The study by the University of Otago followed a group of around 1000 children born in the New Zealand city of Dunedin in 1972-73.
Every two years between the ages of 5 and 15, they were asked how much television they watched.
Those who watched more television were more likely to have a criminal conviction and were also more likely to have antisocial personality traits in adulthood.
Study co-author Associate Professor Bob Hancox of the University's Department of Preventive and Social Medicine says he and colleagues found that the risk of having a criminal conviction by early adulthood increased by about 30 percent with every hour that children spent watching TV on an average weeknight.
The study also found that watching more television in childhood was associated, in adulthood, with aggressive personality traits, an increased tendency to experience negative emotions, and an increased risk of antisocial personality disorder; a psychiatric disorder characterised by persistent patterns of aggressive and antisocial behaviour.
A study co-author, Lindsay Robertson, says it is not that children who were already antisocial watched more television. "Rather, children who watched a lot of television were likely to go on to manifest antisocial behaviour and personality traits."
While we're not saying that television causes all antisocial behaviour, our findings do suggest that reducing TV viewing could go some way towards reducing rates of antisocial behaviour in society," says Associate Professor Hancox.
The study has been published online in the US journal Pediatrics.
Source: Times of India
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