Young children's television viewing presents a dilemma to parents aware of potential harm to development, but a study released on Monday said children who stop watching so much by age 5-and-a-half do not exhibit problems.
"A number of studies have demonstrated negative effects of heavy television viewing. However, timing of exposure is an important consideration," said study author Kamila Mistry of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"Reducing viewing to acceptable levels can reduce the risk of behavioral and social problems," she concluded, based on the study published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The pediatricians' group has issued guidelines that discourage television viewing among children younger than 2 years, and recommend children older than 2 limit their viewing to less than two hours daily. The group also recommends against having a television in a child's bedroom.
"Despite these recommendations, many young children are consuming significantly more than two hours of television," the report said.
No TV in bedrooms
The researchers analyzed interviews conducted three years apart with the mothers of roughly 2,700 children to learn the children's viewing habits and whether they tended to be anxious, depressed, have sleep problems, have trouble concentrating, exhibit aggressive behavior or lack social skills.
Sixteen percent of the children in the study had watched television more than two hours daily at the age of 2-and-a-half, but then cut back on viewing by the age of 5-and-a-half.
"Children who reduced their viewing by 5-and-a-half years of age were not at greater risk for behavior or social problems," said Dr. Cynthia Minkovitz, who also worked on the study.
The one out of five children who watched at least two hours of television a day throughout the study period were at greatest risk of behavioral problems. Also, children who developed the TV-watching habit by age 5 were at somewhat higher risk.
Two out of five of the 5-year-olds in the study had a television in their bedrooms, which put them at risk of sleeping problems, the report said.