Media Consumption and Race Associations in Toddlers

Abstract

Investigating media’s impact on young minds can provide insight into how toddlers develop their understanding of the world around them. At 12 months of age, approximately 75% of U.S. toddlers watch television, and 90% do so by 24 months. Additionally, most infants are read to on a weekly basis. The present study explores how the media toddlers consume relates to their thinking and behavior. Specifically, it examines whether racial diversity in toddler media relates to toddlers’ race associations. Sixty children participated in 3 race association selection tasks at the University of Minnesota Child Development Laboratory School. Parents reported on the diversity of the media that the children consumed. A multivariate Poisson regression showed that older toddlers chose fewer markers to use to color in a line drawing of a face. There were no other significant associations between task performance and media consumption or age. Overall, the study found that racial diversity in toddlers’ media consumption is generally unrelated to the races the toddlers select in race association tasks, although toddlers choose fewer different skin-colored markers to use to color in a face as they get older.