Abstract
Abstract
To investigate the effects of television (TV) viewing on children, 4876 questionnaires on viewing habits completed by Greek children with the assistance of their parents were analysed. The most important results are summarized below. The mean time spent watching TV ranged from 21–32 h per week. The age when children started watching TV correlated with their later educational achievement: good students started watching TV earlier. Bad students, however, watched more TV, as did children from urban areas, and from lower socioeconomic groups. Children from households with more than one TV (especially if it was in the child's bedroom) also watched more. Children who watched more TV were less compliant with TV restrictions and more likely to imitate TV characters. Eating while watching TV was associated with obesity only in teenagers. Most children watched TV from appropriate distances, with the lights on, and with the sound at medium volume.
Conclusion
This study of TV viewing habits in Greek children shows that certain patterns of watching TV may contribute to poor educational achievement, and obesity, in paediatric patients and, therefore, supports the idea of taking “televiewing histories” when treating these patients.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- TV :
-
television
References
American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications (1990) Children, adolescents and television. Pediatrics, 85:1119–1120
Bernard-Bonnin A, Gilbert S, Rousseau E, Masson P, Maheux B (1991) Television and the 3-to 10-year-old child. Pediatrics 89:48–53
Dietz WH (1993) Television, obesity and eating disorders. Adolescent Med 4:543–549
Dietz WH, Gortmaker SL (1985) Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics 75: 807–811
Fetler M (1984) Television viewing and school achievement. J Commun 34: 104–114
Gerbner G (1985) Children's television: a national disgrace. Pediatr Ann 14: 822–827
Gerbner G, Gross L, Morgan M, Signorielli N (1981) Health and medicine on television. N Engl J Med 305:901–905
Halsey AH, Heath AF, Ridge JM (1980) Origins and destinations: family class and education in modern Britain. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Kaufman L (1980) Prime time nutrition. J Communications 30:37–40
Klesges RC, Shelton ML, Klesges LM (1993) The effects of television on metabolic rates: potential implications for childhood obesity. Pediatrics 91: 281–286
Morgan M (1993) Television and school performance. Adolescent Med 4:607–622
National Center for Health Statistics (NHCS) (1979) Data collection forms. Am J Clin Nutr 32:609–610
Nielsen AC Co (1990) Nielsen report on Television. AC Nielsen Company, Norbook IL
Palumbo FM, Dietz WH (1985) Children's television. Its effect on nutrition and cognitive development. Pediatr Ann 14:793–801
Segal KR, Dietz WH (1991) Physiologic responses to playing a video game. Am J Dis Child 145:1034–1036
Shah M, Jeffery RW (1991) Is obesity due to overeating and inactivity or to a defective metabolic rate: a review. Ann Behav Med 13:73–81
Strasburger VC (1986) Does television affect learning and school performance? Pediatrician 13:141–146
Strasburger VC (1989) Children, adolescents and television — 1989: the role of pediatricians. Pediatrics 83:446–448
Strasburger VC (1993). Children, adolescents and the media: five crucial issues. Adolescent Med 4:479–490
Witelson SF (1976) Sex and the single hemisphere: specialisation of the right hemisphere for spatial processing. Science 193:425
Zuckerman DM, Singer DG, Singer JL. (1980) Television viewing. Children's reading and related classroom behavior. J Commun 30:166–174
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anastassea-Vlachou, K., Fryssira-Kanioura, H., Papathanasiou-Klontza, D. et al. The effects of television viewing in Greece, and the role of the paediatrician: a familiar triangle revisited. Eur J Pediatr 155, 1057–1060 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02532531
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02532531