1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The goal of this study is to better understand the processes likely to mediate the relationship between TV [television] viewing time and children’s RA [reading achievement].» (p. 2)

Questions/Hypothèses :
The authors hypothesize that «the time that 6-year-old children spend watching TV predicts the frequency of their leisure reading, the frequency of their interaction with their parents, their IM [intrinsic motivation] to read and the level of inattention at the age of 8.» (p. 4)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The data came from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD). The QLSCD targeted the population of children who were born in Québec between 1997 and 1998.» (p. 5) «Québec longitudinal study of child development contained data concerning 2223 children aged between 5 and 6 months at the time of recruitment. This sample was made up of 48.8% of females.» (p. 5)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«First, only the leisure reading frequency was negatively associated with TV viewing time at 6 years old, however, this negative association was very small and had no indirect effect on RA at 10 years old. Second, relationships between TV viewing time at 6 years old and our mediating variables at age 9 and RA at age 10 did not vary across genders. Therefore, our results do not corroborate the substitution and inhibition hypotheses, nor do they corroborate our hypothesis proposing that TV viewing would be more detrimental to boys’ RA than to the one of girls.» (p. 12) In addition, «children who read at night before sleep when their parents make sure that they cannot watch TV would not see time they spend on this activity decrease if they are more exposed to TV in afternoon. Thus, children who watch more TV are not doing this activity at the expense of the time they spend leisure reading or interacting with their parents.» (p. 12) Overall, the results of this study TV show that «TV viewing time is statistically significantly associated with RA at 7 and 10 years old, as well as inattention, leisure reading frequency, and the frequency of parent-child interactions at 6 years old.» (p. 10)