New study shows how kids' media use helps parents cope

May 24 2006

Electronic media is a central focus of many very young children's lives, used by parents to help manage busy schedules, keep the peace, and facilitate family routines such as eating, relaxing, and falling asleep, according to a new national study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Many parents also express satisfaction with the educational benefits of TV and how it can teach positive behaviors. The report, The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Their Parents, is based on a national survey of 1,051 parents with children age 6 months to 6 years old and a series of focus groups across the country.

According to the study, in a typical day more than eight in ten (83%) children under the age of six use screen media, with those children averaging about two hours a day (1:57). Media use increases with age, from 61% of babies one year or younger who watch screen media in a typical day (for an average of 1:20) to 90% of 4 to 6 year-olds (for an average of 2:03).

In many homes, parents have created an environment where the TV is a nearly constant presence, from the living room to the dining room and the bedroom. One in three (33%) children this age has a TV in their bedroom (19% of children ages 1 year or younger, 29% of children ages 2-3 years, and 43% of those ages 4-6 years). The most common reasons parents give for putting a TV in their child's bedroom is to free up other TVs in the house so the parent or other family members can watch their own shows (55%), to keep the child occupied so the parent can do things around the house (39%), to help the child fall asleep (30%), and as a reward for good behavior (26%). As one mother who participated in a focus group in Irvine, CA said, "Media makes life easier. We're all happier. He isn't throwing tantrums. I can get some work done."

A third (32%) of children this age live in homes where the television is on all (13%) or most (19%) of the time and a similar proportion (30%) live in homes where the TV is on during meals all (16%) or most (14%) of the time. As a focus group mother from Columbus, OH explained "The TV is on all the time. We have five TVs. At least three of those are usually on – her bedroom, the living room, and my bedroom."

Children whose parents have established these heavy TV environments spend more time watching than other children: for example, those who live in households where the TV is on all or most of the time spend an average of 25 minutes more per day watching TV (1:16 vs. 0:51), and those with a TV in their bedroom spend an average of 30 minutes more per day watching (1:19 vs. 0:49).

"Parents have a tough job, and they rely on TV in particular to help make their lives more manageable," said Vicky Rideout, vice president and director of Kaiser's Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health. "Parents use media to help them keep their kids occupied, calm them down, avoid family squabbles, and teach their kids the things parents are afraid they don't have time to teach themselves."

At a time when there is great debate on the merits of educational media for children, many parents are enthusiastic about its use. For example, two-thirds of parents (66%) say their child imitates positive behavior from TV, such as sharing or helping. A large majority of parents (69%) say computers mostly help children's learning, and a plurality (38%) say the same about watching TV (vs. 31% who say TV "mostly hurts" and 22% who say it doesn't have much affect either way).

The study found that how parents feel about TV's benefits is related to how much time children spend watching. Children whose parents say TV mostly helps learning spend an average of 27 minutes more per day watching than children whose parents think TV mostly hurts. In focus groups, parents noted many specific benefits of TV viewing for their children, such as spurring imaginative play, teaching letters and words, and learning a foreign language. One mother form Irvine, CA stated, "Anything they're doing on the computer I think is learning" and another from Columbus, OH noted, "Out of the blue one day my son counted to five in Spanish. I knew immediately that he got that from Dora." Another Columbus mom said, "My daughter knows her letters from Sesame Street. I haven't had to work with her on them at all."

The report, The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Their Parents, was released today at a forum in Washington, D.C. that featured media executives and child development experts. A webcast of the session can be found at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia052406pkg.cfm .

The following are additional key findings from the survey and attached are sample quotes from the focus groups:

Parent's Viewing Habits

• Children whose parents use screen media for more than 2 hours a day (42% of all parents) spend an average of 28 minutes more (1:14 vs. 0:46) watching TV than children whose parents watch for less than an hour (30% of all parents).

Media in the Bedroom

• Among those with TV in their bedroom, a third (33%, or 11% of all children) spend half or more of their TV-watching time watching in the bedroom.
• Among children with a TV in their bedroom, 37% (or 12% of all children) go to bed with the TV on half the time or more.

Youngest Children – Under 2 Years Old

• More than four in ten (43%) children under 2 years old watch TV every day and nearly one in five (18%) watch videos or DVDs every day.
• Most parents say they are in the same room with their child while they're watching TV either all or most of the time (88% of those whose children this age watch TV in a typical day).
• One quarter (26%) of parents with children younger than 2 years old say their child has never watched TV.

Computer Use - Digital Divide

• Eight in ten (78%) children 6 years old and under live in homes with a computer, and about seven in ten (69%) have Internet access from home. Three in ten (29%) have more than one computer.
• Among all children six and under, 43% have used a computer, and 27% use a computer several times a week or more. Among children ages four to six, 43% use a computer several times a week or more.
• There is a large gap in computer ownership, by income and parent education. For example, just over half (54%) of children in lower-income households (less than $20,000 a year) have a computer in the home compared to 95% of those from higher income homes ($75,000 a year or more).

TV and Children's Behavior

• Two-thirds (66%) of parents say they've seen their child imitate positive behaviors from TV, while 23% say they've imitated aggressive behavior, like hitting or kicking. Older boys are more likely to imitate aggressive behavior from TV (45% of 4-6 year-old boys).
• Over half (53%) of parents say that TV tends to calm their child down, while about one in six (17%) say that TV gets their child excited.

Changes in Household Media Environment and Media Use

• Since a similar survey in 2003, there have been increases in the share of children in households with at least one computer (from 73% to 78%), with Internet access (from 63% to 69%), and with high-speed Internet access (from 20% to 42%).
• There was a small but statistically significant decrease in the percentage of households where the television is kept on always or most of the time, from 37% in 2003 to 32% in 2005, and of children living in households where the television is on during meals always or most of the time, from 35% in 2003 to 30% in 2005.
• Among children who do each activity in a typical day, children are spending an average of 17 minutes less per day listening to music and 10 minutes less per day watching TV.

The following are a sample of quotes from the focus groups:

Media making life easier as a parent:
"If he's watching TV, I can get things done. I don't have to constantly watch him." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Denver, Colorado

"They wake up and get to watch TV while I shower and get dressed. It keeps them in my sight line." Mother of a 4-6 year-old, Denver, Colorado

"As much as I would like it [to be] otherwise, I have to keep the house functioning. The laundry has got to get done. They have to eat. I do have to bake. As much as I would love to believe that I can go into the bathroom and shut the door and leave my two children reading a book or even playing together, that's not going to happen." Mother of a 4-6 year-old, Denver, Colorado

"I'll turn on the TV in the morning, and [my son] will watch cartoons. My kids will have breakfast, and then we take my daughter to school. I'll turn the TV on for him when we get home…We'll usually watch TV when we're eating lunch." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Irvine, California

"My son is really hyper. That's a time when I can get him to actually calm down and watch a little TV. …He will slow down and that helps change his mood…It's much better for him and for me." Mother of a 4-6 year old, Irvine, California.

Why parents put TVs in their children's bedrooms:
"I did it so I could watch my TV. I also wanted it so he would watch and fall asleep." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Denver, Colorado

"My 2-year-old will literally bounce in his crib to the Wiggles. As soon as I turn it off, he lies right down and goes to sleep." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Columbus, Ohio

Educational value of media:
"My daughter is learning a lot from the different shows she watches. She's so into it. I think it's important." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Irvine, California

"He's always telling me what is right and wrong from the things he sees on TV. It's opened doors in being able to talk to him." Mother of a 4-6 year-old, Denver, Colorado

"I think they get more skills from the computer. Our world is so computer oriented. I certainly didn't know how to use a computer when I was 3…If I had a choice of the computer or TV, I would definitely choose the computer." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Columbus, Ohio

"I don't spend nearly as much time with my son as I need to…He has learned huge amounts from the video and computer games we have…I'm very grateful." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Irvine, California

Food ads:
"They [commercials] really work on my son (4-6 years old) already. He'll see something in a Burger King commercial. He'll tell me that we have to go to Burger King today. It doesn't matter what we're doing, we have to go." Denver, Colorado

"My daughter would eat a cheeseburger from McDonalds every day if I would let her. She sees it on TV, and she will come to me right away saying that's what she wants for lunch." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Columbus, Ohio.

General thoughts on media:
"It makes life easier now, but in the long run, when they're older and starting to run into all these problems, I think I'll wish I wouldn't have let them do it when they were five." Mother of a 4-6 year-old in Columbus, Ohio

"I don't think media has anything to do with how I am as a parent. I would never sit her in front of the television so I could go and do something. I learned a long time ago that the dishes can wait until tomorrow. It can all wait. I have seen my 15 year-old grow up in the blink of an eye…I take advantage of all the time I can get." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Irvine, California

"For our little guy, TV time is all of us on the couch together. We'll talk about what's going on. If it's Blue's Clues, we'll answer back. We only do 20 minutes a night." Mother of a 1-3 year old from Irvine, California.

"Being an adult is hard. There are times when my interacting with my children is best served by me having an opportunity to allow them to do something alone so I can regroup. When I got laid off a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know it was coming. I got blindsided. I couldn't have interacted with my children that night. I couldn't have done it." Mother of a 4-6 year-old from Denver, Colorado.

"While my daughter has her princess movie in, my son can be upstairs playing his Blues Clues CD-ROM...It gives them their own space and their own quality time to be apart." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Denver, Colorado.

TV Content:
"For a little while we weren't really supervising, but then we found him quoting from a movie called Mansquito on the Science Fiction Channel." Mother of a 4-6 year-old, Denver, Colorado.

"I watch CSI…[S]he sits down and watches with me. I don't know how harmful it is to her. It's something gory, but it doesn't seem to bother her. She hasn't had any nightmares from it." Mother of a 1-3 year old, Irvine, California

The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation dedicated to providing information and analysis on health care issues to policymakers, the media, the health care community and the general public. The Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries.