The goal of this research was to study whether a fast-paced television show immediately influences preschool-aged children's executive function (eg, self-regulation, working memory).
Sixty 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to watch a fast-paced television cartoon or an educational cartoon or draw for 9 minutes. They were then given 4 tasks tapping executive function, including the classic delay-of-gratification and Tower of Hanoi tasks. Parents completed surveys regarding television viewing and child's attention.
Children who watched the fast-paced television cartoon performed significantly worse on the executive function tasks than children in the other 2 groups when controlling for child attention, age, and television exposure.
Just 9 minutes of viewing a fast-paced television cartoon had immediate negative effects on 4-year-olds' executive function. Parents should be aware that fast-paced television shows could at least temporarily impair young children's executive function.
Comments
RE: The Immediate Impact of Different Types of Television on Young Children's Executive Function
I noticed one huge flaw in the method of testing these effects. The sample size is too small to provide accurate data and makes the headline and conclusion seem like it is thoroughly tested and has been repeated many times(you know the actual scientific method). Instead it had a sample size of 20 kids and at that point it is just luck of the draw of what skill level the kids that are picked are. That is like saying after listening to 3 types of music groups of 20 kids were asked to write their name and hip hop/rap had the most negative effect on children. It is not a correct experimental procedure due to the small sample size and could easily be skewed depending on whether kids who can write are actually picked to emanate the general populous. That is not scientific research, because it is luck of the draw and if the results said that a thing that parents hate was not the cause the research would have been thrown out. Neither is this.
Commentary
The article Does breastfeeding protect against substantiated child abuse and neglect? A 15-year cohort study, discusses a study conducted in Brisbane, Australia that attempts to discover if breastfeeding reduces or prevents maternal child maltreatment. The researchers of this study hypothesized, “. . . that the absence of breastfeeding during the infant’s first 6 months of life would independently predict maternally perpetrated child maltreatment” (Strathearn, Mamun, Najman & O’Callaghan, 2009, p.484). This study was longitudinal, beginning with the initial derivation of the birth cohort in 1981 through 1984, and then the children and mothers were monitored for the next fifteen to twenty years and in September 2000 government reports of child maltreatment were obtained and reviewed.
Going back to the hypothesis, the researchers of this study reported from previous studies that, “Breastfeeding may enhance maternal responsiveness by stimulating oxytocin release, which is associated with reduced anxiety and elevated mood, a blunted physiological stress response, and more-attuned patterns of maternal behavior. . .” (Strathearn, Mamun, Najman & O’Callaghan, 2009, p. 484). This association between the effects of oxytocin and maternal mood are believed to reduce and possibly prevent child maltreatment. If a mother decides not to breastfeed they will not receive the mood effectors of oxytocin and are therefore more likely to experience stress, frustration, and anxiety which can all be taken out on their infant or young child.
The results of this study show a strong correlation between the amount of time spent breastfeeding and the presence or absence of maternal perpetrated child maltreatment. Mothers who breastfed for more than four months were the least likely to neglect, emotionally abuse or physically abuse their children; while mothers who did not breastfeed at all were 6.3 times more likely to neglect their child, 4.3 times more likely to use emotional abuse, and 2.6 times more likely to physically abuse their child (Strathearn, Mamun, Najman & O’ Callaghan, 2009). It is made very clear that breastfeeding is not the only cause of child maltreatment, there are other confounding factors that can attribute to child abuse and neglect; the point of this study was to shed light on the idea that breastfeeding can strengthen the bond between the mother and infant which can potentially reduce the risk of maternal perpetrated child maltreatment.
I was interested in this article topic because as an aspiring Occupational Therapy student I am extremely interested in the field of home based early intervention age zero to five years old, and this article fell within the perfect age group because I am especially interested in working with infants. This article addressed the important matter of the mother and infant bond that takes place during breast feeding and how this bond may shape their relationship for years to come. While working in a home based setting it is essential that the parent(s) care about and are involved in the infants’ development, because without the parents’ involvement and support the infant will not grow and develop as they normally would. I was also interested in this article topic because I personally feel breastfeeding is an extremely beneficial experience for both the mother and the infant; the eye contact and the close intimate distance between the two are all contributing factors in the eternal bond that a mother and infant share.
This article relates to current healthcare through its use of evidence based practice; there were no treatments used in this study, instead this study was designed to attempt to find a method to reduce child maltreatment through infant breastfeeding. Evidence based practice involves three main components; client preference and collaboration, clinical expertise, and empirical research which is either qualitative or quantitative. From this article, an example of client preference and collaboration is how the participants, in this case the parents, were invited to participate in the study; they had the choice to take part and if they chose to do so, they had to fill out self-administered questionnaires at three different times throughout the study. Through this process the parents were collaborating with the researchers in completing this study but the parents always had the option to take part in the study or not. An example of clinical expertise is how the researchers in this study were extremely proficient in gathering participants, information, and keeping the confidentiality of the participants of up most importance. They obtained participants through basic invitations at prenatal clinical visits, the information was gathered through questionnaires and longitudinal observation and the researchers assigned identification numbers to link their database to the database of a government child protection agency in order to protect the participants’ confidentiality. This study was a longitudinal quantitative study; for example the study was conducted over a fifteen to twenty year period and the researchers used a multinomial regression analysis to, “. . . compare associations between breastfeeding duration, confounding variables, and the different maltreatment categories” (Strathearn, Mamun, Najman & O’Callaghan, 2009).
An additional article to support the importance of breastfeeding is the, Effects of demographic and household variables on infant and child under-five mortality: an application of logistic model. This article continued to stress the importance of breastfeeding but not to highlight the bond between mother and infant; instead this study stressed the importance of breastfeeding for the infants’ overall health. This article supports the first article in the fact that there are many other confounding factors that will affect an infants’ health; such as the mothers’ marital age, household conditions, birth order, birth interval and breastfeeding (Hossain & Islam, 2009). I feel there is a connection between the environment in which a family lives in and the treatment between family members; if a home environment is full of stress, chaos, and unhappiness these feelings can be projected onto an infant in the form of neglect, instead of projecting the nurturing act that is associated with breastfeeding.
There is also the factor of the mothers’ age, if a woman has a child at a young age for example sixteen years old, the chances of her being fully prepared to take care of an infant may be significantly lower than that of a woman who has a child at twenty-five years old. Preparedness can impact how well a mother takes care of her infant, if she is relatively young there is the possibility she is not fully educated in raising a child or in the benefits of breastfeeding. The second article supports that not only can breastfeeding be associated with maternal perpetrated maltreatment but it also shares a negative correlation with infant mortality. According to Hossain and Islam, “. . . infant mortality for the respondents whose breastfeeding is 12-24 and 25+ months there are 0.275 and 0.001 times less risk than that of respondents whose breastfeeding is less than 12 months” (2009). Both articles support breastfeeding for different reasons and both articles have strong support as to why breastfeeding is beneficial for infants and their well being.
This article implies breastfeeding as being a component in the absence or presence of maternal perpetrated child maltreatment; the significance this article has on the implications for the future in the healthcare practice is that there are a variety of possibilities as to why a mother may neglect or abuse their child and this article implies that as healthcare professionals it is vital to look at all possible causes even in the earliest stages of infant development. In the future of healthcare practice, this article can be applied to educate parents on the significance breastfeeding has on the mother-infant relationship. Through this application there may be a decrease in the number of cases of maternal perpetrated child maltreatment.
References Hossain, M.M., Islam, M.R. (2009). Effects of demographic and household variables on infant and child under-five mortality: an application of logistic model. Internet Journal of Health, 8(2). Retrieved March 15, 2009 from the CINAHL Databse. Strathearn, L., Mamun, A.A., Najman, J.M., O’Callaghan, M.J. (2009). Does breastfeeding protect against substantiated child abuse and neglect? A 15-year cohort study. Pediatrics, 123, 483-493.
Conflict of Interest:
None declared