Socio-economic Status and Children’s Television Use

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between children's television use and the socio-economic status of their parents. The data are based on a representative sample of 890 children living in the Flemish Community of Belgium. Initial results indicated that the SES background of children is indeed related to a range of television-use variables. However, further analyses indicated 1) that the results obtained vary according to the indicator of SES employed, with the education of the mother being more widely and linearly related to children's media use than was the occupation of the father. 2) that the relationship between SES and children's television use becomes spurious when other variables are entered into the analysis. It was concluded that any effects that SES can be postulated to have on children's television use are indirect and that future research should avoid the dangers of over-generalization