|
 |
Nanette Shaw
A
newly published study by researchers at the City University of New York Graduate
Center on the effects of home computing on young children finds that those who
use computers at home do better on several cognitive tests, but also indicates
that children who use home computers for more than 8 hours per week have a
significantly higher body mass index than non-users of the same age.
The
research, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, was undertaken by
Professor Paul Attewell, along with Graduate Center colleagues Professor Juan
Battle and doctoral student Belkis Suazo-Garcia. The researchers analyzed time
diary data obtained from a nationally representative sample of 1680 school
children, aged 4 to 13. The diaries recorded children’s activities at ten minute
intervals for two days per week. The children also took a series of
age-standardized cognitive tests. Information was also collected on the
characteristics of the children’s families and on the children’s weight and
height.
The
researchers found different effects depending on whether a child was a moderate
user (under 8 hours per week) or a heavy user (8 or more hours per week) of home
computers. Moderate computer users scored significantly higher on three tests of
cognitive functioning (letter-word recognition, reading comprehension, and
mathematics calculations), than children with similar home backgrounds who did
not use a home computer. Moderate users also scored higher on a child’s measure
of self-esteem. Children who were moderate users of home computers were not
different in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI) than non-computer users. (The
analyses controlled for family income, parents education, parent’s reading
comprehension score, race, and poverty status.)
The
pattern for heavy users of home computers, who constituted only 2% of the
schoolchildren in the sample, was different than that for moderate computer
users. Heavy computer users did not have higher scores on any cognitive measures
or on self-esteem. However, children who used home computers for 8 or more hours
per week had a considerably higher Body Mass Index, than either non-users or
moderate users. They were, on average, 12 pounds heavier than children of
equivalent height and age.
The
researchers explored whether the BMI finding was due to less exercise. They
found that heavy use of home computers was associated with less time spent in
outside play and sports. Children who were heavy computer users spent about 3
hours less per week in outdoor play and sports than kids who didn’t have home
computers. (Moderate users of home computers spent as much time outdoors as
non-users.) But this was not the main cause of the association between heavy use
and body overweight, since heavy computer users had a significantly higher body
mass index, even after controlling statistically for their time spent in
exercise.
The
results were published in the September 2003 issue of the sociological journal
Social Forces (UNC Press) and can
be found on The Graduate Center’s website at www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/studies_index.htm
The
Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of
New York. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, The Graduate Center
draws its faculty of more than 1,600 members mainly from the CUNY senior
colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City.
Established in 1961, The Graduate Center has grown to an enrollment of about
3,900 students in 30 doctoral programs and six master's degree programs in the
humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Graduate Center also houses 28
research centers and institutes, administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program, and
offers a wide range of continuing education and cultural programs of interest to
the general public.
According to the most recent National Research Council report, more than a third
of The Graduate Center's rated Ph.D. programs rank among the nation's top 20 at
public and private institutions, nearly a quarter are among the top ten when
compared to publicly supported institutions alone, and more than half are among
the top five programs at publicly supported institutions in the northeast.
Further information on The Graduate Center's
programs and activities can be found on its website at: www.gc.cuny.edu. |