The amount of time that a child spends watching television as a toddler has been linked to the likelihood that he or she will be bullied later on in grade school, according to a new study by University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital psychologist Linda Pagani.
In her study, Pagani looked at 991 girls and 1,006 boys growing up in Canada, starting at the age of 29 months and following them through the sixth grade. When they were toddlers, their parents reported their TV viewing habits, and as they got older, they self-reported bullying incidents.
The kids were asked questions such as how often they had belongings taken from them, and how frequently they were physically or verbally abused. For every unit of standard deviation in television viewing above 53 minutes at the age of 29 months, Pagani’s study found a predicted 11 percent increase in bullying by classmates in the sixth grade.
Those statistics took into account other potential confounding factors which could influence the chances of a child being bullied, such as his or her behavior and cognitive abilities, as well as family income and composition and the mother’s education level.
Reasons for this association, and ways to prevent it
“Too much time in front of the telly creates a time-debt for other enriching activities,” Pagani told redOrbit via email. “In early childhood, children need live interaction to help their brains develop and to maximize their emotional intelligence. It is like IQ, we are born with a potential, but need interactions with people and objects in the environment to fully develop it.”
“More television time means less time for play and less time in active social exchanges of ideas and information,” the professor added. “Watching the telly is not an effortful activity. Thus, it fosters lifestyle habits that are less energetic and there is less of a tolerance for more demanding interactions on a social level. It also does not hone shared eye contact, for which we are wired at birth. Therefore, less effortful interactions mean less activities that foster and reinforce shared eye contact, which is the most powerful mode of information exchange apart from talking and one reinforces the other.”
She also explained that early television exposure has been linked to developmental issues that are associated with brain function involved in interpersonal problem solving, socially acceptable peer play, positive social contact and emotional regulation. Pagani advises parents to be careful with how much screen time their young children get, limiting it to less than two hours per day, especially for toddlers who are not yet two years old.
As she pointed out in a statement, “There are only 24 hours in a day, and for children, half should be spent meeting basic needs – eating, sleeping, hygiene – and the remainder spent on enriching activities and relationships… Excessive viewing time during the early years can create a time debt for pursuits involving social play.”
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