WEDNESDAY, June 8 (HealthDay News) -- Black and other minority
children in the United States spend far more time than white
children watching TV and videos, listening to music, using
computers and playing video games, new research shows.
Northwestern University researchers analyzed the results of
previous media use studies done by the Kaiser Family Foundation and
found that minority youth, 8 to 18 years old, consume an average of
13 hours of media content a day, about 4.5 hours more than white
youth.
Minority youth spend one to two more hours a day than white
youth watching TV and videos, about an hour more listening to
music, as much as 90 minutes more on computers and 30 to 40 minutes
more playing video games, the researchers found.
Among the specific findings:
- TV viewing (including TV sets and technologies such as TiVo,
DVDs and mobile and online viewing) totaled 5 hours and 54 minutes
a day for blacks, 5 hours and 21 minutes for Hispanics, 4 hours and
41 minutes for Asians and 3 hours 36 minutes for whites.
- The average amount of time spent using cellphones, iPods and
other mobile devices to watch TV and videos, play games and listen
to music was 3 hours 7 minutes a day for Asians, 2 hours 53 minutes
for Hispanics, 2 hours 52 minutes for blacks and 1 hour 20 minutes
for whites.
- The average amount of recreational computer use was 2 hours 53
minutes a day for Asians, 1 hour 49 minutes for Hispanics, 1 hours
24 minutes for blacks and 1 hours 17 minutes for whites.
- The proportion of youth who use entertainment media "most of
the time" while doing homework was 35 percent among blacks and
Hispanics, 30 percent among Asians and 28 percent among
whites.
- Youth in all racial/ethnic groups spent 30 to 40 minutes a day
reading for pleasure.
"In the past decade, the gap between minority and white youth's daily media use has doubled for blacks and quadrupled for Hispanics," the study's director, Ellen Wartella, who heads Northwestern's Center on Media and Human Development, said in a university news release. "The big question is what these disparities mean for our children's health and education."
The study was scheduled to be presented Wednesday in Washington,
D.C., at the Lambert Family Communication Conference on Children,
Media and Race. Experts note that research presented at meetings
should be considered preliminary because it has not been subjected
to the rigorous scrutiny given to research published in
peer-reviewed journals.
More information
The Nemours Foundation explains
how TV affects children.