News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Keeping your child's television time down to two hours or less a day will decrease their risk of dying prematurely, according to a new study of the lifestyle habits of 8,800 Australians.

• People in this study who watched TV for four or more hours a day were 46 percent more likely to die prematurely and 80 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those who limited TV to two or less hours a day.
• Participants in the study were an average age of 50 years old at the beginning of the study in 1999 and 2000.
  
• Six years later, 284 of them had died, including 87 from cardiovascular causes and 125 from cancer.
  
• The researchers did not find a correlation between watching TV and getting cancer. However, the risk of death from any cause increased by 11 percent for each hour a day of reported TV watching, and death from cardiovascular disease increased by 18 percent.
  

Dr. David Dunstan, lead author, explained that it's not about getting vigorous exercise versus TV watching.

"It's the incidental moving around, walking around, standing up and utilizing muscles that [doesn't happen] when we're plunked on a couch in front of a television," Dr. Dunstan said.

This study appeared in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.

Labels: health, heart attack, tv, television

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

A study by the Parents Television Council found that TV depictions of violence toward women have doubled in the past five years.

The Council compared prime time programs on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox aired in 2004 to those shown in 2009, and found increases in stories about beatings, threats, shootings, rapes, stabbing, and torture of women. Among the biggest offenders were cartoons such as Family Guy and American Dad.

The Council rated the following shows as unacceptable for children under 14 years old: House, Heroes, American Dad, Family Guy, So You Think You Can Dance, Amazing Race, Survivor, and The Simpsons.

Labels: violence, television

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Children are watching more television than ever, according to a new report by Nielsen.

• Children ages two to five years old spend an average of three hours and 47 minutes a day watching television -- an increase from three hours and 40 minutes a day in a previous Nielsen study done during 2007.
  
• Older children (ages six to 11) watched three hours and 20 minutes a day, up from three hours and 17 minutes a day in 2007.

"Children should not be watching five hours of television a day," said Dr. Vic Strausberger, a professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. "They should be outside playing. They should be having books read to them."

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two years old do not watch any television at all, and that children older than two should limit TV to less than two hours a day.

Labels: children, television

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A professor at the University of Minnesota has discovered that teens who watch five or more hours of television a day are more likely to have poor diets as young adults:

• Dr. Daheia Barr-Anderson studied 1,366 high school students at age 15 and then again at age 20.
• The study subjects who watched excessive amounts of television as teenagers were more likely to eat more fast foods and snacks and consume sugared sodas as young adults.
• Those who watched less than two hours of television a day as teens were more likely to eat healthy diets, including more fresh fruits and vegetables, as young adults.

This study appeared in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

One way to ensure that young people spend ample time away from the television set is to enroll them in a weight loss camp. Camps such as the weight loss and fitness opportunities by Wellspring Camps teach teens about healthy nutrition while ensuring that they get plenty of exercise in a fun, safe, and highly supportive environment.

Labels: teenagers, television, diet

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

After studying 754 young people over a five-year period, researchers with Children's Hospital Boston have concluded that children who view adult-oriented television shows may be more likely to begin having sex at an earlier than usual age. A May 4, 2009, article on the ScienceDaily medical news website provided the following details from the study:

The study consisted of 754 participants, 365 males and 389 females, who were tracked during two stages in life: first during childhood, and again five years later when their ages ranged from 12 to 18-years-old.

At each stage, the television programs and movies viewed, and the amount of time spent watching them over a sample weekday and weekend day were logged. The program titles were used to determine what content was intended for adults. The participants' onset of sexual activity was then tracked during the second stage. ...

When the youngest children in the sample--ages 6 to 8-years-old--were exposed to adult-targeted television and movies, they were more likely to have sex earlier when compared those who watched less adult-targeted content. The study found that for every hour the youngest group of children watched adult-targeted content over the two sample days, their chances of having sex during early adolescence increased by 33 percent.

"Television and movies are among the leading sources of information about sex and relationships for adolescents," Hernan Delgado, MD, the lead author of the study, said in the ScienceDaily article. "Our research shows that their sexual attitudes and expectations are influenced much earlier in life."

Previous studies have revealed that many teens who don't engage in early sexual activity and a host of other potentially problematic behaviors cite positive parental influence as the key factor in their decisions.

Labels: adolescents, sex, teenagers, television, parental-involvement

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If parents watch a lot of television, their children probably do too, according to a new study from Great Britain.

• Dr. Russell Jago and his colleagues at the University of Bristol found that if a parent of a boy watches more than four hours of television a day, that boy was ten times more likely than average to watch that amount too.
• The risk for girls was 3.67 times higher.

"Ideally parents and children should lead an active lifestyle together, but if this is not possible then parents need to take charge and ensure a healthier way of life for the next generation," said Dr. Mike Knapton, commenting on the study. "It is time to switch off the box and get the nation's kids moving again. The study appeared in BMC Public Health.
 

Many experts continue to urge parents to regulate the amount of time teens spend in front of TV and computer screens.

Labels: parental influence, tv, television

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

A study of 30,000 teenagers in Norway found that too much time in front of television, computers, and video games produces physical complaints such as headaches, neck, back and shoulder pain. Headaches in girls were particularly associated with computer use and television, but not video games.

The study was published in BMC Public Health.
 

Labels: video_games, health, teenagers, television, computers, pain

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

The dramatic increase in ADHD among children has the medical community looking for reasons why. One of its discoveries is that kids who play video games or watch TV for more than two hours per day have trouble concentrating.

“’I think the concern is that the pacing of the program, whether its video games or TV is overstimulating and contributes to attention problems,’ [Dimitri] Christakis says. Psychologist Craig Anderson, one of the study authors, agrees. ‘The kind of screen time that is probably most harmful… is screen time in which the viewer or the game player has to make a lot of quick decisions,’ he says.” [Source: NPR]

The study, out of the University of Iowa, surveyed teachers and parents about kids’ video game and TV-watching habits. Kids who spent a lot of time in front of a screen were twice as likely to have attention problems.

 

Labels: television, computers, adhd, attention

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments