
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133036
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BRENDA C. COLEMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                 LENGTH: Medium

KIDS WATCH MORE PBS WHEN LEFT ALONE THAN WHEN SUPERVISED, STUDY FINDS

Young children left to themselves watch more educational television than when their parents watch with them, says a new study that looked at scores of working-class households in California.

"These findings suggest that children prefer PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) over commercial networks, but when children and parents view TV together, they watch the commercial channels that the parents prefer," the study said.

It supported previous findings that preschool children watch about 25 hours of television a week, watch fewer hours after they start school and are usually unsupervised by parents in their programming choices, authors said.

"The important thing to me is that the attitude that parents set up in relation to television in the home seems to have an impact on what children will watch and how much they watch," said Dr. Howard L. Taras, lead author and assistant pediatrics professor at the University of California at San Diego.

"Children of parents who regard television more as a babysitter or distraction will watch more TV," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Also, children of parents who regard television more as an educational tool will watch more PBS, he said.

The study found children viewed more PBS programming in households where television was not routinely being used as entertainment, parents were not viewing TV with the youngsters more than 50 percent of the time, and children had a strong influence on program selection.

The study was based on interviews with working-class English-and Spanish-speaking parents from households that totaled 66 children ages 3 to 8 in a suburban San Diego community. Findings were published in the March issue of the American Medical Association's American Journal of Diseases of Children.

"I hope beyond hope that they're right, but I can't quite believe it," said Peggy Charron, president of Action for Children's Television, a child advocacy group based in Cambridge, Mass.

And yet, she said, the findings make sense because preschoolers "like public broadcasting. . . . They relate to Mr. Rogers because he's talking to them, and they really get to know him and - as much as possible through the medium of television - get to love him," she said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"He's like a substitute parent. And they love Sesame Street. . . . I can't imagine what they get out of commercial broadcasting. It's so noisy and fast, and peculiar and violent."

Gary Selnow, a visiting professor of communications studies at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., agreed with the speculation of the study's authors: "If the parents are watching with the kids, there may be sort of subtle pressure for parents to encourage the kids to watch something that would also be of interest to the parents."

But he refused to "jump" on network television.

Commercial programs promote many of society's most laudable values - "people who help each other are the ones who succeed. Problems are resolved by hard work," he said in a telephone interview.

The study did not single out particular programs from commercial or public television.

Taras said the group plans to follow up on its findings with more detailed research.

by CNB