ORIGINAL ARTICLES  SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2015 June;55(6):675-83

Copyright © 2015 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Television viewing, psychological positive health, health complaints and health risk behaviors in Spanish children and adolescents

Padilla-Moledo C. ¹, Castro-Piñero J. ¹, Ortega F. B. ², Pulido-Martos M. ³, Sjöström M. ⁴, Ruiz J. R. ² ✉

¹ Department of Physical Education, School of Education, University of Cádiz, Puerto Real, Spain; ² PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity” Research Group, Department of Physical Activity and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; ³ Department of Psychology, University of Jaen, Jaen, Spain; ⁴ Unit for Preventive Nutrition, Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at NOVUM, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden

AIM: The aim of this study was to study the correlation of television viewing with positive and negative health in youth.
METHODS: The present cross-sectional study comprised a total of 680 children and adolescents aged 6-17.9 (46% girls) representative of the province of Cádiz (south Spain). We used the Health Behavior in School-aged Children questionnaire to assess television viewing, positive and negative health.
RESULTS: It was found that correlations between television viewing >2 hours and several outcomes were inconsistent. No effects were found for quality of family relationships, quality of peer relationships, perceived academic performance and health risk behaviors in children, or with perceived excellent health status, excellent life satisfaction, quality of peer relationships, perceived academic performance and health risk behaviors in adolescents. However viewing >2 hours of television was correlated with lower quality family relations in adolescents, and lower perceived excellent health status, lower life satisfaction and higher health complaints index in children. Correction for multiple comparisons would render all television relationships as non-significant.
CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that negative television influences on children and adolescents are minimal. However excessive television viewing may be symptomatic of other underlying mental health problems for some children.