Tom H. A. van der Voort

Replication: Determinants of parental guidance of children's television viewing: A Dutch replication study

This study replicates the Bybee, Robinson, and Turow (1982) investigation invoking parental guidance of television viewing. Using a representative sample of parents from the general Dutch population, the results were in marked agreement with the previous study on major points. Three distinct dimensions of parental guidance were found: restrictive, evaluative, and unfocused guidance. A factor analysis portrayed parents’ views of televisions positive and negative effects as forming two independent perspectives. In addition to a number of demographic variables, parental beliefs about the effects of television on children proved fruitful in predicting guidance.

Television's impact on children's reading skills: A review of research.

THE AUTHORS discuss the hypotheses that explain why television might influence the childs development of reading skills positively (facilitation hypothesis), negatively (inhibition hypothesis), or not at all (no-effect hypothesis). Although the evidence is not unequivocal, most of the research supports the inhibition hypothesis. However, televisions relation to reading achievement is complex; the magnitude and direction of the relation are influenced by a number of conditions. Heavy viewers, socially advantaged children, and intelligent children tend to be most vulnerable to televisions inhibition effect. In addition, the relation is sensitive to the type of television content watched. The authors evaluate the utility of the five research approaches used in the past, and suggest directions for further research.

Young People's Ownership and Uses of New and Old Forms of Media in Britain and the Netherlands

Using data obtained in a national survey carried out in Britain (N = 1309) and the Netherlands (N = 1355), this article compares British and Dutch children and young people aged 6-17 with respect to: (1) the availability of different media in childrens homes, and particularly in the childrens own room; (2) the amount of time spent on different media; and (3) the gratifications associated with the use of different types of media. Attention is paid to new forms of media (electronic games and the personal computer) as well as old forms of media (print media and television and video). Cross-national similarities and differences in ownership and uses of media are established, both for the whole 6-17 age group and for subgroups formed in terms of gender, age and socioeconomic status. Special attention is devoted to points where British children and young people are clearly differentiated from their Dutch peers.

Children's and Adults' Recall of Television and Print News in Children's and Adult News Formats

Experiments comparing television and print news have shown that children learn most from television, whereas adults learn most from print. An experiment was conducted in which both 96 children (5th and 6th graders) and 96 adults (university students) were presented with a sequence of five news stories, either in their original televised form or in a printed version. Half of the participants were presented with stories taken from a childrens news program (high audiovisual redundancy), whereas the other participants were exposed to corresponding stories adopted from an adult news program (low audiovisual redundancy). Results indicated that both children and adults learned most from television stories when presented in a childrens news format, whereas the recall advantage of television disappeared when adult news stories were involved. The results suggest that the correspondence between verbal and visual content of television stories is decisive for the relative effectiveness of television and print.Experiments comparing television and print news have shown that children learn most from television, whereas adults learn most from print. An experiment was conducted in which both 96 children (5th and 6th graders) and 96 adults (university students) were presented with a sequence of five news stories, either in their original televised form or in a printed version. Half of the participants were presented with stories taken from a childrens news program (high audiovisual redundancy), whereas the other participants were exposed to corresponding stories adopted from an adult news program (low audiovisual redundancy). Results indicated that both children and adults learned most from television stories when presented in a childrens news format, whereas the recall advantage of television disappeared when adult news stories were involved. The results suggest that the correspondence between verbal and visual content of television stories is decisive for the relative effectiveness of television and print.

Validity of children's direct estimates of time spent television viewing

Using a representative sample of Dutch 10‐ to 16‐year‐olds (N = 581), the study was designed to determine if the criterion‐related validity of two types of child‐reported direct estimates of time spent television viewing depended on gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES), and level of school achievement. Validity was assessed in terms of the correlations found between direct estimates and a child‐reported diary measure of viewing. The validity coefficients of the direct estimates were found to be unrelated to gender, but comparatively higher among older children (aged 10‐16), high‐SES children, and, though not significantly, among high‐achieving children.

Television viewing versus reading: Mental effort, retention, and inferential learning

The study compared childrens learning from structurally equivalent television and print versions of two stories. Three hypotheses derived from Salomons (1984) model were tested: (a) children invest more mental effort in processing print stories compared to television stories; (b) story recall is not affected by the medium through which the story is presented; and (c) print stories lead to more inferential learning than television stories. Fourth and sixth grade students watched the television film version of one story and read the text version of the other story. Mental effort was assessed during television viewing and reading by measuring secondary‐reaction times, and afterwards by means of Salomons retrospective measure. Story retention and story‐related inferences were measured both immediately following each story and two to three weeks later. As assessed by Salomons measure, children invested more mental effort in reading than in watching television, but on the reaction‐time measure the reverse w...

Distraction Effects of Background Soap Operas on Homework Performance: An experimental study enriched with observational data

An experiment was conducted to examine the impact of background soap operas on homework performance and time. Students in grade eight (aged 14) ( n =192) did paper-and-pencil and memorisation assignments with two types of soap opera episodes in the background, or the soundtrack of soap operas, or no medium. In each condition, half of the students were observed. Results indicated that students in the television conditions performed worse and used more time than students in the control condition. No significant differences were found between the audio-only and control conditions. Observational data showed that the extension of time in the television conditions was completely due to the fact that students used time to look at the screen. Although the television did not reduce time spent looking at the task, performance did decrease, probably because the alternation of resources between homework and television led to less thorough processing of the assignments.

Children's written accounts of televised and printed stories

Following on studies that compared cognitive processing of stories presented either on television or radio, an exploratory study was carried out to compare stories watched on television with printed stories read by children. Children aged 10 to 12 (N = 127) either watched a television film or read a print version of the same story. Afterwards, each child retold the story in writing. Children exposed to the television film reproduced the story more completely and made fewer errors. Written reproductions of the story by children who read the printed version were easier to understand because story characters were referred to more specifically and references to the story elements contained more descriptive details.

Teaching Children to Evaluate Television Violence Critically: the impact of a Dutch schools television project

Abstract Using a quasi‐experimental pretest‐posttest control group design, the study investigated the educational effects of a six‐programme schools television series designed to encourage children aged 10‐12 to become more discriminating consumers of violent television crime series. Results indicated that the schools television project led to an increase in factual knowledge of differences between violence as depicted in crime series and real‐life violence, and a decrease in the perceived realism of violent television programmes. Children reacted very positively to the schools broadcasts and found them instructive and useful. Teachers reacted positively to the broadcasts and the related materials (student workbook and teachers manual) that accompanied the programmes.

Children's recall of the news : TV news stories compared with three print versions

A partial replication study was conducted comparing childrens recall of news stories presented via television and via print. Unlike the procedure in previous experiments, television news stories were compared not only with literal transcripts of the television narratives, but also with two different “real” newspaper versions written by journalists. In addition, the study investigated whether the relative effectiveness of television and print in conveying news information was dependent on childrens reading proficiency. A sample of 144 fourth and sixth graders was presented with a sequence of five childrens news stories, either in their original television form or in one of the three print versions. The results of a cuedrecall test indicated that children who watched the news on television remembered the stories better than children who read one of the three print versions, regardless of their level of reading proficiency.