Does Children's Screen Time Predict Requests for Advertised Products?

OBJECTIVE: To examine children's screen media exposure and requests for advertised toys and food/drinks. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Twelve elementary schools in northern California. PARTICIPANTS: Eight hundred twenty-seven third grade children participated at baseline; 386 students in 6 schools were followed up for 20 months. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Child self-reported requests for advertised toys and foods/drinks. RESULTS: At baseline, children's screen media time was significantly associated with concurrent requests for advertised toys (Spearman r = 0.15 TV viewing and r = 0.20 total screen time; both P<.001) and foods/drinks (Spearman r = 0.16 TV viewing and r = 0.18 total screen time; both P<.001). In prospective analysis, children's screen media time at baseline was significantly associated with their mean number of toy requests 7 to 20 months later (Spearman r = 0.21 TV viewing and r = 0.24 total screen time; both P<.001) and foods/drinks requests (Spearman r = 0.14 TV viewing and r = 0.16 total screen time; both P<.01). After adjusting for baseline requests and sociodemographic variables, the relationship between screen media exposure and future requests for advertised foods/drinks remained significant for total TV viewing and total screen media exposure. The relationship with future requests for toys remained significant for total screen media exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Screen media exposure is a prospective risk factor for children's requests for advertised products. Future experimental studies on children's health- and consumer-related outcomes are warranted.