. LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS 2024 - INGLÉS – PROF. N.

DÍAZ

SEGUNDA PRUEBA PARCIAL - OCTUBRE 2024

EVALUACIÓN ORAL

Passage provided by

Jacqueline Rodríguez, Fernando Salaverria and Sergio Goméz

SOURCE: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/570369#nav

KEY WORDS:

adolescents - television - attention problems - cognitive difficulties- learning

difficulties-
_______________________________________________________________

Extensive television viewing and the development of attention and

learning difficulties during adolescence.

Objective: To investigate the association of television viewing with educational

and intellectual outcomes during adolescence and early adulthood.

Design:Prospective epidemiological study.

Setting: Families participating in the Children in the Community Study, a

prospective longitudinal investigation, were interviewed at mean offspring ages
14, 16, and 22 years.

Participants: A community-based sample of 678 families from upstate New

York.

Main Exposures: Television viewing, attention difficulties, learning difficulties,

and educational achievement during adolescence and early adulthood.
Main Outcome Measures: The Disorganizing Poverty Interview and age-
appropriate versions of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children.

Results: Frequent television viewing during adolescence was associated with

elevated risk for subsequent attention and learning difficulties after family
characteristics and prior cognitive difficulties were controlled. Youths who
watched 1 or more hours of television per day at mean age 14 years were at
elevated risk for poor homework completion, negative attitudes toward school,
poor grades, and long-term academic failure. Youths who watched 3 or more
hours of television per day were the most likely to experience these outcomes. In
addition, youths who watched 3 or more hours of television per day were at
elevated risk for subsequent attention problems and were the least likely to
receive postsecondary education. There was little evidence of bidirectionality in
the association of television viewing with attention and learning difficulties.

Conclusion: Frequent television viewing during adolescence may be associated

with risk for development of attention problems, learning difficulties, and adverse
long-term educational outcomes.
Children and adolescents in most industrialized societies spend an
average of 2 or more hours per day watching television. Many youths who watch
3 or more hours of television per day spend as much time watching television in
an average year as they do receiving classroom instruction. Most children and
adolescents spend more time watching television than reading, and television
viewing time is inversely associated with reading time and reading
comprehension. These findings are a cause of concern because research has
suggested that extensive viewing of entertainment and general audience
programming during childhood may be associated with poor academic
achievement and deficits in attention and cognitive functioning. Although viewing
educational television may be associated with positive outcomes, most children
spend more than 90% of their television viewing time watching entertainment and
general audience programming.
Frequent viewing of entertainment and general audience television
programming during childhood and adolescence has been hypothesized to
contribute to persistent reductions in educational and intellectual functioning
because it displaces reading and homework, requires relatively little intellectual
effort, and promotes attention problems and disinterest in school. Research
findings supporting this hypothesis have indicated that overall television viewing
time during childhood and adolescence may be associated with elevated risk for
the development of attention problems, educational difficulties, poor reading
comprehension, and other cognitive deficits. Entertainment and general audience
television viewing may be differentially associated with decreases in reading and
educational activities, and informative programs designed for children may be
associated with improvements in letter and word recognition. However, because
educational television viewing time declines with age during childhood, the
beneficial effects of educational television may become decreasingly evident
from childhood through adolescence.
A second hypothesis is that youths with a history of poor academic or
intellectual skills tend to engage in more frequent television viewing than do their
peers. This hypothesis has been supported by findings suggesting that youths
with learning difficulties, attention problems, and other intellectual deficits may be
more likely than other youths to engage in frequent television viewing. Such
findings, considered together with the larger body of evidence supporting the first
hypothesis cited earlier, have suggested that there may be a bidirectional
association between television viewing time and attention or learning problems.
A third hypothesis is that the association between television viewing and
attention or learning difficulties may be attributable to “third variables” such as
low socioeconomic status (SES) or childhood neglect that may contribute to both
extensive television viewing and attention or learning difficulties. For example,
low SES may contribute to television viewing time for reasons including a
restricted range of non-classroom educational activities, poor nutrition, and
environmental adversities associated with low SES. Inadequate parental
supervision may contribute to frequent television viewing, and neglected children
may have attention and learning difficulties attributable to insufficient parental
support. Findings supporting the third-variable hypothesis have indicated that
frequent television viewing was associated with poor educational outcomes
before but not after SES and other covariates were controlled.In addition, the
association of television viewing with attention and learning problems has been
found to vary as a function of variables including age, SES, and television
programming content. Accordingly, differences in the findings of studies
supporting the 3 major hypotheses are likely to have been owing in part to
differences in sample characteristics, control variables, measures, and follow-up
intervals.
To investigate all 3 hypotheses, it is necessary to conduct a series of
assessments of television viewing and educational outcomes during childhood or
adolescence and to assess potential risk factors that might underlie this
association. It is important to investigate these associations during adolescence,
a critical period for cognitive development and educational advancement. We
describe findings of the Children in the Community Study, a community-based
longitudinal investigation that meets these methodological criteria. The primary
objective of our present study was to investigate the association of frequent
television viewing during adolescence with risk for persistent attention and
learning difficulties and with poor long-term educational outcomes.