3 ms·
One of the most important sections of any published research study to look at is the methods section. Here is the methods section from the linked paper: "Metho
by tokenadult 13y ago
One of the most important sections of any published research study to look at is the methods section. Here is the methods section from the linked paper:
"Methods Typical daily hours viewing television and
playing electronic games at age 5 years were reported by
mothers of 11 014 children from the UK Millennium
Cohort Study. Conduct problems, emotional symptoms,
peer relationship problems, hyperactivity/inattention and
prosocial behaviour were reported by mothers using the
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Change in
adjustment from age 5 years to 7 years was regressed
on screen exposures; adjusting for family characteristics
and functioning, and child characteristics."
So all the data here were gathered by self-reports from the children's mothers. One of the first things to do to see if these results replicate in another sample is to gather data the next time by third-party observers. How much does a mother's estimate of how much screen time a child has differ from an observation by an objective observer? How much does an objective observer's observation of a child's behavior differ from the mother's self-report? I'd want to know details like that before drawing any particular conclusion about the facts of the world from this interesting study kindly submitted here.
- bunderbunder 13y agoSadly, I don't think a study like that is likely to happen. How many families are willing to have someone hang around in their house 24/7 in order to monitor their child's viewing habits? How many research institutions can afford such a thing? As far as drawing conclusions, I'm not sure it's necessary to throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Self-reporting does tend to be inaccurate in terms of absolute numbers. But as long as it tends to be accurate in relative terms - that is, that if people who say their child watches more TV tend to have children who actually do watch more TV - then we can draw relative conclusions. And the key takeaway points from this paper are still useful information even when you take the absolute numbers involved with a grain of salt. Simply knowing that TV viewing time is positively correlated with behavioral problems may not be a crystal-clear picture of the situation, but it's still useful knowledge for a parent.
- pbhjpbhj 13y ago>How many families are willing to have someone hang around in their house 24/7 in order to monitor their child's viewing habits? // That's hardly required. An app installed on tablets or face recognition on a kinect-type device or webcam can monitor screen usage and be automated. Initially it's enough to show whether any sub-category of screen-bearing device is being reported correctly. TV is probably the easiest to monitor and could well be done using a relatively inexpensive "bug" stuck on the wall.
- jwatte 13y agoThousands of families already have a Nielsen box on their tv. How is this that different? Add Kinect facial recognition if you don't want to code the data manually.