Two ISU professors teamed up to perform a study on the effect of TV on the attention span of elementary school students and college students.

The research found that children who exceeded the two hours per day of screen time recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics were 1.5 to 2 times more likely to be above average in attention problems, according to the news release.

The study was started several years ago by psychologists Edward Swing and Douglas Gentile.

Swing said the professors had 1,323 participants come in with the elementary school students and their parents to complete questionnaires during a 13-month period.

The students’ teachers also had to answer some questions about the students during the time.

College students only had to come to the lab one time, Swing said.

Swing said they didn’t look specifically at attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, just attention problems in general.

The study found that higher levels of TV and video game playing are associated with attention problems in elementary children, Swing said.

Swing said that after 13 months of research, attention problems related to TV viewing were apparent.

The recommendation made by the American Academy of Pediatrics is for children to only watch one to two hours of TV or video games each day.

Swing said that in the group of children they studied, TV usage was a little higher than the recommended two hours, at 2.46 hours. However, the study demographic was a little lower than what some other studies have found the national average to be.

The elementary school age sample was part of the Switch program, “Switch what you Do, View and Chew.”

Douglas has been taking an active part in the study, and was featured for his work reversing childhood obesity in the Science Daily online.

The program is looking at things like diet and exercise, childhood behavior and the importance of school.

Swing said even though the study is focused on early childhood and middle school children, it is useful to see the effects outside of early childhood. College-aged individuals also added useful input for those outside the early childhood range.

The study did not look at the effects of casual, occasional TV watching, but looked at the cumulative results that last throughout your life.

Swing said the study did not provide longitudinal data, unfortunately, and it is not really clear if this data is limited to childhood or if it will occur later in life.

He said the study justified some caution in watching too much television and video game usage, but it is talking about a statistically small associations.

“It’s not that it’s not important. Several studies show small associations — lead intake and children’s IQ is a small association — but it has implications because it is relevant to the whole population,” Swing said. “This would be one piece that would contribute to development problems.”