Viewing data were reported every 3 months beginning at 6 months of age by the parents of 51 infants and toddlers. Viewing logs were coded for program, content, and intended audience. Using hierarchical linear modeling techniques, growth curves examining relationships between television exposure and the child’s vocabulary knowledge and expressive language skills were modeled. Parent’s education, child’s home environment, and child’s cognitive performance were statistically controlled. The findings support the importance of content and program type when describing media effects. At 30 months of age, watching Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Arthur, Clifford, or Dragon Tales resulted in greater vocabularies and higher expressive language scores; watching Teletubbies was related to fewer vocabulary words and smaller expressive language scores; watching Sesame Street was related only to smaller expressive language scores; and viewing Barney & Friends was related to fewer vocabulary words and more expressive language. Reasons for differences are discussed.

The study showed a complex pattern of associations between cumulative risk, parenting, and media exposure with EF during early childhood. Consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics, these findings support the recommendation that background television should be turned off when a child is in the room and suggest that exposure to high-quality content across multiple media platforms may be beneficial.

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OBJECTIVE: US parents were surveyed to determine the amount of background television that their children are exposed to as well as to isolate demographic factors associated with increased exposure to background television. After this, we ask how certain home media practices are linked to children’s background television exposure. METHODS: US parents/caregivers (N = 1454) with 1 child between the ages of 8 months and 8 years participated in this study. A nationally representative telephone survey was conducted. Parents were asked to report on their child’s exposure to background television via a 24-hour time diary. Parents were also asked to report relevant home media behaviors related to their child: bedroom television ownership, number of televisions in the home, and how often a television was on in the home. RESULTS: The average US child was exposed to 232.2 minutes of background television on a typical day. With the use of multiple regression analysis, we found that younger children and African American children were exposed to more background television. Leaving the television on while no one is viewing and children’s bedroom television ownership were associated with increased background television exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Although recent research has shown the negative consequences associated with background television, this study provides the first nationally representative estimates of that exposure. The amount of exposure for the average child is startling. This study offers practitioners potential pathways to reduce exposure.

To investigate whether licensed media spokescharacters on food packaging and nutrition cues affect young children's taste assessment of products. Design: In this experimental study, children viewed 1 of 4 professionally created cereal boxes and tasted a "new" cereal. Manipulations included presence or absence of licensed cartoon spokescharacters on the box and healthy or sugary cereal name. Setting: Shopping center in a large northeastern city in December 2007. Participants: Eighty children (mean [SD] age, 5.6 [0.96] years; 53% girls) and their parents or guardians. Main Exposure: Licensed cartoon characters and nutrition cues in the cereal name. Outcome Measures: Children rated the cereal's taste on a 5-point smiley face scale (1, really do not like; 5, really like). Results: Children who saw a popular media character on the box reported liking the cereal more (mean [SD], 4.70 [0.86]) than those who viewed a box with no character on it (4.16 [1.24]). Those who were told the cereal was named Healthy Bits liked the taste more (mean [SD], 4.65 [0.84]) than children who were told it was named Sugar Bits (4.22 [1.27]). Character presence was particularly influential on taste assessments for participants who were told the cereal was named Sugar Bits. Conclusions: The use of media characters on food packaging affects children's subjective taste assessment. Messages encouraging healthy eating may resonate with young children, but the presence of licensed characters on packaging potentially overrides children's assessments of nutritional merit.

Does viewingBetween the Lions, an educational television series featuring literacy instruction, improve the emergent literacy skills of kindergarten and first-grade children? Do improvements vary as a function of the child's initial reading risk status? In this study, higher word recognition and standardized reading test scores were noted for all viewers compared with nonviewers. In addition, significantly higher means and accelerated slopes for phonemic awareness and letter-sound tasks were found for viewers compared with nonviewers. Even so, improvements in literacy skills (i.e., speech to print, word building, concepts of print) varied, mostly favoring moderately at-risk to not-at-risk kindergarten children who viewed the program. Kindergarten children at great risk and first graders did not benefit as much from the program.

The author investigated caption use, sound, and the reading behavior of 76 children who had just completed 2nd grade. The present study indicated that beginning readers recognize more words when they view television that uses captions. The auditory element was important for comprehension tasks related to incidental elements and spontaneous use of target words, and the combination of captions and sound helped children identify the critical story elements in the video clips. Positive beliefs about one's competence in reading or watching television appeared to facilitate the recognition of words and, for boys, improve their oral reading rates. In sum, television captions, by evoking efforts to read, appeared to help a child focus on central story elements and away from distracting information, including sound effects and visual glitz. Implications are discussed.

Children who possess less self-regulatory skill are at a disadvantage when compared to children who demonstrate greater skill at regulating their emotions, cognitions and behavior. Children with these regulatory deficits have difficulty connecting with peers, generating relationships with teachers, negotiating their social world, and succeeding academically. By understanding the correlates of self-regulatory abilities, interventions can be developed to ensure that children at-risk for poor self-regulation receive the support necessary to enhance their regulatory skills. Using data from a nationally representative survey of English-speaking American parents with children between the ages of two and eight (n = 1,141), we evaluated a host of demographic and parenting variables to isolate the correlates of self-regulation. Older children were found to have fewer regulatory problems than younger children while children from low-income homes and male children were found to have greater problems with self-regulation. Minority status, household composition (single vs multi-parent), and parental education were not significant correlates of self-regulation. Findings also illustrate the powerful relationship between parenting style and self-regulation. Parents who rely on nurturing parenting practices that reinforce the child’s sense of autonomy while still maintaining a consistent parenting presence (i.e., authoritative parenting) have children who demonstrate stronger self-regulatory skills. Parents who exert an excess of parental control (i.e., authoritarian parents) have children with weaker self-regulatory skills. And lastly, parents who have notable absence of control (i.e., permissive parents) are more likely to have children with considerable regulatory deficits. Results offer implications for both practitioners and scholars.