The Displacement Effect: Assessing the Relation between Television Viewing and Reading Performance

TELEVISION'S implications for reading performance and school achievement are examined within the framework of the displacement hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that watching television may affect students' reading achievement by displacing other activities crucial to the development of reading skills, such as leisure reading. A synthesis of eight statewide reading assessments and a secondary analysis of the 1984 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which included measures of scholastic achievement, out-of-school activities, and reported television viewing exposure, are used to analyze four theories of displacement: that television displaces activities with functional similarity, activities in physical and psychological proximity, marginal fringe activities, and activities that have become less appealing due to reorganization of the child's functional needs with age. Results indicate that the differences in reading scores for those students watching 2-4 hours per day are small, but that beyond 4 hours of viewing, the effects are negative and increasingly more deleterious. Analysis of outside activities suggests that television viewing is tied to a different set of needs and gratifications than leisure reading, sports, or spending time with friends. Small but negative relations are reported between television viewing and homework activities. For the vast majority of children, however, time spent television viewing is tempered by the increasing demands of schooling and the onset of social activities as children grow older.