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Neighborhood characteristics and TV viewing in youth: Nothing to do but watch TV?

2011; Elsevier BV; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jsams.2011.07.010

1440-2440

Anna Timperio, Jo Salmon, Kylie Ball, Saskia J. te Velde, Johannes Brug, David Crawford,

Traffic and Road Safety

Objectives Neighborhoods that discourage physical activity may encourage indoor activities such as television viewing; however few studies have examined associations between neighborhood characteristics and sedentary activities. This study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between perceived and objective measures of the physical and social neighborhood environment and TV viewing among children and adolescents. Design Cross-sectional and longitudinal. Methods Parents of 190 children and 169 adolescents completed questionnaire items regarding facilities for physical activity, neighborhood safety (general and traffic), social trust/cohesion, social networks and their child's TV viewing in 2006. Adolescents self-reported their TV viewing. Objective measures of reported crime and neighborhood destinations, road connectivity and traffic exposure were also collected. Questions about TV viewing were repeated in 2008 (longitudinal sample: 157 children; 105 adolescents). Results In children, cul-de-sac density and reported crime were positively and parental agreement that their neighborhood has good sporting facilities was negatively associated with TV viewing in cross-sectional analyses. There were no longitudinal associations among children. In adolescents, number of sports options and parental agreement that there is so much traffic that it is difficult/unpleasant for their child to walk were negatively associated with TV viewing 2 years later. Conclusions Crime and a lack of quality sporting facilities or options may contribute to greater TV viewing among youth.