R-Rated TV Influences Lifestyle Choices by Children
Two new studies spotlight both the difficulty parents often have in keeping children away from the TV and also the potential health rewards for children in cutting down on TV and other media, according to the journal Pediatrics.
For example, one study found that nine-to-12-year-olds who were barred from watching R-rated movies on television also had lower risks for smoking and drinking.
Those results show that "the media is a very important part of children's lives today, and parents need to take it seriously," says Madeline Dalton, Ph.D., director of the Hood Center for Children and Families at Dartmouth Medical School.
In the first study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania sought to determine whether or not new TV-watching guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) were being implemented in real life.
Among other things, the AAP suggests that parents limit TV time to no more than two hours a day for children over two years of age, and that children should not have TVs in their bedrooms.
The researchers interviewed 180 parents and children about their media use. The children were between the ages of six and 13 years old.
They found that most children spend at least three hours per day watching TV.
"Getting parents to be aware of how much time children are spending in front of a screen is important," says Amy Jordan, Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania. "When parents started adding it up, then they started realizing, it was probably three, four, or five hours a day."
The average home in the study had four television sets, and two-thirds of the youngsters had TVs in their bedrooms, the researchers found. About half of the households also had TVs in the dining room or kitchen area.
Most parents said they did have rules for TV viewing, but few reported restricting the amount of time TV was watched.
"I think to most American families, the media has become very integrated into the life of the family and child,” says Dr. Jordan. “To radically change that means giving a shock to the family system. Children rely on TV for entertainment and distraction, while parents rely on it for cheap babysitting."
Many parents thought it would be better for kids to watch less TV, but were not sure how to make the shift and they were concerned that their youngsters would be bored without TV or video games.
"But, developmentally, boredom is important," notes Dr. Jordan. “It's during those times when children aren't being passively distracted that they use their creativity and do some exploring.
“That's when they might throw a sheet over the dining room table and make a fort, or play hide and seek, or explore outside. It's better for their minds and bodies," she says.
The second study concentrated specifically on children's R-rated movie viewing habits and restrictions.
Between 2002 and 2003, Dr. Dalton and her team interviewed more than 2,600 parents and children. The children were between the ages of nine and 12.
Overall, 45 percent of children were not allowed by their parents to watch R-rated movies. From the group that could watch R movies, about one-third always watched with a parent, but two-thirds only sometimes watched with one of their parents.
"I was pretty surprised at how few parents set restrictions and monitored movie-viewing,” says Dr. Dalton. “Forty percent of nine year olds watched R-rated movies at least occasionally and 70 percent of 12-year-olds did.”
Children from households where R-rated movies were always restricted had about a 40 percent decreased risk of smoking or drinking than did kids who were allowed to watch R movies.
When parents watched R movies with their children, the risk of smoking was decreased, though the risk of drinking remained the same.
Dr. Dalton explains that the researchers are not sure why that was the case, but suspect it may be because many more parents drink than smoke, so parents may be giving more negative messages about smoking than drinking.
Interestingly, Dr. Dalton says that, in past research, they found that the children who seem to be most receptive to media portrayals of negative activities, such as smoking, are the ones who have non-smoking parents.
That means that "parents who model good behavior need to realize that it's probably not enough," says Dr. Dalton. She also stresses that "kids under 13 should not be watching R-rated movies."
Always consult your physician for more information.
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According to the American Lung Association (ALA), cigarette smoking during childhood and adolescence produces significant health problems among young people.
Problems can include cough and phlegm production, an increase in the number and severity of respiratory illnesses, decreased physical fitness, an unfavorable lipid profile, and potential retardation in the rate of lung growth and the level of maximum lung function.
Most importantly this is when an addiction forms which often persists into adulthood, notes the ALA.
Tobacco use primarily begins in early adolescence. One-third of all smokers had their first cigarette by the age of 14. Ninety percent of all smokers begin before the age of 21
Each day, 6,000 children under 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette. Almost 2,000 of them will become regular smokers - that is 757,000 annually.
The ALA shows that although smoking rates among high school students increased 32 percent between 1991 and 1997, rates have declined by almost 40 percent since 1997. In 2004, 22 percent of high school students were current smokers.
In 2004, 11.7 percent of middle school students smoked.
Other troubling figures from the ALA show that tobacco use is associated with alcohol and illicit drug use, and acts as a "gateway drug."
Adolescents (12 to 17 year olds) who reported having smoked in the past 30 days were three times more likely to use alcohol, eight times more likely to smoke marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine, within those past 30 days than those 12 to 17 year olds who had not smoked during that time.
In 2000, 59 percent of high school and 60 percent of middle school students who smoked seriously tried to quit smoking. In 2003, 61 percent of high school students said they wanted to stop smoking and 54 percent seriously tried to quit.
Peers, siblings, and friends are powerful influences. The most common situation for first trying a cigarette is with a friend who already smokes.
Youth who have two parents who smoke are more than twice as likely to become smokers as youth without smoking parents.
More than 6 million youth (23 percent) are exposed to secondhand smoke daily, and more than 10 million youth aged 12 to 18 live in a household with at least one smoker.
Among middle school students who were current smokers, 71 percent reported never being asked to show proof of age when buying cigarettes in a store, and 66 percent were not refused purchase because of their age.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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