TV Study
The limited success of current interventions designed to restrict TV viewing highlights that alternative approaches are required. Similar research that has been carried out with food shows that restricting an item only enhances its desirability, which is not the case if the food is not there in the first place. It might be the case that removing the TV offers a simpler alternative than trying to restrict children’s viewing, an approach that has not been tried so far.
In 2008 focus groups were undertaken with 58 children and 22 parents. These focus groups helped to find out how television fits into families’ lifestyles and what it would take to persuade children and their parents to remove the TV(s) from their homes for a short period of time.
The overall aim of this pilot study is to determine the impact of removing TVs for 4 weeks in order to assess the effects on family functioning/interaction and to find out how families dealt with no TV in their home.
We would like to compare the self-reported effect of removing TVs in two (2) groups of families
1) those who have their TV(s) removed
2) those who have their TV(s) removed as well as being provided with incentives and alternative activities
Once the TV(s) are returned to the families, another assessment will be made to determine whether families perceived any benefit from such a move and introduced new rules/restrictions surrounding television viewing in their homes.
Funding:
Lottery Health Researc of New Zealand
