A series of studies published today indicate the damage done by television to children’s development and progress at school. One, by scientists in New Zealand, found that those who watched the most television were the least likely to leave school with qualifications and had a smaller chance of getting a university degree.

In another independent project, conducted in the United States by researchers at Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities, children who had televisions in their rooms were found to be lower academic achievers. Those without a bedside TV but who had access to a computer at home, did significantly better at mathematics, reading and language tests than their peers.

A third study, by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle, found that television could impair the development of very young pre-school children but may have some benefits for those aged between three and five.

The three studies appear this month in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, a journal published by the American Medical Association. An accompanying editorial said that parents should choose with care programmes that stimulate and are appropriate to the age of their children.

The New Zealand team, led by Robert Hancox, from the University of Otago, conducted a long-term study of more than 1,000 children aged 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15. “The results of this study indicate that increased time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence was associated with a lower level of educational attainment by early adulthood,” the authors concluded. “Lower mean viewing hours between 5 and 11 years of age were a stronger predictor of achieving a university degree.”

The Stanford study followed a diverse group of almost 400 third-grade pupils, with an average age of eight, at six Californian schools. Children with a TV in their bedrooms, but no home computer, achieved the worst scores in school achievement tests. Those in the reverse situation scored the highest.

Thomas Robinson, from the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, who led the research, said: “This study provides even more evidence that parents should take the television out of their child’s room, or not put it there in the first place.” The researchers, who found that more than 70 per cent of pupils reported having a television in their bedroom, did not know why it had such an effect on examination results.

Dr Robinson, who has done previous studies showing that decreasing a child’s time in front of the TV can reduce obesity, aggressive behaviour and pestering of parents for advertised toys, added that it fitted with a pattern of behaviour. “A television in a child’s bedroom has become the norm,” he said. “From the parent’s perspective, it keeps kids amused and out of trouble. But with this arrangement, parents are giving up any control over how much and what their children are watching.

“They have no idea if they are watching all night, or if they are watching violent or sexually explicit content, or content or advertising that promotes alcohol or drug use.”

The third study analysed data on 1,797 children from a survey of mathematics, reading and comprehension skills in America. Frederick Zimmerman and Dimitri Christakis, from the University of Washington, reported “a consistent pattern of negative associations between television before age three years and adverse cognitive outcomes at ages 6 and 7 years”.

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