Television viewing at home: age trends in visual attention and time with TV.

The TV-viewing behavior of 99 families with young children was videotaped by automated time-lapse recording equipment placed in homes for 10-day periods. The 99 families comprised 460 individuals from infants to 62 years of age. Time-sample analyses of 4,672 hours of recordings indicated that the TV-viewing room contained no viewers 14.7% of the time that the TV was on. There were no age trends in time spent with television. Percent visual attention to television increased greatly across the preschool years, leveled off at about 70% during the school-age years, and declined in adulthood. Men looked at the TV more than women. There were no significant correlations between time spent with TV and percent of visual attention to TV. The increase in visual attention to television during the preschool years is consistent with the theory that TV program comprehensibility is a major determination of attention in young children.

Estimates of young children's time with television: a methodological comparison of parent reports with time-lapse video home observation.

Accurate information on behavior of young children at home is crucial to the study of child development. The present study compared parent diaries of 5-year-old children's time spent with television to concurrent automated time-lapse video observations. In addition, a number of control groups were employed to assess the effects of observational equipment in the homes. The sample consisted of 334 mostly white middle-class families, of whom 106 had observational equipment installed. Results indicated no systematic subject selection of families who were willing to have observational equipment as compared to the controls. In addition, there were no differences in reported viewing behavior between the observed families and controls. Of 3 types of parent estimates of 5-year-old TV viewing, concurrent diaries correlated best with video observation (r = .84) and produced a very small absolute mean time error. Direct parent estimates of typical time spent viewing produced smaller correlations and large overestimates as compared with diaries.