A new study links poor school performance among middle school students with television viewing time and content. In “Association Between Television, Movie and Video Game Exposure and School Performance,” researchers surveyed more than 4,500 middle school students (grades 5 through 8) about weekday and weekend television and video screen time, cable channel availability, parental R-movie and television content restriction, and school performance.
According to the study, the odds of poor school performance increased with growing weekday television viewing and cable channel availability, and decreased with parental restriction on television content.
Children who watched R-rated movies once in a while, sometimes, or all of the time had significantly increased odds of poor school performance.
Weekend screen time and video game use were not linked with poor school performance.
The findings support American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines pertaining to limited media time and content restrictions.