The impact of socio-economic background on the association between television viewing and developmental outcomes among young Australian children
Jude Brown
University of New England
Contact Email:   Jude.brownune.edu.au

The impact of television viewing on young children has received considerable attention. On the one hand television viewing is promoted as an important educational and recreational tool particularly as it enables parents to engage in other tasks while children remain occupied. On the other hand television viewing has been identified as being potentially deleterious to young children’s neurological, cognitive, social and physical development. One potentially important mechanism by which television is thought to impact negatively on children’s development is through the displacement of other developmentally important activities such as reading or play. However, it is well known that outcomes for children differ quite markedly depending on their social economic background. Thus the relationships between television viewing and child outcomes may differ between different social strata.

Using time use data from Waves 1 and 2 of the Longitudinal study of Australian Children (LSAC), this study seeks to examine the associations between developmentally important activities and television use among young Australian children and in turn consider how these activities impact upon key developmental outcomes.

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