NEW STUDY: TV AFFECTS CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 12 MONTHS

A new study, supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, indicates that children as young as 12 months old can read emotional cues from television, affecting their behavior. After watching a person on television interact negatively or positively with a set of objects, babies at twelve months avoided the negative objects in their own environment.

"Infants spend many of their waking hours watching the actions and reactions of other people as well as participating in social interactions…. Through experience in both of these roles, as bystander and as participant, young children learn how to interpret and predict the behaviors of other people and to relate this understanding to their own behavior."

This new evidence suggests that parents, more than ever, must be MediaWise ® with children of all ages. Very young children are affected by violent and emotionally upsetting television images. According to the study, they are not merely passive observers, a very important and significant distinction.

To learn more, see:

Journal article in Child Development

"The Infant as Onlooker: Learning From Emotional Reactions Observed in a
Television Scenario"
Mumme D.L.; Fernald A.
Child Development, February 2003, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 221-237(17).

The National Institute on Media and the Family

• Children and Media Violence at http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_vlent.shtml
  
• Television's Effect on Reading and Academic Achievement at http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tveffect.shtml
  
• KidScore® at http://www.mediafamily.org

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