Is Preschool Just TV Time?
Nov. 27, 2009— -- Young children may spend more time watching television than parents estimate if time in front of the tube at preschool is taken into account, researchers said.
And the amount of time kids watch TV at preschool may depend on the type of program the in which child is enrolled.
Preschoolers ages 3 to 5 in childcare programs operated out of someone's home were exposed to significantly more television on an average day than were children in center-based programs -- 2.4 hours versus 0.4 hours, respectively -- according to Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, and Michelle M. Garrison, of the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development in Seattle.
"To our knowledge, these are the first data on daycare television viewing in 20 years, and they suggest that [parental] estimates of preschool-age children's screen time may underestimate actual screen time by more than 100 percent," Christakis and Garrison said in the December issue of Pediatrics.
"Unfortunately, for many children, the potential benefits of preschool may be being displaced by passive TV viewing," Christakis added.
Previous estimates of screen time among preschool-age children were based on parental reports of home viewing, the researchers said. Parental reports put preschoolers' TV time at one to three hours every day.
Estimates of screen time in daycare settings, however, are lacking, they said. So the researchers conducted a telephone survey of childcare programs in Michigan, Washington, Florida, and Massachusetts to assess the frequency and quantity of television viewing among infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
A total of 168 surveys were completed -- 94 from home-based programs and 74 from center-based programs.
The researchers found that preschoolers in childcare programs operated out of someone's home were exposed to six times more television than those in center-based programs.
Toddlers in home-based programs also watched more TV than those in center-based ones: 1.6 hours per day, compared with 0.1 hours.
