Center on Media and Child Health

Research Wrap-Up: October 31, 2008

Here is a list of recently published studies on children, media, and health exploring  a range of  topics:

• To explore whether high exposure to violent video games increases physical aggression over time in both high- (United States) and low- (Japan) violence cultures.
• To examine the association between violence in the media and the expression of seriously violent behavior among older children and teenagers in a U.S. sample.
• To examine associations between exposure to television sexual content and adolescent pregnancy.
• To analyzed the framing of alcohol consumption in the American adolescent drama series The OC.

Anderson, C. A. et al. (2008). Longitudinal Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Japan and the United States. Pediatrics, 122 (5), e1067-e1072.

Chandra, A. et al. (2008). Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings From a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Pediatrics, 122 (5), 1047-1054.

Sargent, J., Gibson, J., & Heatherton, T. (2008). Comparing the Effects of Entertainment Media and Tobacco Marketing on Youth Smoking. Tob Control, Available Online 23 October.

Van Den Bulck, H., Simons,  N., Gorp, B.V. (2008). Let's Drink and Be Merry: The Framing of Alcohol in the Prime-Time American Youth Series The OC. Journal Of Studies On Alcohol And Drugs, 69 (6), 933-40.

Ybarra, M. L. et al. (2008). Linkages Between Internet and Other Media Violence With Seriously Violent Behavior by Youth. Pediatrics, 122 (5), 929-937.

Children's Safety vs. Free Speech?

On Wednesday, California will once again bring to the courts the question of whether to bar the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The Mercury New reports that supporters intend to protect children from the negative effects of exposure to media violence. Opponents, however, say that the law is unconstitutional and claim that the link between violent video games and violence in children has not been sufficiently demonstrated.

A similar question of safety vs. free speech rages in South Korea this week, after the suicide of actor Choi Jin-si. According to the LA Times, rumors on the Web had blamed her for a friend's suicide and may have pushed her toward her own. Government officials who were already advocating harsher punishments for such behavior are using this incident as additional leverage.

As in the California case, proponents say that such punishments will help protect the innocent. But those who oppose the law believe that there is little research to support the connection between such harassment and rates of depression. They also say that it could be used to stifle free speech or discourage political dissent.

Research Wrap-Up: October 24, 2008

Here is a list of recently published studies on children, media, and health exploring  a range of  topics:

• Examination of the relationship between Greek young people aged 12-18 and the Internet through their patterns of Internet use in the home.
• Exploration to understand if  violence depicted in television programs, particularly cartoons, has a negative impact  on young children’s behavior.
• Examination of the potential of increasing physical activity and decreasing media usage in a 14-year-old adolescent female by making time spent on the Internet and/or cell phone contingent on physical activity.

Aslanidou, S. & Menexes, G. (2008). Youth and the Internet: Uses and practices in the home. Computers & Education, 51(3), 1375-1391.

Blumberg, F.C.,Bierwirth, K.P., & Schwartz, A.J. (2008). Does cartoon violence beget aggressive behavior in real life? An opposing view. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(20), 101-104.

Galcheva, S.V., Iotova, V.M., Stratev, V.K. (2008). Television food advertising directed towards Bulgarian children. Archives Of Disease In Childhood, 93 (10), 857-861.

Larwin, K. H. & Larwin, D.A. (2008). Decreasing excessive media usage while increasing physical activity.A single-subject research study. Behavior Modification, 32(6), 938-956.

Oka,Y., Suzuki, S., & Inoue Y.(2008). Bedtime activities, sleep environment, and sleep/wake patterns of Japanese elementary school children. Behav Sleep Med., 6(4), 220-233.

Research Wrap-Up: October 17, 2008

Here is a list of recently published studies on children, media, and health exploring  a range of  topics:

• Exploration of why and how teens engage and consume online mobile gaming.
• Exploration the association between smoking in the movies with adolescent smoking in middle-income countries (Mexico.).
• Discussion of the use of  methylphenidate treatment to reduce Internet use in youth with  ADHD and Internet video game addictions.
• Examination of online and in-school bullying among Internet-using adolescents.

Han, D.H et al. (2008). The effect of methylphenidate on Internet video game play in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry, Available online 15 October 2008.

Juvonen, J. & Gross, E.F. (2008). Extending the school grounds?—Bullying experiences in cyberspace. Journal of School Health, 78 (9), 496-505.

Manios, Y et al. (2008).  Television viewing and food habits in toddlers and preschoolers in Greece: the GENESIS study. Eur J Pediatr. Available online Oct 3.

Okazaki, S. (2008). Exploring experiential value in online mobile gaming adoption. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(5) :619-622. 

Thrasher, J. et al. (2008). Exposure to smoking imagery in popular films and adolescent smoking in Mexico. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 35 (2): 95-102.

Can Reading Help Kids Lose Weight?

We know that reading offers a wide variety of benefits, but is encouraging weight loss one of them? According to a new study by Duke University researchers, the answer might be yes--when you're reading the right kind of book.

Healthy Lifestyles, Duke's six-month childhood obesity program, gave 31 of its 81 participants a book called Lake Rescue to read. The book is one of B*Tween Production's Beacon Street Girls series, which the New York Times reports was shaped by experts in adolescent development and created as "antidote to the diet of sex and consumerism served up in so much young-adult literature."

This volume tells the story of an overweight girl who gains confidence and an appreciation for fitness on a camping trip. Participants who read Lake Rescue showed an average 0.71 decrease in body mass index scores. The other participants, however, some of whom were given a non-weight-related Beacon Street Girls book and some of whom were not given a book, showed an average increase of 0.05.

Research Wrap-Up: October 10, 2008

Here is a list of recently published studies on children, media, and health exploring  a range of  topics:

• Exploration of how effectively students can assess the accuracy of Internet-based material when gathering information on a controversial medical topic using simple keyword searches.
• Discussion of the relation between television, computer games, and the Internet and antisocial aggressive behavior in kids under 18.
• Examination of the continuous targeting of  youth to magazine advertising of tobacco products

Alpert,  H.R. et al. (2008). After the Master Settlement Agreement: Targeting and exposure of youth to magazine tobacco advertising. Health Aff. Available online Sep 30.

Clemente, M. et al. (2008). The media and violent behavior in young people: Effects of the media on antisocial aggressive behavior in a Spanish sample. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(10), 2395-2409.

Ke, F. (2008). A case study of computer gaming for math: Engaged learning from gameplay?. Computers & Education, 51(4), 1609-1620.

Kortum, P. et al. (2008).The impact of inaccurate Internet health information in a secondary school learning environment. J Med Internet Res. 10(2): e17.

Tahiroglu, A. et al (2008). Internet use among Turkish adolescents. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(5), 537-543.

Books + Video Games = Increased Reading?

Virtually all young people in the U.S. play video games, according to a recent Pew Internet study, but fewer and fewer seem to be reading books for fun. As a recent study from the National Endowment for the Arts reports, less than one third of thirteen-year-olds are daily readers.

There are a variety of approaches to reversing this phenomenon, and an article in Sunday's New York Times explores a fairly recent one: the coupling of books with video games. PJ Haarsma, an author who wrote a science fiction novel for pre-teens and designed an online game to go along with it, is quoted as saying that this approach "brings the book into [a young reader's] world, as opposed to going the other way around."

The article says that teachers and literacy experts worry that such connections might encourage skipping the text to get to the game, but authors like Haarsma are making that difficult to do--to get to the next level of his game, you need information from within the book. And some point out that reading the instruction manual counts and might even encourage further delving into the world of the written word.

Does TV Violence Affect Children of Different Races and Genders Differently?

Many studies have explored the relationship between kids' exposure to media violence and harmful health effects, but there has been little research into whether these effects tend to differ depending on the viewer's gender or race.

A study published in September's Perspectives on Psychological Science brings some new evidence to the table. Researchers found that, among elementary-school-aged White males and females and African-American females, those who watched more violent TV programming tended to do less well in school and to be more aggressive than those who watched less.

African-American males, however, seemed to have a different relationship to violent television: Those who watched more of it did not tend to do less well in school or display more aggression than those who watched less. These results may suggest that TV plays a different role in the lives of African-American males than it does for members of the other three groups. Researchers call for additional study in this area.

Research Wrap-Up: October 3, 2008

Here is a list of recently published studies on children, media, and health exploring  a range of  topics:

• Assessment of behavioral and social variables to understand the correlation to sedentary time in European youth.
• Understand how young patients with type 1 diabetes interact with the Sweet Talk, a  system which  sends messages to patients' cell phones about medical care and management.
• Examination of variables that moderate the influence of exposure to TV violence.
• Assessment of television food advertising to children in Malaysian.

Beyerlein, A. et al. (2008). Alternative regression models to assess increase in childhood BMI. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 8:59.

Feshbach, S. & Tangney, J. (2008). Television Viewing and Aggression: Some Alternative Perspectives. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 387-389.

Franklin, V.L. t al. (2008). Patients' engagement with "Sweet Talk" - a text messaging support system for young people with diabetes. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(2), e20.

Ingleby, R. et al. (2008). UNCROC and the prevention of childhood obesity: the right not to have food advertisements on television. J Law Med. 16(1), 49-56.

Karupaiah, T et al. (2008). What's on Malaysian television? - A survey on food advertising targeting children. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 17(3), 483-91.

van Sluijs, E.M. et al. (2008).Behavioural and social correlates of sedentary time in young people.Br J Sports Med. Available e-pub Sep 23.