Studies back evidence linking lots of TV with poor academics

CHICAGO -- Too much television-watching can harm the ability of children to learn and even reduce their chances of getting a college degree, three studies suggest in the latest effort to examine how television affects children.

Critics, however, said the research did not adequately consider the content of the television watched, but specialists said it bolsters advice that children should not have televisions in their rooms.

The separate findings were published yesterday in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

One of the studies involved nearly 400 California third-graders. Those with televisions in their bedrooms scored about 8 points lower on math and language arts tests than children without sets in their bedrooms. A second study, looking at nearly 1,000 adults in New Zealand, found lower education levels among 26-year-olds who had watched lots of television during childhood. A third study, based on nationally representative data on nearly 1,800 US children, found that those who watched more than three hours of television daily before age 3 scored slightly worse on academic and intelligence tests at ages 6 and 7 than youngsters who watched less. The effect was only modest but still worrisome, said coauthor Frederick Zimmerman, a University of Washington researcher.

The studies took into account other factors that might have influenced the outcome, such as household income. But they largely ignored other research that ''found positive associations between children's educational television viewing and subsequent academic achievement," according to an Archives editorial.

Previous research has linked television exposure in young children with attention problems and difficulty learning to read. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 not watch television, that older children watch no more than two hours daily of ''quality" programming, and that televisions be kept out of children's bedrooms.