Child Development - Lecture Nine

Question 1

How long on average do US children watch TV per day in hours

Answer 1

5.11 hours

Question 2

Preschoolers and watching TV

Answer 2

90% of children watch television before the age of 2, and 40% of 3-month-olds watch TV

Question 3

NZ children aged 5- to 14-years-old and television

Answer 3

64% watch more than 2 hours of TV a day

Question 4

NZ secondary school students and television

Answer 4

35% watch 3 hours or more per day

Question 5

TV as an educational tool

Answer 5

Even 6- to 18-month-olds can imitate some actions seen on TV and there is improved performance if demonstrations are live, however, TV is no match for direct interaction with parents

Question 6

Ball and Bogatz (1970) Sesame Street Study

Don’t memorise, just familiarise

Answer 6

950 children aged 3- to 5-years-old were tested on their alphabet and writing skill abilities before and after 26-week season of Sesame Street. There were four different groups: rarely watched, 2-3 times pw, 4-5 times pw and more than 5 times pw. Results showed that children who watched Sesame Street the most exhibited the largest gain on the alphabet and writing test and children learned even when they watched Sesame Street alone

Question 7

Boyatzis, Matillo & Nesbitt (1995) Study

Don’t memorise, just familiarise

Answer 7

52 children with the mean age of 7.75 years-old watched Power Rangers. Results found that boys committed more aggressive acts than girls, and those watching Power Rangers committed 7 aggressive acts for every adhesive act committed by a control child

Question 8

Huessman et al (1984) study

Don’t memorise, just familiarise

Answer 8

198 8-year-old boys and their parents were assessed on their preference for violent TV shows and were reinterviewed at 30-years-old. Results showed that boys who exhibited a higher preference for violent TV at 8-years-old had committed more serious crimes by 30-years-old than boys who showed a lower preference

Question 9

Extensive exposure to violent TV

Answer 9

Appears to have a reliable negative effect on children’s behaviour

Question 10

Children who imitate violent TV

Answer 10

More likely to imitate what they see

Question 11

Video-game hours in children to adolescence

Answer 11

5.5 hours pw for females

13 hours pw for males

Question 12

NZ secondary school students and video games

Answer 12

20% of males tend to play video-games for more than 3 hours per day, compared to 5% of females

Question 13

Preschoolers aged 2- to 5- years and video games

Answer 13

Play for an average of 28-minutes per day

Question 14

Potential benefits of video game use

Answer 14

Therapeutic and/or educational for children with chronic illnesses
Improve fine motor skills and coordination
Distract from physical and emotional pain
Improve decision making skills and brain plasticity
Foster persistence, resilience, and prosocial behaviour

Question 15

Anderson & Dill (2000) Experiment 1

Don’t memorise, just familiarise

Answer 15

227 University undergraduates completed an aggressive personality questionnaire for aggressive/non-aggressive delinquency and video game use. Results showed that 91% reported video game use with an average of 2.14 hours per week, video game use correlated with aggressive personality, non-aggressive delinquency and aggressive delinquency

Question 16

Anderson & Dill (2000) Experiment 2

Don’t memorise, just familiarise

Answer 16

210 University undergraduates completed an aggressive personality questionnaire and were assigned to one of the following groups; played Myst (non-violent) or played Woldenstein (violent) for 3 x 15-minute sessions. Results showed women delivers longer blasts than men. Individuals with high scores on the APQ delivered longer blasts than those with low APQ scores. Individuals who played the violent video game delivered longer blasts than those who played the non-violent video game

Question 17

Average American child school vs TV hours yearly

Answer 17

900 hours at school, 1200 hours watching TV

Question 18

When asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers

Answer 18

54% of 4- to 6-year-olds will choose TV