Study links early TV-watching, risk for being bullied

Here's a new argument for why television may be harmful for kids: It may put them at higher risk of being bullied later in life.

A study in the July/August issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics found that higher rates of TV-watching among 2-year-olds correlates with a higher likelihood of victimization in the sixth grade.

TV "leaves less time for family interaction, which remains the primary vehicle for socialization," wrote Linda Pagani, the study's author and a professor at the University of Montreal. She said early television-viewing was linked with developmental deficits in brain functions that drive interpersonal relationships and how kids regulate their emotions. It also leads to poor eye contact, key to friendship and social interaction.

For the study, Pagani looked at 991 girls and 1,006 boys growing up in Canada. Parents reported TV-watching habits. The children reported the victimization in sixth grade - including having things taken from them or being physically or verbally abused. For every increase of 53 minutes in toddlers' daily television-viewing, later bullying rose 11 percent.

"There are only 24 hours in a day," Pagani wrote, "and for children, half should be spent meeting basic needs - eating, sleeping, hygiene - and the remainder spent on enriching activities and relationships," i.e., no TV.

- Washington Post