Television Exposure and Neuropsychological Function among Infants: The Role of Maternal Employment

• In Event: Media and the Family

Abstract

We examined whether various forms of television viewing were related to infants' executive function (EF) and their declarative pointing behaviors, two indicators of neuropsychological function. We also explored whether and how these relations varied according to whether mothers worked outside of the home or not. With a national sample of 405 mothers of 12-18-month-old children, we found that maternal employment was related to infants' increased television viewing time, with increased exposure to commercial television predicting EF difficulty. In addition, television viewing was related to more EF difficulty among infants of employed mothers. In some cases, the results only held when employed mothers also had less income or less education. Most analyses involving declarative pointing were not significant. We discuss the possibility that maternal employment is particularly potent in shaping infants' television habits and outcomes and encourage continued work in this area to understand why.

Authors

• Amy Nathanson, Ohio State U

• Patrick T Fries, Ohio State U