SEATTLE, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Children in home-based day cares watched TV for 2.4 hours per day on average, compared with 0.4 hours in center-based settings, U.S. researchers found.
Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, the lead researcher and director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, looked at television use in 168 child-care programs in four states.
The majority of preschoolers are commonly cared for by someone other than a parent, away from home in a child-care setting -- either home-based day care or center-based care, which is more like a preschool with children of similar ages, Christakis said.
The study, to be published in the December issue of Pediatrics, found that among preschool-age children, those in home-based day cares watched TV for 2.4 hours per day on average, compared with 0.4 hours in center-based settings.
However, some home-based programs were closer to the center-based programs in amount of time they used television, particularly those programs in which the staff had college degrees, the study said.
