Identifying household television practices to reduce children’s television time

The risks associated with children’s heavy television viewing justify television-reduction efforts. Targeting parents and the household environment provides a promising strategy for limiting television. Research has highlighted household television practices to reduce children’s viewing, but more work is needed to identify which practices are appropriate for television-reduction interventions. Using cross-sectional data from a random sample of parents of children aged 3-12 living in an urban American city (n = 360), we confirmed a positive association between four television practices (background television, television during meals, bedroom television, nighttime television viewing) and children’s average daily viewing. Race, parent education, and income moderated many of the relationships. In addition to identifying specific practices that are appropriate when targeting at-risk subgroups, results indicate that encouraging parents to reduce their children’s nighttime television viewing may be a promising direction for achieving healthier viewing amounts for children across developmental ages and demographic contexts.