DOES TELEVISION VIEWING AFFECT CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOUR?

Abstract

Using three-period panel data drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we investigate whether television (TV) viewing at ages 6-7 and 8-9 years affects children's social and behavioural development at ages 8-9 years. Dynamic panel data models are estimated to handle the unobserved child-specific factor, endogeneity of TV viewing, and the dynamic nature of the causal relation. Special emphasis is placed on this last aspect, focusing on how early TV viewing affects interim child behavioural problems and in turn affects future TV viewing. Overall, we find that TV viewing during ages 6-7 and 8-9 years increases child behavioural problems at ages 8-9 years, and that the effect is economically sizable.