Study finds that Spongebob is bad for 4-year-olds. But is the sponge the real problem?

Photo: Nickelodeon.com
Photo: Nickelodeon.com

Your kids may love a certain squishy character who lives in a pineapple under the sea, but a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia suggests that fast-paced, fantastical TV shows like "SpongeBob SquarePants" could harm preschoolers' thinking skills.

The study has a few loopholes that a cartoon character could squeeze a Mack truck through, though.

"The Immediate Impact of Different Types of Television on Young Children's Executive Function," appears in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics and looks at 60 4-year-olds who had been randomly divided into three groups. One group drew and colored for nine minutes, another watched the gentle, slow-paced PBS cartoon "Caillou" for nine minutes, and the last group spent nine minutes watching a cartoon "about an animated sponge that lives under the sea." Then all of the kids were given a series of tests to measure their executive function-their ability to concentrate, solve problems, and delay gratification.

The results? The kids who spent nine minutes with Nickelodeon's SpongeBob, Patrick, and Plankton scored significantly worse on the tests than the kids who colored or watched animated 4-year-old Caillou explore/whine about the world around him.

"Just 9 minutes of viewing a fast-paced television cartoon had immediate negative effects on 4-year-olds' executive function," wrote researchers Angeline S. Lillard and Jennifer Peterson, both of the University of Virginia's psychology department. It's possible that the more-intense shows are hyper-stimulating, making it harder for kids to solve problems immediately after TV time.

We already know that our kids probably spend too much time watching TV, playing video games, or starting at our smart phones. For years, the American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested that parents limit their children's screen time to one to two hours of "quality programming" per day, and that kids younger than 2 watch no TV at all.

But this study focused on just 60 kids-too small a sample size to be statistically relevant. And all of them came from similar ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds (white, middle- to upper-middle class)-hardly a diverse sample.

For another thing, the researchers didn't establish a baseline for the kids' executive function beforehand. Instead of running the same kids through the same tests before and after they colored or watched the cartoons, the researchers relied on parents responses to "strengths and difficulties questionnaire" to determine whether the kids had any cognitive or attention issues before the study started.

And then there's the fact that "SpongeBob SquarePants" is intended for 6- to 11-year-olds, not 4-year-olds.

"Having 60 non-diverse kids, who are not part of the show's targeted demo, watch 9 minutes of programming is questionable methodology," Nickelodeon representatives told CNN in a statement. "It could not possibly provide the basis for any valid findings that parents could trust."

If the concern is whether fast-paced, fantastical shows harm a kid's cognitive abilities, why not have the test subjects watch PBS's "Sesame Street" instead? The puppet-populated classic pioneered the fantasy-based, frenetically paced concept (A gigantic talking bird? A furry red monster who speaks in the third person and thinks it can fly? Jam-packed segments that last less than a minute? Check and check.) And comparing two very different, but age-appropriate, programs may yield more-valid results.

The researchers themselves admit that their study has a several limitations. "First, we cannot tell exactly what features of the fast-paced television cartoon created the effects," they write in Pediatrics. "Second, only 4-year-olds were tested; older children might not be negatively influenced by fast-paced television. Third, we do not know how long the negative effects persist or what the long-term effects of habitual viewing include."

It comes down to common sense: What your kids watch is as important as how much time your kids spend glued to the tube. Which is to say that SpongeBob may not be the real problem after all.






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