RAY AND JAT
ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND CHILDREN
watch more television than their peers and
experience significant impairments in comprehending stories, a crucial skill in achieving academic
success(13). While Zimmerman, et al.(14) reported
that any deleterious longitudinal relation between
television and cognitive outcomes may be more
salient among children with ADHD, AcevedoPolakovich, et al.(15) observed no effect. Thus, a
more careful examination of the relation between
television viewing and children’s cognitive abilities
are needed.
MEDIA AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS
Children, who observe (in the media or in the
environment around them) others exhibiting a
specific aggressive behavior, e.g. hitting, are more
likely to perform the same aggressive behavior
immediately.
Exposure to media violence has been positively
related to subsequent aggressive behavior, ideas,
arousal, and anger. Additionally, there is a significant
negative effect of exposure to violence on
subsequent helping behavior. Infrequent exposure is
not likely to produce lasting consequences, but
parents, particularly need to be urged to protect their
children against the kinds of repeated exposures that
excessive play with violent video games or
immersion in violent TV programs is likely to
produce(4). Ray, et al.(5) from India reported that
children having exposure to violence through media
had poorer school performance and its impact on
their psychosocial adjustments was detrimental.
Another study from India showed that vivid display
of violence through media (9/11 terrorist attack)
caused stress in adolescents(6). Yama, et al.(7)
described that some of the fears, tensions, bad
dreams and tendencies towards delinquencies of
children are a result of frequent and a regular
exposure to murder-mystery movies, and stories
filled with violence and torture that children view on
TV and movies. Association between TV viewing
and suicidal behavior has also been reported from
India(8). Both content exposure and screen time of
media had independent detrimental associations
with school performance in children and adolescents
(9). Hopf, et al.(10) showed that the more frequently
children view horror and violent films during
childhood, and the more frequ ently they play violent
electronic games at the beginning of adolescence,
the higher will these students’ violence and
delinquency be at the age of 14.
TELEVISION VIEWING AND SOCIAL ISOLATION
Bickham, et al.(16) investigated the relationship
between TV viewing time, content, context, and peer
integration. As children spend more total time
watching TV, they spend a significantly shorter
amount of time with friends as compared to those
who don’t. Thus, viewing television causes poor peer
relationships and thereby increases the risk for social
isolation, anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, and
antisocial behavior, including aggression and gang
involvement(7).
Some authors found that the more time children
spent watching TV, the less time they spent with their
families(17). While TV may isolate children, the
reverse causal direction is also plausible – lonely
children may turn to TV for entertainment and
companionship. Children who are marginalized by
their peers use TV to escape the stresses of their lives
and meet their social needs(18). Conversely,
children who are socially integrated spend less time
watching TV(19). Thus, it can be argued that it is
social isolation that motivates excessive media use.
Overall, it is most likely that both effects occur –
children who watch more TV become more socially
isolated, which leads them to spend more time
watching TV.
While TV viewing is often perceived as an
isolating activity, it frequently occurs in the company
of friends. Because socializing builds interpersonal
skills, TV viewing with friends may provide a venue
for these skills to develop(20). It is important to
consider content whenever investigating the
relationships between media use and behaviors.
Violent television viewing may influence younger
Primack, et al.(11) showed that excessive TV
viewing in adolescence is a risk factor for
development of depression in young adulthood. TV
viewing may play an exacerbating, if not causal, role
in the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD)(12). This hypothesis is consistent
with evidence indicating that children with ADHD
INDIAN PEDIATRICS
562
VOLUME 47__JULY 17, 2010