Center on Media and Child Health

Research Wrap-Up: Recently Published Studies- January 29

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

Greitemeyer, T., & Osswald. S.(2010). Effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behavior. J Pers Soc Psychol. 98(2), 211-221.

• In the present research, four experiments examined the hypothesis that playing a prosocial video game increases helping behavior.

Markey, C.N. & Markey, P.M. (2010). A correlational and experimental examination of reality television viewing and interest in cosmetic surgery. Body Image, Available online January 18.

• These two studies are presented that examine the influence of media messages about cosmetic surgery on youths' interest in altering their own physical appearance.

Stang, J.,  Hoss, K., &  Story, M. (2010). Health statements made in infant formula advertisements in pregnancy and early parenting magazines: A Content Analysis. ICAN: Infant, Child, & Adolescent Nutrition, 2(1), 16-25

• The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the prevalence and content of health statements made in infant formula advertisements found in pregnancy and early parenting magazines from August 2006 to August 2007.

Suris, J-C., Akré, C., Berchtold, A., Bélanger,  R.E., &  Michaud, P-A. (2010). Chronically connected? Internet use among adolescents with chronic conditions. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(2) 200-202.

• This study explores Internet use among adolescents with chronic conditions.

Yao, M.Z., Mahood, C., & Linz. D.(2010). Sexual priming, gender stereotyping, and likelihood to sexually harass: Examining the cognitive effects of playing a sexually-explicit video game. Sex Roles, 62(1-2), 77-88.

• This study examines the short-term cognitive effects of playing a sexually explicit video game with female "objectification" content on male student players.

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Use the free CMCH Database of Research to find other studies on children, media, and health.

Research Toolbox: Children/Youth, Media, and Health Databases

Looking for freely available, comprehensive, bibliographic databases on the topics of media literacy, media, children, and health? Explore these four databases:

• The Center on Media and Child Health's Database of Research, Children's Hospital, Boston

The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) offers a comprehensive online database of peer-reviewed  research on media and child health.

• IZI-Datenbank, International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television, Germany

The International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI) offers an extensive reference database on children's, youth, and educational television. The database contains citations in several languages, including English, German, and French.

• Biblioteca Virtual da Saude: ADOLESC-Adolescent Health, Brazil

ADOLEC is a comprehensive and international bibliographic database on the topics of adolescents, youth, and health. The database contains bibliographic citations from peer-reviewed journal articles, theses, books, conferences, and government publications. The database contains citations in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.

• Media Literacy Database, International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media, Sweden

The Media Literacy Database is a tool for scholars, academics, teachers and experts looking for information and practical examples of media literacy initiatives anywhere in the world. You will find useful links to ongoing research projects, publications, relevant organizations, regulations, awareness raising efforts and examples of children's own media production.

Research Wrap-Up: Recently Published Studies-January 22

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

Fiorini, M. (2010)The effect of home computer use on children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Economics of Education Review, 29(1), 55-72.

• This study investigates the effect of using a home computer on children’s development.

Fischer, P.,  Kastenmüller, A., & Greitemeyer, T. (2010). Media violence and the self: The impact of personalized gaming characters in aggressive video games on aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 192-195.

• This study revealed that participants who played an aggressive video game using their own, personalized character exhibited higher levels of aggressive behavior than participants who played an aggressive game with a non-personalized character.

Freisling, H., Haas, K., & Elmadfa, I. (2010). Mass media nutrition information sources and associations with fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents. Public Health Nutr., 13(2), 269-75.

• The objective of the present study was to examine associations between exposure to nutrition information as covered in mass media and daily fruit and vegetable  consumption among adolescents.

Fischer, P.,  Kastenmüller, A., & Greitemeyer, T. (2010). Media violence and the self: The impact of personalized gaming characters in aggressive video games on aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 192-195.

• This study revealed that participants who played an aggressive video game using their own, personalized character exhibited higher levels of aggressive behavior than participants who played an aggressive game with a non-personalized character.

Hilton, S., Hunt, K., Langan, M., Bedf, H., &  Petticrew M. (2010). Newsprint media representations of the introduction of the HPV vaccination programme for cervical cancer prevention in the UK (2005-2008). Soc Sci Med., Available Online January 9.

• This paper reports on content analysis of 344 articles published between January 2005 and December 2008 in 15 UK newspapers. It includes both manifest and latent analysis to examine newsprint media coverage of the introduction of the HPV vaccination programme and its role in HPV advocacy.

Ohgi, S., Loo, K.K., & Mizuike, C. (2010). Frontal brain activation in young children during picture book reading with their mothers. Acta Pædiatrica,  99(2) 225-229.

• This study was to measure changes in frontal brain activation in young children during picture book reading with their mothers.

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Use the free CMCH Database of Research to find other studies on children, media, and health.

Research Toolbox: Journal of Children and Media-Call for Papers

 

Call for Papers- Journal of Children and Media- Special issue on Children, Media, and Health

Media, in various formats, can influence the healthy development of children and adolescents in both positive and negative ways.  This special issue of the Journal of Children and Media will add to the inter-disciplinary literature by providing well-designed studies and theoretical papers exploring whether and how media use affects the physical, mental, and behavioral health of young people.

CMCH Director, Dr. Michael Rich and Dina L.G. Borzekowski, guest editors, invite contributions to a special issue on Children, Media, and Health from a wide range of disciplines, perspectives, theoretical, and methodological approaches.  The guest editors are particularly interested in compiling quality papers that can inform risk assessment, intervention design, and positive media applications aimed at a diversity of populations, technologies and content.

Examples of potential papers might be:

• Examining how young people use, multitask with, and are exposed to various media and how  these uses/exposures influence their lifestyles, health, education, and development.
•  Reporting evaluated media literacy programs and other interventions which have been demonstrated to limit or reduce negative health effects from media use.
• Examining whether and how broadcast, print, or interactive media can educate, empower, and reduce risky behaviors among children and youth.
• Considering whether use of electronic games, such as the Wii, can support the physical development of toddlers and fitness of children and youth.
• Sharing interactive media interventions shown to improve quality of life among adolescents with chronic or psychiatric conditions. 
• Studying whether interactive technology such as texting can improve health education and communication among adolescents and their health care providers.
• Analyzing how public health messages and entertainment media can educate and activate improved  health practices in different cultures.

Submission Guidelines:

• A 300 word abstract, full contact information for the corresponding author, and a biographical note (up to 75 words) on each of the authors should be submitted to Dr. Dina Borzekowski (dborzeko@jhsph.edu) as an e-mail attachment by no later than March 15, 2010.
• Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by March 31, 2010 and will then be invited to submit a full paper to the guest editors.
• Manuscripts should be no more than 8,000 words, including notes and references, conform to APA style, and submitted by August 1, 2010. 
• Expected publication date is Volume 6 issue 1, Winter 2012

Research Wrap-Up: Recently Published Studies-January 15

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

Abramson, M.J., Benke, G.P., Dimitriadis, C., Inyang, I.O., Sim, M.R., Wolfe, R.S. & Croft, R.J. (2010). Mobile telephone use is associated with changes in cognitive function in young adolescents. Bioelectromagnetics, 30(8), 678-86.

• This study examined the relationship between mobile phones and changes cognitive function in secondary school students.

He, M., Piché, L., Beynon, C. &  Harris, S. (2010) Screen-related sedentary behaviors: Children's and parents' attitudes, motivations, and practices. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 42 (1),  17-25.

• This study investigates school-aged children's and parents' attitudes, social influences, and intentions toward excessive screen-related sedentary behavior.

Henson, C., Chapman, S., McLeod, L., Johnson, N. & Hickie, I. (2010). Room for improvement: Mixed portrayal of young people with mental illness on Australian television news. Aust N Z J Psychiatry, Available Online January 4.

• The aim of the present study was to review television news depiction of mental illness in children and adolescents to test the hypothesis that positive portrayals of adults with mental illness also apply to young people.

Strenziok, M. et al. (2010) Lower lateral orbitofrontal cortex density associated with more frequent exposure to television and movie violence in male adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health,  Available online 13 January.

• The relationship between cortical grey matter density and media violence exposure in healthy male adolescents was investigated using voxel-based morphometry and the Childrens' Report of Exposure to Violence.

Zimmerman, F.J. &  Bell, J.F. (2010). Associations of television content type and obesity in children. American Journal of Public Health, 100 (2), 334-340.

• The researchers tested the associations of content types of children's television viewing with subsequent body mass index (BMI) to assess the plausibility of different causal pathways.

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Use the free CMCH Database of Research to find other studies on children, media, and health.

Recent Questions on Ask the Mediatrician

If you haven't checked out Ask the Mediatrician lately, head on over to see these and other recent questions from parents and answers from Dr. Michael Rich, Director of CMCH:

• My son wants Call of Duty, but how do these games affect teen boys?
• Will my preschooler fall behind if she doesn't learn how to use the computer?
• Does multitasking with media distract kids from homework?

If you know of a website whose audience could benefit from the free Ask the Mediatrician service, send the webmaster these simple steps to add an Ask the Mediatrician button like the one below!

Research Wrap-Up: Recently Published Studies-January 8

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

Kafai, Y.B. (2010). World of Whyville: Introduction to tween virtual life. Games and Culture, 5(1), 3-22.

• This paper explores the virtual world, Whyville.net, which at the time of the study hosted over 1.2 million players ages 8 to16 years.

Lubetzky, R.; Mimouni, F.B.; Dollberg, S.; Reifen, R.; Ashbel, G.; Mandel, G.D. (2010). Effect of music by Mozart on energy expenditure in growing preterm infants. Pediatrics, 125(1): e24-e28.

• This study tests the hypothesis that music by Mozart reduces resting energy expenditure (REE) in growing healthy preterm infants.

Schoenfeld, E.R.; Ng, P.; Henderson, K. & Wu, S-Y (2010) Using the Internet to educate adolescents about osteoporosis: Application of a tailored web-education system. Health Promot Pract., 11(1),  104-111.

• This article describes the development and pilot testing of an online system to educate high school students grades 9—12 about osteoporosis; an age where positive health changes could have long lasting effects.

Sharif, I.; Wills, T.A.; &  Sargent, J.D. (2010). Effect of visual media use on school performance: A prospective study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(1), 52-61.

• To identify mechanisms for the impact of visual media use on adolescents' school performance.

Tickle, J.J., Michael L. Beach, M.L. & Dalton, M.A. (2009). Tobacco, alcohol, and other risk behaviors in film: How well do MPAA Ratings distinguish content? Journal of Health Communication, 14(8), 756-767.

• To evaluate the usefulness of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings for parental selection of appropriate films for children.

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Use the free CMCH Database of Research to find other studies on children, media, and health.

Research Toolbox: Upcoming Conferences

Save the dates! To help you keep track of relevant conferences and events, here is a list of upcoming conferences from around the world that may be of interest

Conferences

• Society for Research in Human Development (SRHD) Biennial Conference, 25-27 March, San Antonio, TX.

• 3rd Annual Media Literacy Confereence-Media Literacy and its Impact on Substance Abuse, 25-26 March, Harrisburg, PA.

• e-Youth: Balancing between Opportunities & Risks?  27–28 May, Antwerp, Belgium.

• EuroITV 2010- 8th European Conference on Interactive Video and TV, 9-11June, Tampere, Finland. 

• 8th International  Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, 17-21 June, Hong Kong.

• The International Association for Media and Communication Research - IAMCR 2010, 18-22 July,  Braga, Portugal.

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Let us know if you know about any conference or event of interest that you would like us to post.