Media use is highly prevalent among young people; eight to 18-year-olds spend an average of 7.4 hours per day using media, including 1.5 hours per day using a computer outside of school work, and 80% of teens have some type of gaming console.1–2 The viewing or use of violent or aggressive television (TV) programs or computer and video games is associated with adverse health outcomes including interpersonal violence.3 The link between exposure to violent media and involvement in violent behavior has been extensively researched across different youth population groups.4–7 Research also links frequent media use and other risk behaviors and outcomes such as obesity, earlier sexual activity, earlier alcohol and drug use, and heavier use of a range of substances.8–10,12–17 Most previous studies, however, have focused on a specific health-risk behavior, making it difficult to determine the range of possible health outcomes across studies and populations that may be associated with frequent media use. In response to this limitation, the current study uses the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to examine specific associations between TV-viewing, video or computer game playing or computer use, and violence, alcohol and other drug use at the population level.

The YRBS is a biennial national survey of United States high school students administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assess priority health-risk behaviors.18 The 2007 YRBS used a three-stage cluster-sample design to obtain a representative sample of students in grades nine through 12 who attended public and private schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. We obtained parental permission following local procedures and participation was voluntary. Students anonymously completed the self-administered questionnaire during a regular class period. An institutional review board at the CDC has approved the national YRBS.

The school response rate was 81%, the student response rate was 84%, and the overall response rate was 68%. The final analysis data set included 14,041 students from 157 schools.

Overall, 35.4% (95% CI=33.1%–37.7%) of students reported frequent TV use and 24.9% (95% CI=22.9%–27.0%) reported frequent computer/video game use. Moreover, 12.8% (95% CI=11.6%–14.2%) reported frequent TV and computer/video game use. Those who reported frequent TV use and those who reported frequent TV and computer/video game use were significantly younger and more likely to be male, black non-Hispanic or Hispanic, and in ninth or tenth grade than those who did not. Students who reported frequent computer/video game use were significantly younger and more likely to be male, of race other than White non-Hispanic, and in ninth or tenth grade than those who did not.

The prevalence of risk behaviors by TV and computer/video game use is shown in Table 1. The prevalence differed significantly for eight risk behaviors by TV use and for 12 risk behaviors by computer/video game use. For all but two of these – current alcohol drinking and episodic heavy drinking – risk-behavior prevalence was higher among those who reported frequent TV use or frequent computer/video game use than among those who did not. The prevalence for 16 risk behaviors was significantly higher among those who reported both frequent TV and computer/video game use than among those who did not.

We show crude odds ratios for risk behaviors with a significant chi-square p-value by TV use, and the adjusted odds ratios controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade in Table 2. Three risk behaviors were still significantly associated with frequent TV use after controlling for sex, race/ethnicity and grade, including initiation of alcohol use before age 13. Crude odds ratios for risk behaviors with a significant chi-square p-value by computer/video game use, and the adjusted odds ratios controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade are also shown in Table 2. Eight risk behaviors were still significantly associated with frequent computer/video game use after controlling for sex, race/ethnicity and grade, including initiation of alcohol use before age 13.

The same risk behaviors associated separately with frequent TV or computer/video game use also were associated with reporting both frequent TV and computer/video game use. In addition, involvement in a physical fight, carrying a weapon on school property, current marijuana use and lifetime illegal steroid use were significantly associated with reporting frequent TV and computer/video game use after controlling for sex, race/ethnicity and grade (data not shown).

When we added computer/video game use to the models for each of the three risk behaviors associated with TV use, computer/video game use was significantly associated with each behavior while TV use was no longer independently associated. Similarly, when TV use was added to the model for each of the eight risk behaviors associated with computer/video game use, TV use was not found to be significantly associated with any of the behaviors while computer/video game use remained significantly associated with each risk behavior. When the seven alcohol and drug use risk behaviors significantly associated with computer/video game use were added separately to the model for fighting at school that already included computer/video game use, each of the seven risk behaviors was significantly associated with fighting at school while computer/video use was no longer independently associated (data not shown).

Frequent TV use, frequent computer/video game use and frequent use of both TV and computers/video games were significantly associated with several of the risk behaviors examined. Of particular interest are the associations between video and computer use and involvement in physical fights, which is a topic extensively researched previously.4–7 These associations have generated a long-standing debate about the content and ratings of video and computer games and the ages for which some games may be appropriately introduced and used by youth. Additionally, our findings support earlier research by demonstrating that initiation of alcohol before age 13 is associated with TV-viewing as well as media and computer use. These findings are very important since early initiation of alcohol has significant short- and long-term health implications.20–30 Taken as a whole, these findings confirm, with a nationally representative sample, what other researchers have found in smaller studies and with specific populations, and provide a more comprehensive epidemiologic description of these associations.4–7

Several limitations to this study should be considered when interpreting the findings. First, the YRBS data do not contain detailed information on the exposure or outcome variables, such as which TV programs were watched or the content or ratings of any computer or video games played. Second, the survey is cross-sectional and cannot be used to infer causality. Third, the findings pertain to students attending school and may not generalize to those who are not in school. Finally, these analyses examined the basic associations between different forms of electronic media and risk behaviors and did not assess the influence of other possible confounders.

The high prevalence of media use among high school students and the association between high media use and health-risk behaviors emphasizes the need for parents, schools and healthcare providers to monitor youth screen time. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, has reported that office counseling is effective and suggests that pediatricians and other healthcare providers ask about the number of hours per day a child or adolescent is watching in order to advocate for safer media environments for children (http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/pediatrics;124/5/1495). Similarly, the American Psychological Association has suggested that parental involvement and monitoring is part of the solution and also introduced policy-related legislation in 2010 (the Healthy Media for Youth Act) to increase research in the area of media use and to emphasize the need for new strategies to reduce inappropriate media use (http://www.apa.org/about/gr/issues/women/healthy-media-week.aspx). While the field of youth media use is getting increased attention, our findings provide empirical evidence that even brief and broad measures of frequent TV and computer/video game use are associated with health-risk behaviors, especially involvement in physical fights and early initiation of alcohol use. The findings highlight the need for research on media exposure and health-risk behaviors as well as measures that seek to understand how the content and context (e.g., watching with peers, having computer in common area) of media use influence risk behaviors among youth.