But a p-value “approaching .5″ is not significant. At all. A p-value should be less than or equal to 0.05 to be significant. And strongly significant would be less than 0.01.

And also, correlation does not mean causation. Correlation between heavy media exposure and mental health problems could mean that media exposure causes mental health problems. But more likely is that adolescents that are depressed withdraw from their friends and families and watch TV or play video games instead as a way to escape. In other words, heavy media exposure should make you look closer to see why your child is choosing to spend so much time with that instead of with other people.

Doesnt it matter what kind of content the media has? Doesnt it matter in what way/context the media is used? What is the differens if a group of kids play in the garden or if they sit around a video game? Id say they wont be worse off socially just because the play activity is in a digital form.

We don’t watch television because we don’t have a television, or perhaps more accurately, we don’t have a television because we don’t want to watch it. So our son has never really been exposed to it, outside of occasional glimpses while out in the world. Among the families we know the reliance on television (or more commonly, videos) is much greater in families where one parent stays home. I don’t know why; perhaps it’s the perception that there’s more time available with the kids, so it’s okay to waste some?

I’m amazed at the parents who successfully raise kids and work fulltime. Personally, I’m glad I’ll be staying home when the kids arrive. I think I’d be very tempted to let the tv “babysit” them otherwise.

Wonderful series! Thanks for sharing it with us.