Television Access and the Slowing of Cognitive Growth

Despite recent public furor on the matter, the best research on the effects of home television use on school performance suggests but does not establish a small negative effect. The present research considers the effects of television use on growth in reading skills and general ability as well as on classroom achievement among El Salvadoran children in grades seven to nine. We examined the effects of television access (in particular the effect of recent acquisition of a TV set) on each of three separate cohorts of students over a two- to three-year period. There was no obvious effect on short-term achievement. There were, however, consistent negative effects on reading improvement for all three cohorts, and a significant negative effect on general ability growth for one.