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| TV is bad
for children's education, studies say
| |
The more time children spend watching television
the poorer they perform academically, according to three
studies published on Monday.
Excessive television viewing has been blamed for increasing rates of
childhood obesity and for
aggressive behavior, while its impact on schooling have been inconclusive,
researchers said.
But studies published on the topic in this month's Archives of
Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine concluded television viewing tended
to have an adverse effect on academic pursuits.
For instance, children in third grade who had televisions in their
bedrooms -- and therefore watched more TV -- scored lower on standardized
tests than those who did not have sets in their rooms.
In contrast, the study found having a home computer with access to the
Internet resulted in comparatively higher test scores.
"Consistently, those with a bedroom television but no home computer
access had, on average, the lowest scores and those with home computer
access but no bedroom television had the highest scores," wrote study
author Dina Borzekowski of Johns Hopkins University.
American homes with children have an average of nearly three
televisions each, the report said, and children with televisions in their
bedrooms averaged nearly 13 hours of viewing a week compared to nearly 11
hours by children who did not have their own sets.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has urged parents to limit
children's television viewing to no more than one to two hours per day --
and to try to keep younger children away from TV altogether.
In two other studies published in the same journal, children who
regularly watched television before the age of 3 ended up with lower test
scores later on, and children and adolescents who watched more television
were less likely to go on to finish high school or earn a college degree.
University of Washington researchers reported that 59 percent of U.S.
children younger than age 2 watch an average of 1.3 hours of television
per day, though there is no programing of proven educational value for
children that young.
TV watching appeared to help 3- to 5-year-olds with basic reading
recognition and short-term memory, but not reading comprehension or
mathematics, so the net effect
of television watching is "limited in its beneficial impact," wrote study
author Frederick Zimmerman.
(Agencies) |
本周一（7月4日）發表的三份研究報告聲稱，兒童花在看電視上的時間越多，他們的學習成績就越差。
研究人員說，人們一直將兒童肥胖和過激行為的日益增多歸咎為看電視太多，但是，關于看電視對兒童的學習的影響到底有多大，目前還沒有定論。
不過，本月刊登在《兒科和青春期醫學檔案》上的有關這個話題的三份報告得出結論說，看電視容易給孩子的學習帶來不利影響。
文章舉例說，如果一個三年級孩子的臥室里放有電視機，這樣孩子就會經常看電視，那么他在標準化測驗中的分數將低于那些臥室中沒有電視的孩子。
相反，研究還發現如果孩子的臥室里配有接入互聯網的電腦，孩子在考試中就會獲得相對較高的分數。
“通過我們長期的觀察發現，一般情況下那些臥室里有電視而沒有電腦的孩子成績最差，而那些臥室里有電腦而沒有電視的孩子的成績最好，”研究報告的撰稿人、霍普金斯大學的迪娜·勃爾杰克夫斯基寫道。
這份報告聲稱，有孩子的美國家庭平均每戶有近三臺電視。那些臥室里有電視的孩子每周看電視的平均時間約為13小時，而那些臥室里沒有電視的孩子每周看電視的時間則只有11個小時左右。
美國兒科學會敦促家長們把孩子每天看電視的時間限制在一到兩個小時之內，并且讓年幼的孩子們遠離電視。
根據同期雜志刊登的另外兩份研究報告，如果孩子在三歲之前經常看電視，他以后的學習成績就會比較差，而且經常看電視的兒童和青少年也很少能完成中學學業，更不用說取得大學文憑了。
華盛頓大學的研究人員再報告中指出，盡管目前還沒有已被證明對年幼的孩子有教育價值的電視節目出現，但在兩歲以下的美國兒童中，有59%的兒童平均每天看電視的時間為1.3小時。
對三到五歲的孩子而言，看電視可能會提高他們的識字和短時期的記憶能力，但是卻無助于閱讀理解和算術能力的提升。所以，看電視的“實際益處相當有限”，報告撰稿人弗雷德里克·齊默曼寫道。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2005-07-06 10:39
