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December 5, 2008

Review of Studies on Media Exposure Finds Links to Negative Health Outcomes for Children

A comprehensive, yet non-peer reviewed, study released this week from CommonSenseMedia and the National Institutes of Health and finds that 80% of studies examining the relationship between children and adolescent’s exposure to media and health outcomes report a negative association between the two. The researchers reviewed over 1800 studies but focused on 173 studies of high-quality released in the past 28 years investigated links between media exposure and childhood obesity, tobacco, drug and alcohol use, low academic achievement, sexual behavior and attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity. Forty-three studies focused on specific media exposure and 127 focused on daily or weekly hours of media exposure. The overwhelming majority (86%) of the studies that examined children and weight found that increased duration of media exposure was associated with an increase in childhood obesity. Study authors also note a need for more research on exposure to new media types such as the internet and cell phones.

To review the executive summary please visit
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/press-room/press-releases/study-reveals-media-damages-child-health
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