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ERIC Number: EJ1050254
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jan
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Is the Association between Children's Baby Video Viewing and Poor Language Development Robust? A Reanalysis of Zimmerman, Christakis, and Meltzoff (2007)
Ferguson, Christopher J.; Donnellan, M. Brent
Developmental Psychology, v50 n1 p129-137 Jan 2014
Zimmerman, Christakis, and Meltzoff (2007) reported that exposure to Baby Einstein videos was negatively associated with language development. The current study uses the Zimmerman et al. (2007) data set to replicate and extend the original analyses. Caregivers of 392 children aged 6 to 16 months and 358 children aged 17 to 27 months reported on media exposure, language development, and control variables related to child/parent interaction and demographic characteristics. Results indicated that exposure to baby videos could be construed as positive, neutral, or negative depending upon the statistical analysis. The effect size estimates were generally negligible across analyses. Exposure to educational programming tended to be positively related to language development. Infants exposed to no media actually had lower levels of language development compared to infants with some exposure. Given these results, the Zimmerman et al. (2007) data set does not permit strong inferences about a connection between exposure to media and language development in young children. These results also highlight recent concerns over methodological flexibility and the possibility of increased Type I errors (false positives) in the psychological literature.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A