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

Abstract

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 (Spearmanr = 0.15 [TV viewing] andr = 0.20 [total screen time]; bothP<.001) and foods/drinks (Spearmanr = 0.16 [TV viewing] andr = 0.18 [total screen time]; bothP<.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 (Spearmanr = 0.21 [TV viewing] and r = 0.24 [total screen time]; bothP<.001) and foods/drinks requests (Spearmanr = 0.14 [TV viewing] and r = 0.16 [total screen time]; bothP<.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.