THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION VIEWING ON MENTAL APTITUDE AND ACHIEVEMENT: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Previous studies of the effects of telecision viewing on mental abilities have shown mixed results, but most suffered from one or more of the following shortcomings: a small or other-wise unrepresentative sample, a cross-sectional rather than longitudinal approach, and a failure to consider intervening variables between television viewing and cognitive skills. This study was designed to overcome these deficiencies by using nationally representative data from the National Health Examination Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 Surveys. These surveys included 1,745 children who were studies both when 6 to 11 years old (between July, 1963, and December, 1965) and about four years later when 12 to 17 years old (between March, 1966, and March, 1970). Simple analysis at just one time-point reveals substantial relationships between the amount of television viewing and depressed IQ and Wide Range Achievement Test (Reading and Arithmetic) scores of adolescents. When longitudinal controls are added, however, these relationships become statistically insignificant and substantively unimportant. Although these data are 20 years old, they indicate no significant causal relationship between the amount of television viewed and the mental aptitude and achievement test scores of adolescents, thus supporting and extending Gaddy's (1986) recent longitudinal study of a national sample of youth.