Television Presents Children with Numerous Options When It Comes to Their Diet

Journal of the Northwest Communication Association

Influence of Parental Control of Television Viewing on Children’s Attitudes and Behaviors of Food Annie M . Ochsenhirt Palo Alto, California

Sei-Hill Kim Auburn University

Speculation abounds concerning the relationship of watching television and dietary habits among school children, and researchers have found sparse evidence to draw direct linkages between viewing television and poor eating habits. This study attempts to fill some gaps in the research by examining how parental controls, family rules and attention to commercials influence poor eating and misconceptions about healthy foods among children. After surveying 247 children from ages 10 to 14, the researchers found that amount of TV viewing was associated with unhealthy food choices. While much has been written about the efficacy of family rules that restrict viewing, the researchers found that parental controls about TV were only marginally influential on children’s food attitudes and behaviors.

k e y t e r m s : advertising , m e d i a e f f e c t s , n u t r i t i o n , t e l e v i s i o n

Television presents children with numerous options when it comes to their diet. The food industry spends an estimated $33 billion each year

Annie M. Ochsenhirt is a graduate of Communication Studies at Saint Mary’s College. She is currently in visual merchandising and sales at Anthropologie, a division of Urban Outfitters, Inc., in Palo Alto, California. The paper is an extension of her comprehensive research conducted under the supervision of Professor Kim.

Sei-Hill Kim (Ph.D., Cornell University) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University. Professor Kim’s research interests are in political communication, public health and public relations. He can be reached at: kimseih@ auburn.edu.

10 Influence of Parental Control of Television Viewing… on advertising and promotion, targeting children with snacks and meals (Raeburn, Forster, Foust & Brady, 2002). The popularity of television advertising has coincided with a large increase in child obesity in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion (2003), the proportion of overweight children and adolescents has risen from about 5% to 15% over the last three decades. Watching television can be related to weight gain for a number of reasons (see Jenvey, 2007, for an overview). First, time spent with television displaces physical activity and thus reduces energy expenditure (Robin- son, Hammer & Killen, 1993). Second, children snack frequently while watching television; and the snacks they consume are high in fat, salt and sugar (Vessey, Yim-Chiplis & MacKenzie, 1998). Third, television viewing may reduce children’s metabolic rates, even more than sleeping does, contributing to weight gain (Klesges, Shelton & Klesges, 1993). We argue that television viewing promotes unhealthy food choices. Much of television programming targeting children contains a large number of food commercials, most of which promote such unhealthy options as soda, candy and junk snacks (Kotz & Story, 1994). These commercial messages influence children to make unhealthy food choices (see, for example, Gorn & Goldberg, 1982; Taras, Zive, Nader, Berry, Hoy, & Boyd, 2000). Television viewing therefore encourages children to request and consume the foods advertised, promoting unhealthy eating habits (Boynton-Jarrett, Thomas, Peterson, Wiecha, Sobol, & Gortmaker, 2003). If television is a contributing factor, parents may be able to reduce children’s unhealthy eating by restricting their television viewing. The American Academy of Pediatrics (2003) has advocated restricting television viewing as an important strategy to curb unhealthy eating habits. Ballen and Moles (1994) also found that the majority (76%) of parents in their study would like to restrict children’s television viewing. Little research effort, however, has been made to examine whether restricting television viewing is related to unhealthy eating.

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This study looks at the influence of parental controls and family rules about television on children’s food consumption. We first explore mecha- nisms through which television may promote unhealthy food choices. We then discuss how parental control, children’s television viewing and unhealthy eating are linked to one another. Using a survey of fifth through seventh graders, we assess the extent to which parental control of television viewing might curb unhealthy eating.

Literature Review

Effects of Television Viewing on Unhealthy Eating. How does television viewing promote unhealthy eating? Researchers have targeted food commercials on television as being responsible, at least in part, for producing such a negative effect (e.g., Boynton-Jarrett et al., 2003; Taras, Sallis, Patterson, Nader & Nelson, 1989). Children are exposed to about 40,000 commercials a year (Kunkel, 2001) and about a half of them are for food (Taras & Gage, 1995). More importantly, the majority of foods advertised on television are fatty, salty, sweet and low in fiber, whereas references to fruits and dairy products are marginal (Byrd-Bredbenner & Grasso, 1999; Kotz & Story, 1994). In order to be fully persuasive, advertisers use a number of appeals particularly designed to attract children. Macklin and Carlson (1999) argued that the very structure of television commercials matches the cognitive abilities of young children. The use of simplicity, attention- grabbing graphics and repetition are all implemented to entice young viewers. Most commercials do not use nutrition as a claim, but instead employ other convincing appeals including humor, happiness, novelty, cheerful music and a free toy (Barcus, 1977; Kunkel & Ganz, 1992; Macklin & Carlson, 1999). Advertisers often use cartoon characters to sell their products. Commercials that portray popular characters eating or drinking a product may entice children to imitate the behavior by purchasing and consuming the same product (Fischer, Schwartz, Richards, Goldstein &

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Rojas, 1991). As social learning theory predicts, food commercials can play an important role in forming children’s eating behavior particularly when the behavior is followed by rewarding consequences, such as a prize, a delicious flavor or happiness (Bandura & Walters, 1963). Is viewing food commercials indeed linked to unhealthy food choices? Taras, Zive, Nader, Berry, Hoy and Boyd (2000) reported that there was a significant correlation between the frequency of foods advertised on television and the number of times they were requested by children. From a study of households with children aged between 2 and 6, Bolton (1983) found that exposure to food advertising was associated with a small but statistically significant increase in food snacking and caloric intake. In an experimental setting, Gorn and Goldberg (1982) demonstrated that repeated exposure to food commercials affected children’s beverage and snack choices. If commercials influence food choices, it is reasonable to assume that television viewing leads to unhealthy eating, given the prevalence of unhealthy foods advertised on television. Studies provided considerable support for the link between television viewing and unhealthy eating, a possible consequence of exposure to food commercials. Taras, Sallis, Pat- terson, Nader and Nelson (1989) found that weekly television viewing was significantly associated with children’s caloric intake and their request for specific foods advertised on television. In a recent study, Boynton- Jarrett et al. (2003) found that television viewing was linked to decreased consumption of fruits and vegetables among adolescents. Children who watch more television are necessarily exposed to a larger number of food commercials. The amount of television viewing (e.g., daily viewing hours), therefore, can be an approximate measure of exposure to food commercials. Nevertheless, a large amount of television viewing does not necessarily mean paying close attention to commercials. In addition to testing the effect of overall television viewing (daily viewing hours), our study employs a direct measure of attention to food commercials and examines its relationship to unhealthy eating.

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Effects of Television Viewing on Misconceptions about Food. Television viewing not only promotes unhealthy eating, but also may contribute to misconceptions about nutrition (e.g., Signorielli & Lears, 1992; Signorielli & Staples, 1997). That is, children who watch more television are more likely to develop inaccurate food conceptions. Food commercials on television are responsible, at least in part, for inaccurate nutritional knowledge. Many food commercials contain misleading messages about the nutritional value of their products (Boynton-Jarrett et al., 2003). According to Kotz and Story (1994), about 49% of food commercials present implicit messages that their foods are either healthy or nutritious. Barcus (1977) reported that more than 90% of cereal advertisements claimed their products were part of “balanced” or “complete” breakfast. Through advertisements, children are constantly assured that eating the promoted products is a good idea, even though it is known that over half the products advertised on television are unhealthy (Signorielli, 1990). Adler (1978) reported that more than three-quarters of children in his study called sweets, such as cookies, candy, cake and ice cream, “good” snacks and a quarter of them cited the sweets as “especially good for you or your health” (p.105). Unhealthy foods are so common in advertising that children may develop a misconception that these foods are healthy or at least accept- able (Adler, 1978; Signorielli & Staples, 1997). Children’s repeated exposure to food commercials, therefore, may produce inaccurate food conceptions. Television entertainment and commercial viewing may also produce a false impression about the consequences of unhealthy eating. In both commercials and television shows, unhealthy foods are easy to find, whereas unhealthy or obese people are not (Gerbner, Morgan & Signorielli, 1982). Children can develop unrealistic expectations of the consequences of unhealthy eating because they see television characters eat unwholesome foods, yet remain healthy and thin (Boynton-Jarrett et al., 2003; Signorielli & Staples, 1997).

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Children’s inaccurate food conceptions raise many serious concerns. Most importantly, misconceptions about nutrition can lead to greater consumption of unhealthy foods. With only a few exceptions (Signorielli & Lears, 1992; Signorielli & Staples, 1997), little research effort has been made to test the idea that television viewing promotes misconceptions about what is healthy and what is not.

Parental Control of Television Viewing and Children’s Eat- ing Habits. Researchers have long studied the role of parental mediation in preventing television-induced negative consequences, such as aggression (Nathanson, 1999), materialism (Ward & Wackman, 1971) and alcohol use (Austin, Pinkleton & Fujioka, 2000). Various types of television mediation can be categorized into three distinct but related styles (Nathanson, 1999). The first style, restrictive mediation, refers to setting explicit rules for television viewing or prohibiting children from viewing certain content. Children living with such rules watch less television and therefore experi- ence less negative effects (e.g., Krosnick, Anand & Hartl, 2003). Another style, active mediation, refers to discussing certain aspects of programs with children. Talking about undesirable effects of television viewing or explaining how unrealistic certain programs are, parents can help children acquire a critical stance toward television and become less vulnerable to its negative effects (Nathanson, 1999). Co-viewing is the third style of television mediation. Watching television with children has a number of positive effects, such as political socialization (Austin & Pinkleton, 2001), increased enjoyment of the co-viewed materials (Wilson & Weiss, 1993) and enhanced learning from educational programs (Salomon, 1977).

Current Study

Our study examines the influence of parental control of television viewing in reducing children’s unhealthy eating. We first explore different parental control strategies, looking at how strongly they are related to the amount

15 Journal of the Northwest Communication Association

of television viewing. We then examine how television viewing is linked to children’s conceptions of what is healthy and, more importantly, to their consumption of unhealthy foods. Three specific strategies will be examined, beginning with access to TV. Perhaps one of the most effective ways to limit television viewing is to prevent children from viewing TV in their bedrooms, and research shows that more than a half (56%) of American children ages 8 to 16 have a television in their bedroom (Woodard & Gridina, 2000). Another effective way to monitor television is to restrict viewing during mealtimes. One national survey, for example, found that about 40% of families often or always watch television while eating dinner (Gentile & Walsh, 1999). Finally, we examine the effectiveness of having family rules about when children are allowed to watch television. Warren (2003) showed that American parents use restrictions more frequently than other styles of television mediation (i.e., co-viewing and active mediation), probably because a viewing rule in general takes less time and effort than co-viewing a program or talking about it with children.

Hypotheses and Research Question.

Our study postulates a number of direct and indirect associations: parental control will be linked to the amount of television viewing, which is in turn linked to children’s conceptions about food and their food choices. We first examine whether there is a negative relationship between parental control and the amount of television viewing: Hypothesis 1: Parental control will be negatively associated with the amount of children’s television viewing. Our second set of hypotheses examines the effect of television viewing on food choices. In addition to testing the effect of overall television viewing (daily viewing hours), we employ a direct measure of attention to food commercials and examine its relationship to unhealthy eating: Hypothesis 2a: Children’s television viewing will be positively associated with the consumption of unhealthy foods.

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Hypothesis 2b: Children’s attention to food commercials will be positively associated with the consumption of unhealthy foods. Television viewing may promote unhealthy eating not only directly but also indirectly by shaping children’s assessment of what is considered healthy and what is not. That is, television viewing contributes to misconceptions about food, which in turn are related to greater consumption of unhealthy foods. We tested the following hypotheses to examine the indirect effects of television viewing, i.e., the effects being mediated by misconceptions about food: Hypothesis 3a: Children’s television viewing will be positively associated with misconceptions about food. Hypothesis 3b: Children’s attention to food commercials will be positively associated with misconceptions about food. Hypothesis 4: Misconceptions about food will be positively associated with the consumption of unhealthy foods. If television promotes unhealthy food choices, parents may be able to curb children’s unhealthy eating by restricting television viewing. How effective is parental control of television viewing in reducing unhealthy eating? We ask the following research question to examine the extent to which parents, by restricting television viewing, may reduce the likelihood that children will develop unhealthy eating habits: Research Question: To what extent does parental control of television viewing reduce children’s consumption of unhealthy foods?

Methods

Data for this study came from a convenience sample of fifth through seventh graders enrolled at two schools in two Midwest cities. We chose this particular age group for two reasons. First, there is evidence that many pre and early teens do not fully understand the selling intent of advertising, sug- gesting that they can be highly affected by commercial messages (Macklin &

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Carlson, 1999). Second, we believe that these children are mature enough to answer a self-administered survey reliably.1 Fifth through seventh graders can be considered to be mature enough to understand survey questions, yet still young enough to be susceptible to advertising messages. A total of 700 questionnaires was delivered to the schools in October, 2003 and in February, 2004. Students filled out the survey at home and returned it to their teacher within ten days of receiving it. Of the questionnaires delivered, 247 were completed and returned for a response rate of 35.3%.2 Among those surveyed, 54.5% were girls and 45.5% were boys. Students’ ages ranged between 10 and 14, with an average of 12.29 years (SD = .87).3 We measured Unhealthy Food Consumption with four items asking how often students ate pizza, French fries and ice cream and how often they drank soda pop (never = 1, rarely = 2; sometimes = 3, often = 4, very often = 5). Means for the items are as follows: pizza (M = 3.49, SD = .88), French fries (M = 3.42, SD = .92), ice cream (M = 3.32, SD = 1.02) and soda pop (M = 3.71, SD = 1.10).4 These four measures were then combined into an additive index, which was sufficiently reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = .70). Higher scores on this measure indicate greater frequency of consuming unhealthy food. Misconceptions about food were also measured with four food items (pizza, French fries, ice cream and soda). Students were asked to rate each as very unhealthy (1), somewhat unhealthy (2), neither healthy or nor unhealthy (3), somewhat health (4) or very healthy (5). Means are as follows: pizza (M = 2.54, SD = .82), French fries (M = 2.08, SD = 1.89), ice cream (M = 2.45, SD = .07) and soda pop (M = 1.71, SD = .83). These four items were again combined into a single additive index (Cronbach’s alpha = .71). Higher scores indicated that children were more likely to have misconceptions about nutrition, falsely believing the foods asked were healthy or healthier than they actually were. Children’s television viewing was measured with a number of items tapping into the overall amount of television viewing, exposure to different channels and the amount of attention paid to food advertisements. In

18 Influence of Parental Control of Television Viewing… order to measure the overall amount of television exposure (Daily View- ing Hours), we asked children how many hours and minutes of television they watch each day (“On average, how much TV do you watch per day?”). Average viewing was 3 hours and 14 minutes. We also asked children how often they watchedMTV , the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Fox Family (never = 1, rarely = 2; sometimes = 3, often = 4, very often = 5). Mean responses are as follows: MTV (M = 2.83, SD = 1.39), Disney Channel (M = 3.39, SD = 1.26), Nickelodeon (M = 3.06, SD = 1.18) and Fox Family (M = 2.70, SD = 1.12).5 Finally, we measured children’s attention to food advertisements by asking how much attention they paid to food commercials when they watched television (none = 1; a little = 2; some = 3; a lot = 4; constant = 5). Overall mean response was 2.59 (SD = 1.17).6 Three items were used to measure parental control of television viewing. We first asked children whether or not they had a television in their bedrooms, and the responses were dummy coded (yes = 0, no = 1) for the variable labeled TV in Bedroom. About 66% responded yes while 34% answered no. We also asked children whether they had a rule as to when they could or could not watch television. About 52% said they have no rules, while 48% said they do have such rules. This variable TV( Rule) was also dummy coded, with (yes = 1, no = 0). Finally, children were asked how often they watched television viewing during mealtime. Answer choices included the following: very often (1), often (2), sometimes (3), rarely (4) and never (5). Overall mean response was 2.76 (SD = 1.39). For all three parental control variables, higher scores indicated greater restrictions on television viewing. Findings

Our first hypothesis predicted a negative relationship between parental control and children’s television viewing. In order to predict the measures of television viewing, we used the following dependent variables: an aggregate measure of daily viewing hours and viewing of four channels

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(MTV, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Fox Family). We also included a measurement that tapped into attention to food ads. We regressed the six dependent variables on independent variables that included three measures of parental control (TV in Bedroom, TV Rule and TV during Meal). Control variables included age and gender. Six hierarchical regressions were run in two stages: the control variables (age and gender) were entered first, followed by the block of parental controls (TV in Bedroom, TV Rule and TV during Meal). As illustrated in Table 1, the independent variables contributed about 10% of the variance on the Daily Viewing Hours. For MTV Viewing, 20% of the variance was explained; for Disney Channel Viewing, 8% of the variance was explained; for Nickelodeon viewing 5% of the variance was accounted for; and for Fox Family Viewing, 4% of the variance was explained. The same variables explained about 2% of the variance on Attention to Food Ads. Taking a closer look at specific relationships, we found that the variableTV during Meal had a statistically significant negative relationship to the dependent variable, Daily Viewing Hours. The standardized regression coefficient (β), an indicator of how strongly two variables are associated, was -.13 (t = -2.06, p = .04), supporting the idea that the less that children watch television during mealtime (coded to reflectrestrictions on TV viewing), the less likely they are to spend time watching television overall. As noted above, parental control variables also explained some of the variance on MTV viewing (R2 = .12). All three variables had a negative and statistically significant relationship:TV in Bedroom (β = -.14, t = -2.15, p = .03); TV Rule (β = -.25, t = -4.05, p = .00), and TV during Meal (β = -.13, t = -2.18, p = .03). That is, preventing children from viewing TV in their bedrooms, having TV viewing rules, and restricting TV viewing during mealtime were all associated with decreased frequency of watching MTV. It is worth noting that the parental control measures offered no predictive power for the other dependent variables. Hypothesis 1 was supported only in the case of MTV viewing.

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Table 1: Hieracrhical Regressions Predicting Children’s Television Viewing B β R2 Predicting Daily Viewing Hours Step 1 .06 Gender (girls) -30 13. - .11 Age 21 .13* .14 Step 2 .04 TV in Bedroom -29 61. - .11 TV Rule -14 43. - .06 TV during Meal -12 65*. - .13 Total R2 .10 Predicting MTV Viewing Step 1 .08 Gender (girls) .19 .07 Age .24* .15 Step 2 .12 TV in Bedroom - .41* - .14 TV Rule - .68** - .25 TV during Meal - .13* - .13 Total R2 .20 Predicting Disney Channel Viewing Step 1 .06 Gender (girls) .63** .25 Age .01 - .01 Step 2 .02 TV in Bedroom - .35* - .13 TV Rule .21 .08 TV during Meal - .04 - .05 Total R2 .08 Predicting Nickelodeon Viewing Step 1 .04 Gender (girls) - .34** - .16 Age - .12 - .09 Step 2 .01 TV in Bedroom - .28 - .11 TV Rule .13 .05 TV during Meal - .04 .04 Total R2 .05

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Table 1: Hieracrhical Regressions Predicting Children’s Television Viewing B β R2 Predicting Fox Family Viewing Step 1 .03 Gender (girls) .28* .12 Age .20* .15 Step 2 .01 TV in Bedroom .17 .07 TV Rule - .00 - .00 TV during Meal .02 .03 Total R2 .04 Predicting Attention to Food Ads Step 1 .00 Gender (girls) .03 .01 Age - .01 - .01 Step 2 .02 TV in Bedroom - .30 - .12 TV Rule - .08 - .03 TV during Meal - .01 - .02 Total R2 .02 Note: B (1) is the un-standardized regression coefficient; β (2) is the standardized (weight) coefficient . * p ≤ .05 ** p ≤ .01

Our second set of hypotheses examined the relationships between television viewing variables (daily viewing hours, viewing different channels and attention to food ads) and unhealthy food consumption. We assessed the impact of the independent variables in a hierarchical regression as follows: Step one included the demographic (age and gender) variables; Step two was the three parental control variables; and Step three was the six television viewing variables. The final block entered was the Misconceptions about Food variable.

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Table 2: Hieracrhical Regressions Predicting Unhealthy Food Consumption and Misconceptions about Food B β R2 Predicting Unhealthy Food Consumption Step 1 .03 Gender (girls) - .04 - .02 Age .01 .01 Step 2 .06 TV in Bedroom - .15 - .07 TV Rule .03 .02 TV during Meal - .07 - .09 Step 3 .15 Daily Viewing Hours .00* .14 MTV Viewing .16** .22 Disney Channel Viewing .05 .06 Nickelodeon Viewing - .01 - .01 Fox Family Viewing .02 .03 Attention to Food Ads .18** .21 Step 4 .08 Misconceptions .30** .29 Total R2 .33 Predicting Misconceptions about Food Step 1 .01 Gender (girls) - .14 - .07 Age .03 .02 Step 2 .00 TV in Bedroom .02 .01 TV Rule - .09 - .04 TV during Meal - .01 - .02 Step 3 .07 Daily Viewing Hours - .00 .04 MTV Viewing .04 .06 Disney Channel Viewing - .04 - .05 Nickelodeon Viewing .08 .10 Fox Family Viewing .12* .14 Attention to Food Ads .16** .19 Total R2 .08 Note: B (1) is the un-standardized regression coefficient; β (2) is the standardized (weight) coefficient . * p ≤ .05 ** p ≤ .01

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Turning to the Unhealthy Food Consumption equation, we found that the television viewing variables accounted for a moderate amount of variance (R2 = .15), once the demographic and parental control variables were entered. Daily Viewing Hours (β = .14, t = 2.42, p = .02), MTV Viewing (β = .22, t = 3.59, p = .00) and Attention to Food ads (β = .21, t = 3.72, p = .00) were positively and significantly associated with unhealthy food consumption. Recall we predicted that children’s television viewing will be positively associated with the consumption of unhealthy foods, which supports Hypothesis 2a in the cases of Daily Viewing Hours and MTV Viewing. We also predicted that attention to food ads would be associated with unhealthy eating, which supports Hypothesis 2b. The next set of hypotheses postulated a link between Misconceptions About Food and Television Viewing (see Table 2). We found that, with one exception, the TV viewing variables offered little predictive power for Misconceptions about Food. The variable Fox Family Viewing β( = .14, t = 2.14, p = .03), contributed significantly, but the overall contributions of daily viewing hours and watching cable channels was quite small. In summary, Hypothesis 3a was not supported. We also predicted that children’s attention to food commercials will be positively associated with misconceptions about food and found that Attention to Food Ads had a significant relationship β( = .19, t = 2.94, p = .00) to misconceptions, in support of Hypothesis 3b. The contribu- tion of children’s attention, however, was marginal at best. The final hypothesis predicted a positive relationship between misconceptions about food and the consumption of unhealthy foods. After accounting for demographics, parental control and television viewing, misconceptions explained 8% of the overall variance on unhealthy food consumption (R2 = .08, p = .00), in support of Hypothesis 4 (β = .29, t = 5.25, p = .00). This is illustrated in Table 2. The final issue we examined was our Research Question: To what extent does parental control of television viewing reduce children’s consumption of

24 Influence of Parental Control of Television Viewing… unhealthy foods? Because our regression analyses alone can not adequately demonstrate the indirect effects of parental control, i.e., the effects being mediated by other predictors of unhealthy eating, we employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using AMOS 5.0. Unlike traditional regression techniques, SEM allows for a simultaneous estimation of interrelations among potential predictors of the dependent variable. In addition, SEM provides an estimation of direct, indirect and total effects of a variable on the dependent variable. Path coefficientsγ ( or β)7 in SEM indicate how strongly two variables at the ends of each path are associated. In consideration of model parsimony,8 our initial model excluded the variables that did not show a significant relationship in the regression analyses. We then used two-step modeling (Kline, 1998), where we first specified an initial model and compared a number of alternative models generated by trimming or building certain paths between variables. Our final model is presented in Figure 1.9 The final model fit the data very well with a value of χ2 (14, N = 247) = 10.88, p = .70, Goodness of Fit index (GFI) = .99 and Adjusted GFI (AGFI) = .97. None of parental control measures indicated a direct link to unhealthy food consumption. There were, however, a number of indirect paths that linked parental control variables to unhealthy eating. Both TV during Meal (γ = -.15, p<.05) and TV in Bedroom variables (γ = -.16, p<.05), which indicated greater parental control, had negative relationships to Daily Viewing Hours, which in turn had a significant relationship β( = .18, p<.05) to unhealthy food consumption. TV during Meal (γ = -.14, p<.05), TV in Bedroom (γ = -.18, p<.01) and TV Rule (γ = -.27, p<.05) were also negatively related to MTV Viewing, which was a significant predictor (β = .26, p<.01) of unhealthy eating. Finally, TV in Bedroom indicated a negative relationship (γ = -.13, p<.05) to Attention to Food Ads, which in turn was linked to unhealthy food consumption directly (β = .23, p<.01) and indirectly to misconceptions about food. These findings all support the idea that parental controls can reduce children’s unhealthy

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Figure 1

Note: χ2 (14, N = 247) = 10 .88, p = .70, GFI = .99, AGFI = .97, Total R2 = 29. . Coefficients shown are all statistically significant at p < .05 . eating—at least indirectly—by discouraging television viewing, which is a significant predictor of unhealthy food consumption. How strong are these indirect links between parental control and unhealthy eating? TV in Bedroom was indirectly linked to unhealthy eating with a coefficient of -.12.TV Rule (coefficient of -.07) andTV during Meal (coefficient of -.06) also had indirect relationships with unhealthy eating. That is, children who do not have a TV in their bedrooms, those whose parents have a rule about TV viewing, and those who do not watch TV during meal time, were all less likely to eat unhealthy food. These indirect relationships were all small but statistically significant, indicating that parental controls do have a role in reducing children’s unhealthy eating, albeit a minor one.

Discussion

One of the most important findings, in our view, was the linkage between television viewing choices (which channels, when to watch, how to watch,

26 Influence of Parental Control of Television Viewing… etc.) and unhealthy eating. That is, measures to restrict viewing (such as family rules about viewing) do indeed impact how much time children spend with TV, which, in turn, impacts unhealthy food consumption. This reinforces the notion that eating habits are influenced by many factors and that TV plays an important, although minor role. Moreover, such influences are hardly static: parents have the power to alter such influences. About half (48%) of the children we surveyed had particular rules about television viewing, while a majority of them (66%) had a television in their bedroom. Since such controls influence food choices, we propose that establishing viewing rules and removing TV from bedrooms might have an impact on children’s unhealthy eating. We also recommend that parents teach their children critical viewing skills. Simply talking about undesirable effects of television can help children acquire a more critical stance toward television (Nathanson, 1999). Parents can effectively mitigate unhealthy effects of television viewing by explaining to children how to critically view advertising and by emphasizing that many foods they find on television are unhealthy. We also found that, of all the programs viewed, MTV was most strongly associated with unhealthy food consumption. We recognize that watching such programs does not necessarily lead to poor eating, but we do want to consider what role such programs might have on children’s behavior and why. Do children imitate popular singers and actors on MTV? Does the channel tell the audiences what to eat or drink to make themselves look “cool?” Does MTV fill in for the parental role? The fact that a child watches a lot of MTV may indicate that the parents do not have much control over what their child views. At the same time, it is likely that these parents have little control over what their child eats. As Ludwig and Gortmaker (2004) pointed out, parents working long hours, without adequate daycare and living in an unsafe neighborhood, find it difficult to restrict their children’s television viewing or to deny their requests for commercially prepared junk food. MTV viewing, and television viewing

27 Journal of the Northwest Communication Association in general, is related to unhealthy eating. Parents who maintain little control over their children, as Bolton (1983) noted, allow for both more lax television viewing and more lax eating habits.

Limitations. Clearly television viewing is not the sole influence on eating habits and many other factors affect what children eat. The sheer preponder- ance of unhealthy food choices, ranging from readily available “fast foods” to the multiple snacks consumed by American publics, has a substantial role in obesity among children. We also acknowledge that the cross-sectional design of our study limits the ability to make a strong inference about causal direction. Even though television viewing was associated with unhealthy eating and misconceptions about food, these alone do not predict that television viewing precedes unhealthy eating and misconceptions. We also note that our operationalizations of television viewing and parental control variables were all based on single-item measurements. In assessing unhealthy food consumption, we used only frequency measures (e.g., “How often do you eat…?”) without asking the actual amount of consumption. Our measurements of these key variables raise concern about the content validity, that is, how exhaustively a given set of items measures a given construct. The single-item measures are also question- able with respect to their reliability. Despite these potential problems, however, we had to maintain a minimum number of survey questions because of the respondents’ age that prohibited us from using a longer questionnaire. Our use of “self-reported” data also raises concern about the reliability of respondents’ answers. Self-reported data have limitations in that many people, particularly small children, misrepresent themselves either inten- tionally or through lack of self-knowledge. For many reasons, children may not be fully honest about their television viewing and eating habits. Moreover, children may not accurately remember how often they watch television or recall how frequently they eat certain food items.

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Given these limitations, our findings should be considered preliminary at best, which can be enriched with future studies. We hope future research employs larger samples with children from more diverse regions and family backgrounds, which will enhance the generalizability of findings. We also recommend incorporating multiple dimensions of television viewing, a diversity of food items and additional parental control strategies. In order to minimize the problems of self-reported data, future research can utilize an eating and viewing “diary” in which either parents or children keep records of television viewing and eating behaviors (see Bolton, 1983 as an example). Although the diary is still another form of self-report, it will measure more accurately what children eat and watch, how often and how much. Future research also needs to use longitudinal data or field experiments in order to better establish the time-order effects between parental control, television viewing and children’s eating habits.

Endnotes

1 According to Borgers, Leeuwand Hox (2000), cognitive and social skills are well developed among children between 11 and 15 and they can be surveyed with standardized questionnaires similar to those for adults. 2 This participation rate (35.3%) is relatively low but typical in research requiring signed parental consent, according to Kearney, Hopkins, Maussand Weisheit (1983). 3 Children of certain socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds might be more vulnerable to unhealthy effects of television viewing (Crespo, Smit, Troiano, Bartlett, Macera, & Andersen, 2001). We, however, opted not to ask questions about ethnicity, family incomeand parents’ education levels because the schools we surveyed expressed great concern about asking potentially sensitive questions. 4 In selecting unhealthy food items, we took into consideration a number of factors. First, the majority of foods advertised on television are high in sugar, fatand salt (e.g., Byrd-Bredbenner & Grasso, 1999). Pizza and fries contain much fat and salt, making them at least 25% greater than the standards established by

29 Journal of the Northwest Communication Association

the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (Lindeman, Slapar & Carr, 1997). Soda pop is known to be the leading source of added sugar among children (Guthrie & Morton, 2000). In addition to a large amount of added sugar, a single scoop of ice cream contains about half a day’s worth of saturated fat (Hurley & Liebman, 2003). Second, we considered the popularity of each food item. Pizza and French fries are included in the most popular food items consumed by youths (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1999). As far as soda pop, the intake of soft drinks exceeds that of 100% fruit juice at age 5and that of milk at age 13 (Rampersaud, Bailey & Kauwell, 2003). Ice cream is listed as the fourth most popular snack food for boys and girls ages 8 to 12 (NPD Group, 2005). We finally considered whether children could easily recognize each food item. Many pre and early teens, for example, may not be aware that the cereal they often eat is sugared. Sugared cereals, though considered the most frequently-advertised food (Kotz & Story, 1994), were not included in our measurement to avoid potentially unreliable responses. 5 In addition to testing the effect of overall television viewing (daily viewing hours), we wanted to see if there was a specific channel particularly responsible for unhealthy food consumption or inaccurate food conceptions. Exposure to these popular channels, therefore, was measured for exploratory reason. According to Nielsen Media Research Data (Turner, 2003), these channels were all ranked in the weekly top six basic cable networks (primetime, August 4–10, 2003) among nine to fourteen year olds. 6 As Price and Zaller (1993) point out, it might be wrong to equate self-reported measures of media use with reception of the content. Of course, our study does not draw this parallel between media use and media effects. Rather than treating media use as an indicator of conceptions or consumption of certain food, our analyses model media use as a potential antecedent of these variables. 7 Both γ (gamma) and β (beta) describe basically the same thing: a path coefficient. In SEM, γ is used for the regression of an endogenous variable on an exogenous variable, while β is used for the regression of one endogenous to another endogenous variable.

30 Influence of Parental Control of Television Viewing…

8 According to Hu and Bentler (1993), model parsimony is a necessary condi- tion for adequate interpretation of fit indices. 9 The final model was selected based onBCC value.

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