Community Magazine August 2006

 ”  Av 5766 August 2006 29 of all scenes depicting “relations” involved characters who do not have an established relationship with one another and about a third of those involved characters who had just met. A good portion of these characters were also portrayed as being in their teens. But does viewing such content necessarily impact behavior? According to a Rand Corporation study – more than we would imagine. Researchers found that adolescents are twice as likely to begin engaging in [promiscuous behavior] when they were classi- fied as having watched large amounts of television containing such content as opposed to those who were described as watching little such TV. Shows that included only talk about such matters had just as much impact on adolescent behavior as shows that depicted these behaviors. As in other studies, control groups who watched no such television at all were not included. “The impact of television viewing is so large,” commented Rebecca Collins, a Rand psychologist who headed the study, “that even a moderate shift in the [explicit] content of adolescent TV watching could have a substantial effect on their [promiscuous] behavior.” The research pointed to the “striking” effect of “advance- ment in [promiscuous] behavior” among kids who watched more explicit shows. “The 12-year-olds who watched a lot of television with [explicit] content behaved like the 14- or 15-years-olds who watched the least amount of [explicit] television,” Collins added. In our community, where such behavior is generally still consid- ered taboo outside of marriage, the effects of TV have been espe- cially troubling. Sharon Hagler, the principal of Ohr Eliezer School at Avenue R in Brooklyn laments, “I think that television has a horrific effect as far as warping their ideas of culture, values and morals. They see nothing wrong with it because they see it all of the time. You see a kid today lose his temper – the stuff that comes out of their mouths! We might have used a word that our parents didn’t like, but we never had the [explicit] connotations, and we would not have done that because it wasn’t in our television culture.” As adults have grown accustomed to such content, they may now be desensitized to it. One high school student chose televised women’s wrestling as their topic of choice for an assignment and included vulgar language in the essay. In confronting the student about the inappropriateness of the paper, he replied casually that his father watches [wrestling] and finds nothing wrong with it. Apparently, the parent was also not bothered by the use of vulgar- ity. The Veg Effect Even in the statistically improbable event that a child only watched those shows which were considered wholesome and/or educational, studies indicate that the act of sitting in front of a TV screen poses formidable dangers includ- ing: promoting a sedentary lifestyle, leading to weight gain and other health hazards; reduc- ing literacy and attention span; and fostering anti-social habits and a weaker family life. Packing on the Pounds Thirty years of research have lead to the undeniable conclusion that TV watching is closely tied to weight gain. Perhaps most troubling is the snowball effect since watching television at a young age appears to set the stage for habits that ingrain themselves and become difficult to wrest out of later in life. Some of the more recent research pointing to the correlation between TV and health problems is summarized in the chart Health Hazards of TV. Literacy and Academics Educators have long com- plained that TV interferes with the learning process and studies support this contention. A recent study by the Pediatric Department of Adolescent Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital confirmed the scholastic detri- ment to very young children. Among three to five year olds, researchers concluded that more TV leads directly to a reduction of cognitive ability. For each hour a child gave up of TV, Health Hazards of TV q The incidence of obesity was highest among children who watched four or more hours of television a day and lowest among children watching an hour or less a day. Source: Study by researchers at the University at Buffalo, Johns Hopkins University, The National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control. q Children who watch more than three hours of television a day are 50 percent more likely to be obese than kids who watch fewer than two hours . Source: The International Journal of Obesity . q Sixty percent of the overweight in children, ages 10-15, may be due to excessive television viewing. Source: Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine . q Among preschoolers (ages 1-4), the risk of being over- weight increased by 6% for every hour of television watched per day. If that child had a TV in his or her bedroom, the odds of being overweight jumped an addi- tional 31% for every hour watched . Source: Pediatrics q Pre-school girls who watched more television measured lower hipbone density . Source: Pediatrics q Metabolic rates during television viewing were signifi- cantly lower than during resting periods for children, ages 8 to 12 years ol d. Source: Pediatrics