英语阅读辅导：卧室有电视导致青少年不良生活习惯

英语自学网

　　Teenagers with a bedroom television tend to have poorer diet and exercise
habits and lower grades in school than those without one, US researchers said on
yesterday.
       
       
                　　While many studies have examined TV viewing habits of young people,
researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health said little
had been known about the consequences in particular for older adolescents of
having a bedroom TV.
       
       
                　　They questioned 781 adolescents, ages 15 to 18, in the Minneapolis area in
2003 and 2004. Of them, 62 percent reported having a television in their
bedroom.
       
       
                　　Not surprisingly, those with a bedroom TV were more apt to watch it a lot,
clocking four to five more hours in front of a television per week, the
researchers said. Twice as many of the teens with a bedroom TV were classified
as heavy TV watchers - at least five hours a day - compared to those without
one.
       
       
                　　Girls with a bedroom television reported getting less vigorous exercise -
1.8 hours per week compared to 2.5 hours for girls without a TV. They also ate
fewer vegetables, drank more sweetened beverages and ate meals with their family
less often, the researchers said.
       
       
                　　Boys with a bedroom TV reported having a lower grade point average than
boys without one, as well as eating less fruit and having fewer family meals,
the researchers said.
       
       
                　　The American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to remove TV sets from
children's bedrooms.
       
       
                　　Boys were more likely to have a television in their bedroom than girls - 68
percent versus 58 percent.
       
       
                　　Teens from the highest income families were far less likely than those from
all other income levels to have a bedroom TV, the survey found.
       
       
                　　Among black teens, 82 percent reported having a bedroom TV, compared to 66
percent of Hispanics, 60 percent of whites and 39 percent of Asian
Americans.
       
       
                　　The researchers tracked body mass index - a measure based on height and
weight - and found that having a bedroom TV had no influence on whether teens
were obese.
       
       
                　　Researchers said that finding was a surprise, considering that previous
studies looking at younger children - one on elementary school kids and one on
low-income preschoolers - found that having a bedroom TV was an even stronger
predictor of obesity than the time spent watching TV.
       
       
                　　(Agencies/China Daily)