title: Family Socioeconomic Status Moderates Associations Between Television Viewing and School Readiness Skills.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined whether the negative relation between television viewing that exceeds the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and school readiness varied by family income.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected from 807 children from diverse backgrounds. Parents reported hours of television viewing, as well as family income. Children were assessed using measures of math, knowledge of letters and words, and executive function (EF).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Television viewing was negatively associated with math and EF but not with letter and word knowledge. An interaction between television viewing and family income indicated that the effect of television viewing in excess of the AAP recommended maximum had negative associations with math and EF that increased as a linear function of family income. Furthermore, EF partially mediated the relation between television viewing and math.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Television viewing is negatively associated with children's school readiness skills, and this association increased as family income decreased. Active efforts to reinforce AAP guidelines to limit the amount of television children watch should be made, especially for children from middle- to lower-income families.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, New York, NY; †Department of Social Sciences, Université Sainte-Anne, Church Point, Nova Scotia, Canada; ‡PERFORM Center, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ribner
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fitzpatrick
authors.forename: Clancy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blair
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools; D012923:Social Class; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*