Abstract:

A sample of 900 pupils, aged 6 to 13 and representative for the Federal Republic Of Germany (and their mothers) was questioned about a wide-spread selection of leisure-time activities, media-consumption as well as their opinions and attitudes towards (commercial) television and consumers' environment. The essential item for the determination of the quantitative value of tv consumption in context with communication behavior was a daily routine analysis where the pupils should register their indoors and outdoors activities of 'yesterday' as completely as possible. The same instrument of investigation has been used for children in the first class of primary school as well as for those in puberty, an instrument that has been tested in time budget- and broadcast media-research. The age groups in question are distinguished by important developments in the cognitive, emotional and social sphere - a fact which has not only an important impact on the child's personal experience but also on his ability to give information about his opinions, behavior etc. For this reason a systematic examination of the results on the basis of comparable data of the continuous television audience measurement seemed to be of great interest.