The Impact of Television on Very Young Children

大多数非常年幼的美国儿童(3岁以下)现在花大量时间在电子媒体上，特别是电视上。典型的美国家庭每天使用一台电视机大约6到7个小时，40%的年幼孩子的父母表示，电视机大部分时间或全部时间都开着。可以区分“前景”电视和“背景”电视。前台电视包括为幼儿制作的节目，他们非常关注这些节目。另一方面，背景电视是为年龄较大的儿童或成年人制作的节目，儿童很难理解，他们很少注意到这些节目。在这个项目中，丹尼尔·安德森博士研究了旨在增强亲子互动的前景电视节目的影响，以确定这种增强是否真的发生了。安德森博士还研究了背景电视对儿童游戏行为和亲子互动的影响。基于美国国家科学基金会先前支持的研究，该项目验证了背景电视是一种破坏性影响的假设。更具体地说，这些研究确定这种干扰是否主要是由于背景电视的音频和视频成分分散了注意力；是否由于某些类型的节目；以及大画幅、高清晰度背景电视是否比标准电视更具破坏性。由于许多美国婴儿和幼儿花费大量时间在电视面前，了解电视的影响是至关重要的。如果背景电视对孩子的行为和亲子互动有破坏性的影响，可以建议父母减少孩子在背景电视中的接触。面向婴幼儿的前景电视一直在大幅增加，特别是以向父母销售的“婴儿视频”的形式。到目前为止，还没有研究表明婴儿视频对发育有积极影响。如果设计得当的前台电视可以加强亲子互动，那么电视可能会在幼儿的发展中发挥有用的作用。

Most very young American children (under 3 years) now spend a great deal of time in the presence of electronic media, particularly television. The typical American family has a TV set in use about 6 to 7 hours a day and 40% of parents of very young children say that the TV set is on "most" or "all" of the time. A distinction can be made between "foreground" and "background" television. Foreground television consists of programs that are made for young children and to which they pay substantial attention. Background television, on the other hand, is programming made for older children or adults, largely incomprehensible to young children and to which they pay little attention. In this project, Dr. Daniel Anderson studies the impact of foreground television programming that is designed to enhance parent-child interactions in order to determine whether such enhancement actually occurs. Dr. Anderson also studies the impact of background television on children's play behavior and on parent-child interactions. Based on prior NSF-supported research, this project tests the hypothesis that background television is a disruptive influence. More specifically, these studies determine whether the disruption is primarily due to distraction by the audio versus the video components of background television; is due to certain types of programs; and whether large-format, high-definition background television is more disruptive than standard television.Because many American infants and toddlers spend large amounts of time in the presence of television, it is essential to understand television's impact. If background television has a disruptive impact on children's behavior and on parent-child interactions, parents can be counseled to reduce their children's exposure to television in the background. Foreground television, which is directed at infants and toddlers, has been greatly increasing, particularly in the form of "baby videos" marketed to parents. To this point, no research has shown that baby videos have a positive effect on development. If appropriately designed foreground television can enhance parent-child interactions, then television may be able to play a useful role in very young children's development.