The association between television viewing and achievement: The impact of optimal viewing across time

Context: Studies investigating the relationship between television viewing and academic achievement have yielded conflicting results. Razel (2001) attributed the inconsistent findings to a nonlinear relationship and suggested optimal viewing guidelines for children. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test a latent growth model constrained to reflect Razel’s optimal viewing times to evaluate the longitudinal relationship between television viewing and academic achievement. Research Design: Data were collected from 17,565 children, aged 5 to 12 years, from the ECLS-K Fifth grade national database. Despite good model to data fit, parameter estimates for the relationship between television viewing and achievement were statistically non-significant. Conclusions: Future research to address methodological concerns associated with large databases and differences in the relationship across groups appears warranted.