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Behavior: TV
in Child's Room Sets Off Academic Alert
Eric Nagourney, New York Times, July 5, 2005
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Elementary
school students who have televisions in their bedrooms do worse
on tests in school, researchers reported yesterday.
The study, in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine,
looked at the performance of almost 400 children in six Northern
California schools for a year. The researchers also surveyed the
students and their families about television, computer and video
game use.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Dina L. G. Borzekowski of
Johns Hopkins, said the study found that those children with
televisions in their bedrooms consistently scored significantly
lower on math, reading and language arts tests.
By contrast, those students who said they had computers in their
homes scored higher.
Dr. Borzekowski said the solution was simple, although some
parents may find it unnerving. (About 70 percent of the children
in the study said they had televisions in their rooms.)
"It is a physical object," she said. "And it is a pretty
straightforward thing to unplug the television set and remove it
physically from the children's bedroom."
She said she was not against watching television. But she said
she believed that families should do it in common areas. While
it is unclear why children with televisions in their rooms test
worse, the study said, it may have less to do with what they are
watching than when.
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