Parent-Child Interactions Negatively Impacted By Background TV

More than a third of American infants and toddlers live in homes where the television is on most or all the time, even if no one's watching. A new study looks for the first time at the effect of background TV on interactions between parents and young children - and finds that the effect is negative. The study, in the September/October 2009 issue of the journal Child Development, was carried out by researchers at the University of Massachusetts.