Too much background TV in American homes: noise will deteriorate kids’ development (i.e., interrupt focus, loss attention)

Using a telephone survey of 1,454 parents in America with at least one kid age at 8 months to 8 years old, a team of researchers led by Matthew A. Lapierre, MA, at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, found that kids in America get a lot of background TV in their homes.  The study titled “Background Television in the Homes of US Children” is being published by Pediatrics.

The study believes that too much TV is always harmful for kids’ development, although children are not watching TVs and while those TVs are playing in the background. With TV noise, it will be bad for a child’s brain.  Those noises could repeatedly interrupt kids’ focus.  Kids will also loss attention which causing cognitive functioning.

Researchers found kids in America get about 232.2 minutes or about 4 hours total of TVs that are playing in the background every day.

Researchers also found that low income families, families with younger kids, and African-American households are among the highest on getting a lot of background TVs in their homes.