Television, children and family time spent watching television and the correlation with family relationships

Abstract

A report on television viewing habits and the General Scale of Family Assessment Measure, tested the correlation between television, children and family, using self-reported data from 10 and 11 year old Maltese children (N = 167), of state primary schools . In a quantitative research, the family relationship was investigated as relating to several factors of measure: perception, utilisation and habits of watching television. A test of the hypothesis was carried out using chi-square. The findings do not support the expectation that the amount of time that children spend watching television is correlated with a certain type of family. However, the study supports the correlation between the perception that families on TV are happier than their own family relationship. The study therefore reveals that children are not passive viewers. Indeed children do consciously admit imitating behaviour seen on television during their play. But the impact of such imitation needs to be questioned. A crucial factor for these results was the fact that this generation was born and grew up with the presence of television, and that parents explain and prevent them from watching, certain programmes.