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Kids Pick Up TV Watching Habits From Parents

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Do you watch too much television? If you do, it probably means that you are more likely to have children who do the same. This is the conclusion of an Annenberg media environment study where researchers from the University of Pennsylvania reviewed online national surveys from over fifteen hundred parents with children ages 17-years-old or younger.

When the parents were studied it was found that the average set spent four hours daily watching television. But when they studied the entire family they found that the time parents spent on watching television was a stronger predictor of how long their children spent watching TV, more so than other factors such as having a TV in the bedroom, number of televisions in the home and parental restrictions on TV watching.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says kids should watch television less than two hours daily. Too much TV is associated with issues such as obesity, poor sleep, limited physical activity and poor academic achievement.

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