Abstract

Numerous studies were conducted in order to test possible negative effects of TV on children but data have revealed only that television's effects are not direct but mediated by many other variables. However, empirical studies looked only at short-term and partial effects of TV on children and it is safe to say that cummulative effects of TV are significant, especially for young childen. As a first step to find possible contributions from developmental psychology this report reviews studies on TV and children in Korea. 94 papers from main jounrals. reports and theses were reviewed and summarized in a table in terms of subject, method(statistics), and result. Subjects were mainly school age children (41 papers) but preschoolers(22), adolescents(26) and old age groups(4) were also included. Most frequently used methods were questionnaire but experimental methods and interviews were also used. It was found that there was no single nationwide survey for preschool-age viewers. Nation-wide survey for other age groups also should be performed using more reliable methods such as a diary. Most studies looked at TV's influence among different groups and studies on cognitive aspects of TV viewing and viewing education have just begun. It was suggested that formative and summative research should be established for children's program in order to improve educational function of it and developmental psychologists must participate in these research.