A new study from the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School says teens that watch more TV are more likely to become depressed adults.Here are the findings, as reported today by the LA Times' science section:
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School
looked at the media habits of 4,142 healthy adolescents and calculated
that each additional hour of TV watched per day boosted the odds of
becoming depressed by 8%. Other forms of media, such as playing computer games and watching
videos, didn't affect the risk of depression, according to the study
published today in the Archives of General Psychology.
Oh. But is that cause or effect? In other words, are depressed adolescents more likely to watch TV in the first place? Yeah, they thought of that.
The results don't prove that TV viewing itself causes depression, said
Dr. Brian Primack of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Research
on Health Care, who led the study. "It could be argued that people with
the predilection for later development of depression also happen to
have a predilection for watching lots of TV," he said.
Right. So we're cool, doctor? Uh, no:
When the subjects were initially surveyed in 1995, as junior high and
high school students, they watched TV for an average of 2.3 hours each
day. They also spent 37 minutes daily watching videocassettes, 25
minutes playing computer games and 2.3 hours listening to the radio.
In 2002, when the participants were interviewed again in their 20s, 308
of them met the criteria for depression, the study found. Teens who
became depressed had watched 22 more minutes of TV each day, on
average, compared with teens who did not. That dose-response
relationship suggests that the boob tube was at least partly to blame,
said Primack, a family practice physician.
Dammit. So, why?
Perhaps TV watching cut into time that could have been spent on
organized after-school activities and other pursuits thought to reduce
the risk of depression. TV watching also could have displaced sleep, which is important for cognitive and emotional growth. The programs and ads teens watched may have made them feel inadequate
and worthless, or they could have stirred feelings of anxiety and fear,
all of which contribute to depression, researchers said. Compared with other forms of media, TV may be particularly damaging
because it is so time-consuming, all-absorbing and laden with ads. If
that's true, Primack said, today's teens could be even more vulnerable.
But what about what that Brazilian judge said about TV being an essential good?
PREVIOUSLY:
Television Is An Essential Good
