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."

    擔心你家的孩子看電視太多嗎？一項新的研究給父母們提供了擔心的充分理由。本周，研究者們在報告中說，青少年時期看電視過多能增加成年早期的抑郁風險，特別是在男性之中。

    匹茲堡大學醫學院的布萊恩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慣。他們詢問了這些青少年上周花了多少小時看電視或錄像，玩電腦游戲或聽收音機。

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

    7年后（這些青少年的平均年齡為21.8歲），對這些研究對象進行了篩選，結果有308人（占7.4％）出現了抑郁的癥狀。

    根據發表在《普通精神病學文獻》上的報告，我們可以知道，每天每增加一小時看電視的時間，從統計學的意義上來說，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。

    “我們沒有發現患抑郁癥和接觸錄像、電腦游戲或收音機之間有同樣的關聯。”他們在報告中寫到。

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

    晚上看電視可以干擾睡眠，睡眠對于正常的大腦和情感的發育很重要。另外，通過媒體傳遞的信息可以強化攻擊性和其他危險的行為，干擾個性發展或激發恐懼和焦慮情緒，研究者補充說。

    他們總結說，這項研究“在把青少年的媒體使用情況和成年早期患抑郁癥之間聯起來方面開辟了新的領域。”