Originally published August 22 2005
Studies show that television watching is associated with lower education
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
While studies show that television might improve memory capacity, most three- to five-year-olds watching television are more likely to perform worse in reading and math.
From toddlerhood to adulthood, watching television is associated with lower educational achievement, three new studies suggest.
The studies found that three- to five-year-olds who watched more television performed worse on reading and math tests three years later; that third graders with televisions in the bedrooms performed worse than others on standardized tests; and that children who watched more TV from ages five to 15 were less likely to finish school or go to college.
All three were published in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a research journal.
In one bright spot in the picture, researchers with the University of Washington, Seattle, found that TV watching between ages 3 and 5 could also have positive effects.
The University of Washington researchers found higher scores in working memory and reading recognition---the ability to read individual words correctly---among watchers of more TV in this age group.
But otherwise, the findings about TV watching were almost uniformly bad in the studies, conducted in the United States and New Zealand.
Although many people suspect TV may make you "dumber," these studies, according to the authors, are among the first research to show clear-cut relationship between the tube and lower academic achievement.
Past studies, however, have shown people who watch more TV are at greater risk for obesity and aggressive behavior, according to the authors of one of the studies, with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, and Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.
Simply finding TV is associated with lower achievement doesn't necessarily prove TV causes the poor achievement, researchers acknowledged.
"The inclusion of extensive controls for parental preferences, ability, and investment in their children's cognitive development suggests that these associations may in some direct or indirect way be causal," they wrote.
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