Citation

Christakis DA, Garrison MM, Herrenkohl T, Haggerty K, Rivara FP, Zhou C, Liekweg K. Pediatrics 2013; 131(3): 431-438.

Affiliation

Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington; and.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, American Academy of Pediatrics)

DOI

10.1542/peds.2012-1493

PMID

23420911

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Although previous studies have revealed that preschool-aged children imitate both aggression and prosocial behaviors on screen, there have been few population-based studies designed to reduce aggression in preschool-aged children by modifying what they watch.METHODS:We devised a media diet intervention wherein parents were assisted in substituting high quality prosocial and educational programming for aggression-laden programming without trying to reduce total screen time. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 565 parents of preschool-aged children ages 3 to 5 years recruited from community pediatric practices. Outcomes were derived from the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation at 6 and 12 months.RESULTS:At 6 months, the overall mean Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation score was 2.11 points better (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.78-3.44) in the intervention group as compared with the controls, and similar effects were observed for the externalizing subscale (0.68 [95% CI: 0.06-1.30]) and the social competence subscale (1.04 [95% CI: 0.34-1.74]). The effect for the internalizing subscale was in a positive direction but was not statistically significant (0.42 [95% CI: -0.14 to 0.99]). Although the effect sizes did not noticeably decay at 12 months, the effect on the externalizing subscale was no longer statistically significant (P = .05). In a stratified analysis of the effect on the overall scores, low-income boys appeared to derive the greatest benefit (6.48 [95% CI: 1.60-11.37]).CONCLUSIONS:An intervention to reduce exposure to screen violence and increase exposure to prosocial programming can positively impact child behavior.

Language: en