Psychosocial predictors of heavy television viewing among preadolescents and adolescents

This article describes 3 general theoretical orientations regarding the psychosocial determinants of children's television viewing habits. A series of specific hypotheses are then tested via multiple regression analyses of data from 23 large-scale representative sample surveys. Consistent with the need satisfaction perspective, television-viewing frequency was related to social integration with peers, intelligence, book reading, and the hostility of parental punishment methods. Among preadolescents, television viewing was positively related to time spent with parents in families where parent-child coviewing is common, but among preadolescents who rarely coview and among all adolescents, parent child contact was unrelated to viewing time. Frequency of interpersonal conflict with parents was also unrelated to television exposure. Consistent with the parental influence perspective, amount of viewing was associated with parental values for self-direction and with the imposition of rules restricting viewing. And consistent with the resource availability perspective, television viewing was related to the amount of time spent working at after-school jobs but, surprisingly, not to family income. The strengths of some of these relations varied according to age. Implications of these findings regarding the psychosocial determinants of media exposure and regarding child development are discussed.