TV - a Threat or a Complement To School?

The main purpose of this study is to examine relationships between children's TV use and their TV environment, on the one hand, and their school performance on the other. Children and their parents have been asked about their viewing habits, and parents have been asked about their attitudes and actions as regards their children's viewing habits. Data about school achievement and marks have also been collected. The study is longitudinal with data on 194 children from the age of six to the age of 12, which have been analysed with the aid of the Partial Least Squares method. Various connections between TV use and school results are demonstrated. For example, children who grow up in a more ‘cognizant’ TV environment, i.e. are encouraged to watch children's programmes for their age group and get help with assimilating the contents of a programme, also cope better with the cognitive requirements of school