title: Association between childhood and adolescent television viewing and unemployment in adulthood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the long-term association between childhood television viewing and adult unemployment, and if this association is mediated by educational achievement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study members were a general-population birth cohort of 1037 participants born in New Zealand in 1972/1973. Hours of weekday television viewing were reported at ages 5-15. Since age 18, unemployment was assessed retrospectively using life-history calendars to age 32. Information on educational qualifications was collected at age 32.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Childhood and adolescent television viewing predicted adult unemployment. This association was significant for male Study members only (β=0.20, p<0.0001). The association for male Study members remained after further controlling for socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, and early indications of behaviour problems (p<0.0007). The association was only partially mediated by educational achievement and television viewing remained a predictor of unemployment after adjusting for this (p=0.0035). By logistic regression, each additional hour of daily television viewing was associated with an increased likelihood of spending at least 6 months in unemployment between ages 18 and 32 years (OR=1.36, 95%, CI=1.06, 1.76, p=0.0157).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Childhood and adolescent television viewing may have long-lasting consequences for adult unemployment for boys. This association is only partially explained by the association between television viewing and educational achievement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Applied Humanities, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. erik.landhuis@aut.ac.nz
authors.forename: C Erik
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Landhuis
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hancox
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011594:Psychometrics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult