer game exposure affect children's sleep and deteriorate verbal cognitive performance, which supports the hypothesis of the negative influence of media consumption on children's sleep, learning, and memory."

Social Skill Deficit from Heavy Viewing in Early Childhood

Mistry, Minkovitz, Strobino, and Borzekowski examined the effects of heavy TV viewing in early childhood for a study in the October issue of Pediatrics.   They found that children who watched more than 2 hours of television per day between the ages of 2 ½ and 5 ½ had problems with social skills and with displaying aggressive behavior.  Those who didn't watch much TV as toddlers, but who watched a lot at age 5 ½  also had difficulty with social skills. 

The good news is that children who were heavy viewers as toddlers, but who reduced their viewing by age 5 ½ did not have significant social or behavioral problems.

>>See USA Today article  

Back to School Newsletters

The September editions of the newsletter are up!  If you haven't already, you can see them here:

• Parents' Newsletter - The kids are going back to school - how you can use this transition time as an opportunity to create a healthy media environment?
• Teachers' Newsletter - You're back in the classroom -- how can you use media literacy in your lesson plans? 
• Researchers' Newsletter - How does the newest research on baby DVDs compare to other research?

If you'd like to receive one of these newsletters monthly, you can sign up here.

Brainy Babies Don't Pan Out

For years now, parents have been buying videos from companies like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby, aiming to increase their children's intelligence.  Pediatricians have been wary of these videos, even recommending that children use no screen media until they are two years old.  Today, a study by Zimmerman and Christakis shows evidence that the videos may not provide the intellectual leaps parents are hoping for. 

Over 1,000 parents of children under two were surveyed about how much their children watched the videos and how much their children's language skills had progressed.  The researchers found that the children who regularly watched baby videos scored about 10% lower on language skills than those who did not watch the videos. "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," says Christakis.

The best way for children to learn at this critical stage of development is to interact with parents, siblings and other people and to explore their environment by manipulating objects.  When these kinds of opportunities are replaced by a screen, children are not in an optimal learning situation. 

Update 8/17/07: Disney (the owner of the Baby Einstein company) has demanded a retraction of the University of Washington press release about this study, saying that it distorts the research findings. 

The University has responded by stating that the school "unequivocally stands behind" the study, which was rigirously peer-reviewed for the reputable journal in which it was published. 

Frequent TV Watching May Lead to Teen Attention Problems

In a study of over 650 families in New York, Johnson et al. found that teens who watch more than 3 hours of TV a day may be at risk for developing attention problems, learning difficulties, and long-term educational outcomes. 

Other recent research related to media:

• D'Silva, MU & Palmgreen, P. (2007) Individual differences and context: Factors mediating recall of anti-drug public service announcements. Health Commun, 21(1), 65-71.
• Dutta, MJ. (2007) Health information processing from television: The role of health orientation. Health Commun, 21(1), 1-9.
• Goldfield, GS et al. (2007) Effects of modifying physical activity and sedentary behavior on psychosocial adjustment in overweight/obese children. J Pediatr Psychol.
• Propper, RE et al. (2007) Is television traumatic? Dreams, stress, and media exposure in the aftermath of september 11, 2001. Psychol Sci, 18(4), 334-340.
• Sargent, JD et al. (2007) Exposure to movie smoking among US adolescents aged 10 to 14 years: A population estimate. Pediatrics, 119(5), e1167-1176.

TVs in Bedrooms - Another Outcome

In a study of the home environments of over 3,000 children in Germany, von Kries et al "identified only a TV set in the child's bedroom as an independent risk factor for expressive language impairment." 

Previous research has shown that having a television in a child's room can lead to overweight and to sleep problems. 

2 New Studies -- Attention and Obesity Prevention

In this month's Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Miller et al found a correlation between television viewing and attention problems in preschool children, replicating the findings of a recent highly publicized study.  They state that the findings do not provide evidence for whether heavy television use is a cause or result of ADHD.

In a unique obesity-prevention study using hip-hop music to motivate children to engage in physical activity, Fitzgibbon et al found that the program was unsuccessful with the preschool Latino population they worked with.  However, in previous studies with a predominantly black population, the same program was successful in reducing BMI.  The authors have written more about this program in papers from 2002, 2003, and 2005.