The present study focuses on understanding the television viewing habits of Indian children, and the kind of impact demographic variables have on this phenomenon. The research indicates that the weekly television viewing time among Indian children averages 9.92 hours. Gender has an influence on the duration of daily television viewing of the children with girls watching less television than boys. The differences were found to be significant (p = 0.00) both for weekdays and weekends or holidays. The average television viewing time was found to be decreasing with age. The differences were statistically insignificant for school days (p = 0.590) but significant for non school days (p = 0.001). Most of kids experience parental intervention/control but it was found to have no influence on kids' television viewing time.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdlerR. P.LesserG. S.MerengoffL.RobertsonT. S.RossiterJ. R.WardS. (1980). Research on the effects of television advertising on children, Lexington. MA: Lexington Books
AndersonR. E.CrespoC. J.BarlettS. J.CheskinL. J.PrattM., (1998). Relationship of physical activity and television watching with body weight and level of fatness among children: Results from the 3rd NHANES. Journal of American Medical Association, 279, 938–942
4.
ArmstrongG.BrucksM. (1988). Dealing with Children's advertising: Public policy issues and alternatives. Journal of promotion policy and management, 7, 98–113
5.
AtkinC. K.GreenbergB. S.BaldwinT. F. (1991). The home ecology of children's television viewing: Parental mediation new video environment, Journal of Communication, 41 (3), 40–52
6.
BajajV. (2007). In India, the golden age of television is now. The New York Times, Feb. 11
7.
BakirA.RoseG. M.ShohamA. (2005). Consumption communication and Parental control of children's television viewing: a multi - rater approach. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practise, Spring, 47–58
8.
BartholomewA.O'DonohoeS. (2003). Everything under control: A child's eye view of advertising. Journal of Marketing Management, 19, 433–457
9.
BeattyS. E.TalpadeS.(1994). Adolescent influence in family decision making: A replication with Extension. Journal of Consumer Research, 21, 332–341
10.
BelchG. E.BelchM. A.CeresinoG. (1985). Parental and teenage influence in family decision making. Journal of Business Research, 13, 163–176
11.
BuijzenM.ValkenburgP. M. (2003). The effect of television advertising on materialism, parent - child conflict and unhappiness: A review of research. Applied Development Psychology, 24 (2), 437–456
12.
BurdetteH. L.WhitakerR. C. (2005). The national study of neighbourhood safety, outdoor play, television viewing and obesity in preschool children. Pediatrics, 116 (3), 657–660
13.
BurrP. L.BurrR. M. (1977). Parental responses to child marketing. Journal of Advertising Research, 1'7 (6), 17–24
14.
ButterE. J.PopovichP. M.StackhouseR. H.GarnerR. K.(1981). Discrimination of television programmes and commercials by preschool children. Journal of Advertising Research, 21 (2), 53–56
15.
Corder-BolzC. R. (1980). Mediation: The role of significant others. Journal of Communication, 30 (3), 106–118
16.
CrespoC. J.SmithE.TroianoR. P.BarlettS. J.MaceraC. A.AndersonR. E., (2001). Television watching, energy intake and obesity in US children: Results from the 3rd NHANES: 1988-1994. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 155, 360–365
17.
DensN.PelsmackerP. D.EagleL. (2007). Parental attitude towards advertising to children and restrictive mediation of children's television viewing in Belgium. Young Consumers, 8 (1), 7–18
18.
DietzW.GortmakerS. (1985). Do we flatten our children at the TV sets? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 75, 807–812, cited in The Junk Food generation' (n.d.), Consumer International.
19.
GavinM. L.DowshenS. (2005). How TV affects your child', KidsHealth. Retrieved December, 6, 2007 from http://www.kidshealth.org
20.
GhaniN. H. D. (2004). Television viewing and Consumer behaviour. Young Consumers, 4, 66–73
21.
GoldbergM. E. (1990). A quasiexperiment assessing the effectiveness of TV advertising directed to children. Journal of Marketing Research, 27, 445–454
22.
GoldbergM. E.GornG. J. (1978). Some unintended consequences of TV advertising to children. Journal of Consumer Research, 5 (1), 22–29
23.
GoldbergM.GornG.GibsonW. (1978). TV messages for snacks and breakfast foods: do they influence children's preferences?Journal of Consumer Research, 5, 73–81
24.
GortmakerS. L.MustA.SobolA. M.PetersonK.ColditzG. A.DietzW. H. (1996). TV viewing as a cause of increasing obesity among children in the US 1986-1990. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 153, 356–362
25.
GreenbergB. S.LiH.KuL.WangJ. (1991). Young people and mass media in China. Asian Journal of Communication, 1 (2), 122–142
26.
GrossbartS. L.CrosbyL. A. (1984). Understanding bases of parental concern and reactions to food advertising. Journal of Marketing, 48 (1), 79–92
27.
GunterB.FurnhamA. (1998). Children as Consumers: A Psychological Analysis of the Young People's Market, Routledge, London; cited in BartholomewA. and O'DonohoeS. (2003), ‘Everything Under Control: A child's eye view of Advertising’, Journal of Marketing Management,. 19, 433–457
28.
HendonD. W.McGannA. F.HendonB. L., (1978). Children's age, intelligence and sex as variables; mediating reactions to TV commercials: repetition and content complexity, implications for advertisers. Journal of Advertising, 7 (3), 4–12
29.
HerseyJ. C.JordanA. (2007). Reducing children's TV time to reduce the risk of child overweight: The children's media use study’, Highlight Report, RTI project Number, 8680.006
30.
HeskethK.CrawfordD.SalmonJ., (2006). Children's television viewing and objectively measured physical activity: association with family circumstances. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical activity, 3 (36), 5868 - 3–36
31.
HofstedeG. (1980). Culture's consequences: intercultural differences in work-related values’, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications cited in Mukherji, J. (2005). Maternal communication patterns, advertising attitudes and mediation behaviors in urban India. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11 (4), 247–262
32.
HolzJ. (1998). Measuring the child audience issues and Implications foe educational Programming (Annenburg Public Policy Survey Series, No. 3). University of Pennsylvania, Annenburg Public Policy Center, Philadelphia
33.
InamdarR.ChandraM. (2001). Targeting New Consumers, Seminar No. 498, 23-26, from http://www.india-seminar.com, cited in Mukherji, J. (2005), ‘Maternal Communication Patterns, Advertising Attitudes and Mediation Behaviors in Urban India’, Journal of Marketing Communications,. 11, No. 4, 247–262
JordanA. B.HerseyJ. C.McDivittJ. A.HeitzlerC. D. (2006).Reducing children's television viewing time: A Qualitative study of parents and their children. Pediatrics, 118 (5), 1303–1310
KaurP.SinghR. (2006). Children in family purchase decision making in India and the west: A review. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 2006, 8, Retrieved January 2, 2007, from www.amsreview.org/articles/kaur08-2006.pdf.
40.
KrendlK. A.ClarkG.DawsonR.TroianoC. (1993). Preschoolers and VCRs at home: a multiple methods approach. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 37, 293–312
41.
MacklinC. M. (1987). Preschoolers' understanding of informational function of television advertising. Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 229–239
42.
MeltzB. F. (2004). Globe Staff, As Ads Seduce Kids, Studies Sound Alarm. Retrieved August20, 2006 from: www.boston.com
43.
MukherjiJ. (2005). Maternal communication patterns, advertising attitudes and mediation behaviors in urban India. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11 (4), 247–262
44.
PareekV. (2006, August). Kids Are Supermodels: An Ethical Dilemma. Marketing Mastermind.
45.
Patel-AminN.PowerT. G. (2002). Modernity and childrearing in families of Gujarati Indian adolescence. Intercultural Journal of Psychology, 37 (4), 237–245
46.
RobinsonT. N.KillenJ. D.KraemerH. C.WilsonD. M.MathesonD. M.HaskellW. L., (2003). Dance and reducing television viewing to prevent weight gain in African girls: the Stanford GEMS pilot study. Ethnicity and Disease, 13, S 1–77
47.
RonW., (2003). Parental Mediation of preschool children's television viewing. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 47, Retrieved December 1, 2007, from http://www.entrepreneur.com
48.
RoseG. M.DalakasV.KroppF. (2002). A five nation study of developmental time tables, reciprocal communication and consumer socialization. Journal of Business Research, 55, 943–949
49.
SawantA. (1999, January 28). ASCI shoots down advertisers' magic claims. Indian Express (Bombay)
50.
SrivastavaS. (2007, Feb 12). After the Maharaja Mac Is the Whopper Ready for an Indian Avatar?’ Siliconeer, News Report, New America Media.
51.
SinhaJ. B. P. (1990). The salient Indian values and their socio-ecological roots. Indian Journal of Social Sciences, 3, 477-488, cited in Mukherji, J. (2005). Maternal communication patterns, advertising attitudes and mediation behaviors in urban India. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11 (4), 247–262
52.
Statistics on TV viewing habits (1994-2000) (2007). Retrieved January 15, 2008 from www.media-awareness.ca.
53.
Statistics Canada, (1999). Cited in Statistics on TV viewing habits (1994-2000) (2007). Retrieved January15, 2008 from www.media-awareness.ca.
VereeckenC. A.ToddJ.RobertsC.MulvihillC.MaesL. (2006). Television viewing behaviour and associations with food habits in different countries. Public Health Nutrition, 9 (2), pp 244–250
58.
VermaJ. (1999). Collectivism in the cultural perspective: the Indian scene, in: J. C. Lasry, J. Adair & K. Dion (Eds) Latest Contributions to Cross-cultural Psychology, 228-241 Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets and Zetlinger cited in Mukherji, J. (2005). Maternal communication patterns, advertising attitudes and mediation behaviors in urban India. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11 (4), 247–262
