Concerned that your adolescent is watching too much TV? A new study gives parents good reason to be concerned. Researchers reported this week that greater exposure to TV during the teenage years appears to raise the risk of depression in young adulthood, especially among males.
Dr. Brian A. Primack, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and colleagues studied the media habits of roughly 4,100 healthy non-depressed adolescents. They asked the adolescents how many hours they spent during the last week watching TV or videos, playing computer games or listening to the radio.

    The adolescents reported an average of 5.68 hours of media exposure each day, including 2.3 hours of TV viewing per day.

    Seven years later (at an average age of 21.8), the study subjects were screened and 308 (7.4 percent) had developed symptoms of depression.

    According to the report, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, for each hour of TV viewed per day, the teens had a statistically significant greater likelihood of developing depression in young adulthood.

    Given the same amount of media exposure, young women were less likely to develop symptoms of depression than were young men.

    "We did not find a consistent relationship between development of depressive symptoms and exposure to videocassettes, computer games, or radio," they report.

    There are several possible ways by which media exposure could boost the risk of depression, the researchers say. The time spent watching TV or using other electronic media may replace time spent socializing, participating in sports or engaging in intellectual activities — all of which may protect against depression.

    Watching TV at night may disrupt sleep, which is important for normal brain and emotional development. In addition, messages transmitted through the media may reinforce aggression and other risky behaviors, interfere with identity development or inspire fear and anxiety, the researchers note.

    This study, they conclude, "breaks new ground in linking media use in adolescence to the development of depressive symptoms in young adulthood."

    擔(dān)心你家的孩子看電視太多嗎？一項(xiàng)新的研究給父母們提供了擔(dān)心的充分理由。本周，研究者們?cè)趫?bào)告中說，青少年時(shí)期看電視過多能增加成年早期的抑郁風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，特別是在男性之中。

    匹茲堡大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院的布萊恩A. 普里馬克博士和同事們研究了大約4100名健康無抑郁癥狀青少年的媒體習(xí)慣。他們?cè)儐柫诉@些青少年上周花了多少小時(shí)看電視或錄像，玩電腦游戲或聽收音機(jī)。

    這些青少年的回答表明他們每天媒體暴露的時(shí)間平均為5.68小時(shí)，其中包括了每天2.3小時(shí)的看電視時(shí)間。

    7年后（這些青少年的平均年齡為21.8歲），對(duì)這些研究對(duì)象進(jìn)行了篩選，結(jié)果有308人（占7.4％）出現(xiàn)了抑郁的癥狀。

    根據(jù)發(fā)表在《普通精神病學(xué)文獻(xiàn)》上的報(bào)告，我們可以知道，每天每增加一小時(shí)看電視的時(shí)間，從統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)的意義上來說，這些青少年都有更大的可能在成年早期患抑郁癥。

    在給予相同的媒體暴露時(shí)間的情況下，年輕女性比年輕男性患抑郁癥的可能要小。

    “我們沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)患抑郁癥和接觸錄像、電腦游戲或收音機(jī)之間有同樣的關(guān)聯(lián)。”他們?cè)趫?bào)告中寫到。

    研究者們說，媒體暴露會(huì)通過幾種可能的方式增加抑郁的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。花在看電視或者使用其他電子媒體上的時(shí)間，可能取代花在參加社會(huì)活動(dòng)、參加體育活動(dòng)或從事智力活動(dòng)上的時(shí)間——而這些活動(dòng)都可以防止抑郁。

    晚上看電視可以干擾睡眠，睡眠對(duì)于正常的大腦和情感的發(fā)育很重要。另外，通過媒體傳遞的信息可以強(qiáng)化攻擊性和其他危險(xiǎn)的行為，干擾個(gè)性發(fā)展或激發(fā)恐懼和焦慮情緒，研究者補(bǔ)充說。

    他們總結(jié)說，這項(xiàng)研究“在把青少年的媒體使用情況和成年早期患抑郁癥之間聯(lián)起來方面開辟了新的領(lǐng)域。”