Television viewing in infancy and child cognition at 3 years of age in a US cohort.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the extent to which infant television viewing is associated with language and visual motor skills at 3 years of age.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
Television viewing in infancy does not seem to be associated with language or visual motor skills at 3 years of age.
Schmidt
Marie Evans
ME
Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Obesity Prevention Program, 133 Brookline Ave, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02215. elsie_taveras@harvardpilgrim.org.
Rich
Michael
M
Rifas-Shiman
Sheryl L
SL
Oken
Emily
E
Taveras
Elsie M
EM
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013690:Television