What do TV viewing habits reveal about adolescents’ emotional states?

"Pretty Persuasion" - Samuel Goldwyn Films, 2005

TV watching a social act with peers, not so with family members

Adolescents are relaxed when they are watching TV and are more likely to watch it when they are alone or with family than when they are with peers, according to a study by the Center on Media and Child Health, Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical Center.  

For one week the students carried PDAs programmed with an electronic real-time assessment system that signaled them 4-6 times daily during non-school waking hours. When signaled, the students completed a questionnaire on what activity they were most focused on, and if they were watching TV they recorded the type of content, and whether they were watching alone, with family, or with friends. They were also asked to describe and rate their feelings on a 1 to 5 scale, and their level of relaxation.

Responding to 575 signals over the course of the week, students said they were watching TV with family 114 times, alone 53 times, and with friends 30 times.  The adolescents reported a lower positive effect while watching comedy shows than they did the other types of programming.  

In their analysis the authors suggested that the participants were less likely to watch TV while with peers because of fundamental differences between peer and family relationships during adolescence. Peer relationships move to the forefront during adolescence while family relationships become more stressful during those years, according to the authors.

It isn’t clear why adolescents recorded a higher negative emotion while watching comedy programs. The authors suggest that young people may use comedy programming as a way to "reduce the stress of social interactions."

The study was supported by the Aerosmith Endowment Fund and a LEAH training grant and presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Reference:

Bickham DS, Rich M. Is television viewing associated with social isolation? Roles of exposure time, viewing context, and violent content. Arch Pediatric Med. 2006:160(4):387-392.