[Television and children: is television responsible for all the evils attributed to it?].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to analyze children's television viewing habits and their parents attitudes towards such viewing.


METHODS
Cross-sectional descriptive study.


METHODS
Primary care.


METHODS
A survey was undertaken with 317 three to fourteen year old children and their parents as part of the primary care check-up program for healthy children.


RESULTS
Time devoted to television viewing was 106 +/- 50 minutes on weekdays and 141 +/- 80 minutes weekends. Despite this, 49.2% of parents thought their children saw little television, especially those with children under six (57.6%). Children of parents in highly qualified positions and of parents in the uppermost socioeconomic group saw television the least, on non-working days (70 +/- 61 minutes and 144 +/- 78 minutes respectively, p < or = 0.0001). Some 71.9% of children watched television alone and 34% did so at meal-times. Altogether 48.3% of parents were unaware as to what their children watched and some 61.5% encouraged television viewing, above all those having children of under six (76%). The youngest children preferred to watch cartoons which were generally of a violent nature. For those aged from 11 to 14, 19.5% chose as their favorite programs those having a high level of violence.


CONCLUSIONS
Television habits are an educational problem for parents, an important shake-up in their attitudes being called for, in which pediatricians should be involved in developing health programs aimed at proper use of the television.
Caviedes Altable
B E
BE
Centro de Salud Dávila, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander.
Quesada Fernández
E
E
Herranz
J L
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012940:Social Problems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013997:Time Factors; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data