Published online March 2, 2009
PEDIATRICS Vol. 123 No. 3 March 2009, pp. e370-e375 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-3221)

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ARTICLE

Television Viewing in Infancy and Child Cognition at 3 Years of Age in a US Cohort

Marie Evans Schmidt, PhD^a, Michael Rich, MD, MPH^a, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, MPH^b, Emily Oken, MD, MPH^b and Elsie M. Taveras, MD, MPH^b

^a Center on Media and Child Health, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
^b Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Boston, Massachusetts

OBJECTIVE. To examine the extent to which infant television viewing is associated with language and visual motor skills at 3 years of age.

MEASURES. We studied 872 children who were participants in Project Viva, a prospective cohort. The design used was a longitudinal survey, and the setting was a multisite group practice in Massachusetts. At 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years, mothers reported the number of hours their children watched television in a 24-hour period, from which we derived a weighted average of daily television viewing. We used multivariable regression analyses to predict the independent associations of television viewing between birth and 2 years with Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III and Wide-Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities scores at 3 years of age.

RESULTS. Mean daily television viewing in infancy (birth to 2 years) was 1.2 (SD: 0.9) hours, less than has been found in other studies of this age group. Mean Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III score at age 3 was 104.8 (SD: 14.2); mean standardized total Wide-Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities score at age 3 was 102.6 (SD: 11.2). After adjusting for maternal age, income, education, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III score, marital status, and parity, and child's age, gender, birth weight for gestational age, breastfeeding duration, race/ethnicity, primary language, and average daily sleep duration, we found that each additional hour of television viewing in infancy was not associated with Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III or total standardized Wide-Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities scores at age 3.

CONCLUSION. Television viewing in infancy does not seem to be associated with language or visual motor skills at 3 years of age.

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Key Words: television viewing • infancy • media • cognition

Abbreviations: TV—television • CDI—MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory • PPVT-III—Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III • WRAVMA—Wide-Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities • NLSY—National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child • EPDS—Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale • CL—confidence limit

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Accepted Dec 5, 2008.

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