For about a third of high school age teenagers, "Screen Time" each week amounts to a full time job!
While most teenagers (60 percent) spend on average 20 hours per week in front of television and computer screens, a third spend closer to 40 hours per week, and about 7 percent are exposed to more than 50 hours of ‘screen-time’ per week, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association’s 48th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
Researchers looked at patterns of screen-time through high school, including total time viewing television, video, computer and the Internet. Then they examined the influence of neighborhood social factors on distinct patterns of screen-time.
“Boys and those whose parents had lower educational attainment were much more likely to be in the ‘high-screen time’ group,” said Tracie A. Barnett, Ph.D., lead author of the study. “Teens with high levels of screen time may be at increased risk of obesity.”
Barnett and colleagues identified distinct levels of screen-time for each of television/video and computer/Internet use. Overall, their study showed that:
* 52 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls reported average total screen-time levels above 42 hours per week;
* 52 percent of boys and 39 percent of girls reported average levels of TV/video use above 23 hours per week;
* 24 percent of boys and 7 percent of girls reported average levels of computer/Internet use of almost 30 hours per week.
Source: Labspaces.net
http://www.labspaces.net/view_news_comments.php?newsID=3883
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