Early Childhood

Shannon Gosha

PSY 223

Early Childhood

In the article “Factors that affect television viewing time in preschool and primary schoolchildren” was researched by a host of authors such as Siddika Songül Yalçin, Belma Turul, Nazire Naçar, Murat Tuncer, and Kadriye Yurdakök.

Researchers conducted a study to explore excessive viewing of television (TV) that has been linked to aggressive behavior, violence and childhood obesity. Therefore, TV programs should be decided carefully for preschool age children, along with school age children. A cross-sectional study was conducted among preschool children and primary schoolchildren in Ankara during March and April 1999. Children were chosen from two day-care centers to detect the factors that affect TV viewing time and to evaluate their parents’ knowledge, attitudes and practices with regard to TV. The parents were asked to fill out a questionnaire about TV habits of their family, the number and location of TVs in the household and the effect of TV on children. Of 400 questionnaires, 350 answered the questions appropriately for this study.

Children were divided into two groups, according to their age’s preschool children (3-6) and primary schoolchildren (7-11). Television viewing time was given daily, as a mean of weekday. 62% of children watch an average of 2 hours of television each day, and 8.3% of children watch 4 hours of TV a day. The overall viewing of too much TV can distract children from their homework, make the children a passive learner, teaches stereotypes, and provide violent models of aggression. Not all television programs have a negative influence on children, some programs present motivating educational programs, it can teach children about positive prosaically behaviors, and also increase information about different things so they may become more knowledgeable about the world. But this article is more focus on the amount of time of TV that children watch a day, which can have negative factors on the...