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Abstract
This study examined the relationship between aspects of family life and children's home television usage. Data were gathered from 282 families regarding: (i) their preschool child's viewing habits, (ii) their own leisure activities, (iii) their controlling and monitoring of television usage in the home, (iv) their attitudes to television, and (v) certain demographic characteristics.
This study established that the importance placed by parents on TV as a leisure activity was related to both the type and quantity of TV viewed by preschoolers, as were parental attitudes to the medium and socioeconomic status. These predictors were interrelated less highly, however, than anticipated. Measures designed to reflect the degree to which parents were laissez faire in controlling their child's TV usage added little explanatory value. Possible reasons for this finding and alternative explanatory variables are discussed.