Center on Media and Child Health

Research Wrap-Up: Recently Published Studies- August 24

New published studies on children, media, and health which explore a range of topics:

Gershoff, E. T.; Aber, J.L.; Ware, J. & Kotler, J.A. (2010). Exposure to 9/11 among youth and their mothers in New York City: Enduring associations with mental health and sociopolitical attitudes. Child Development, 81(4),1142–1160.

• The authors found that direct exposure to the terrorist attack was associated with youth depression symptoms and with mothers’ post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Media exposure was found to be a strong predictor of youth’s and mothers’ sociopolitical attitudes about issues such as prejudice toward immigrants, social mistrust, and current events.

Kupersmidt, J.B.; Scull, T.M. & Austin,  E.W. (2010). Media literacy education for elementary school substance use prevention: Study of media detective. Pediatrics, Published online August 23.

• The authors found that after using the Media Detective program, boys reported significantly less interest in alcohol-branded merchandise than boys that did not participated in the program. Also, students who were in the Media Detective group and had used alcohol or tobacco in the past reported significantly less intention to use and more self-efficacy to refuse substances.

Shargorodsky, J.; Curhan, S.G.; Curhan, G.C.; & Eavey, R. (2010). Change in prevalence of hearing loss in US adolescents. JAMA, 304(7), 772-778.

• The authors found that the prevalence of hearing loss among a sample of US adolescents aged 12 to 19 years was greater in 2005-2006 compared with 1988-1994. Some risk factors, such as loud sound exposure from listening to music, may be of particular importance to adolescents.

Shochat, T.; Flint-Bretler, O.; & Tzischinsky, O. (2010). Sleep patterns, electronic media exposure and daytime sleep-related behaviours among Israeli adolescents. Acta Pædiatrica, 99(9),1396-1400.

• The authors found that poor sleep patterns in Israeli adolescents are related to excessive electronic media habits (3 h for television and 2.5 h for internet) and daytime sleep-related problems.

Wacogne, I. & Scott-Jupp, R. (2010). The role of Google in children's health. Arch Dis Child, 95, 576-577. FREE PDF

• Increasingly, both families and doctors use Google to seek medical advice and information. The authors argue that their role as health professionals is to remain abreast of the information their patients and families consult, to be able to better guide searches, and place the results into helpful context. 

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

Research Wrap-Up: Recently Published Studies-August 17

New published studies on children, media, and health which explore a range of topics:

Bleakley, A., Hennessy, M. & Fishbein, M. (2010). "A model of adolescents' seeking of sexual content in their media choices." J Sex Res, Available online July 28.

• The researchers found that  half of adolescents in the study sample reported actively seeking sexual content in their media choices, which included movies, television, music, Internet pornography sites, and magazines.

Cain N, &  Gradisar M. (2010). Electronic media use and sleep in school-aged children and adolescents: A review. Sleep Med. 11(8),735-742

• The study identified 36 papers that have investigated the relationship between sleep and electronic media in school-aged children and adolescents, including television viewing, use of computers, electronic gaming, and/or the internet, mobile telephones, and music. Researchers found that delayed bedtime and shorter total sleep time have been found to be most consistently related to media use.

Kron, F.W.; Gjerde, C.L.; Sen, A. &  Fetters, M.D. (2010). Medical student attitudes toward video games and related new media technologies in medical education. BMC Medical Education, 10, 50. FREE PDF

• Researchers found that medical student, including many who do not play video games, held highly favorable views about the use of video games and related new media technology in medical education.

Tahiroglu, A.Y., Celik, G.G., Avci, A., Seydaoglu, G., Uzel, M.; & Altunbas, H. (2010) Short-term effects of playing computer games on attention. J Atten Disord. 13(6), 668-676.

• Researchers found that time spent playing computer games can exert a short-term effect on attention in children with different psychiatric disorders and normal controls.

Tiggemann, M.; &  Miller, J. (2010). The Internet and adolescent girls’ weight satisfaction and drive for thinness. Sex Roles,  63(1-2), 79-90.

• Researchers found that Internet exposure and magazine reading, but not television exposure, were correlated with greater internalization of thin ideals, appearance comparison, weight dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness for adolescent girls.

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

Research Toolbox: Google Alerts Made Easy

Google Alerts are an easy away to get regular updates about something that interests you, including research topics. This is a great way to be on top of relevant news, topics, and research. Google Alerts will send you an email whenever something is indexed by Google on the topics or keywords that you selected.

You can use Google Alerts to:

• Get the latest news about research topics, new published studies,reports, or work by a particular author/organization.
• Find out what is being said about a company or product.
• Monitor a developing news story.
• Keep up to date on a competitor or industry.
• Get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team.
• Find out if your name or organization has been cited in the press.

Here's how it works:

• You enter a query that you're interested in (content of the search). For example, "media violence” or "children and television.” To get more accurate results, you will want to utilize some of the Advanced Search options (+, -, "", or, not) or Search Operators (link:, site:) to narrow down the search. You can create up to 1000 alerts!
• Select the type of information to search: from everything to news, blogs, etc.
• How often the alert should be sent: as-it-happens, once a day or once a week.
• Email length: how many results would you like to see.
• Enter your email address: you do not have to have or use a Gmail account
• If there are new results, Google Alerts sends them to you in an email.

Do you use Google Alerts? Tell us why and your most interesting search tips!

Research Wrap-Up: Recently Published Studies-August 3

New published studies on children, media, and health which explore a range of topics:

Henriksen, L.; Schleicher, N.C.;  Feighery,  E.C. & Fortmann, S.P. (2010). A longitudinal study of exposure to retail cigarette advertising and smoking initiation. Pediatrics, 126(2), 232-238.

• The authors found that exposure to retail cigarette advertising is a risk factor for smoking initiation. They found that after 12 months, 18% of adolescents initiated smoking, but the incidence was higher among students who visited convenience, liquor, or small grocery stores at least twice per week.

Kahlenberg, S.G & Hein, M.M. (2010). Progression on Nickelodeon? Gender-role stereotypes in toy commercials. Sex Roles, 62(11-12), 830-847.

• The authors found that the majority of girl and boy characters were featured in gender-specific toy commercials, and there were more identifiable girls than boys. Almost one-half of the characters were children (6-to-10-years old) who predominantly played indoors, in mixed colored settings, and engaged in cooperative play. Boys were more likely than girls to be shown outdoors and playing competitively.

Lam, L.T. &  Peng, Z-W. (2010 ) Effect of pathological use of the Internet on adolescent mental health: A prospective study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Published online August 2.

• The results of this study suggest that young people who are initially free of mental health problems but use the Internet pathologically could develop that of those who did not exhibit the targeted pathological internet use behaviors depression as a consequence.

Lauricella, A.L., Pempek,  T.A., Barr, R.; & Calvert, S.L. (2010). Contingent computer interactions for young children's object retrieval success. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Available Online.

• The results of this study suggest that children's learning from a screen, such as interactive video games, can be improved by contingent, interactive experiences with media. These findings can help producers create online games that facilitate children's skills at linking what they do on a screen to real-life experiences.

Swing, E.L.;  Gentile, D.A.; Anderson, C.A. &  Walsh, D.A. (2010).Television and video game exposure and the development of attention problems. Pediatrics,126(2), 214-221.

• The authors argue that viewing television and playing video games each are associated with increased subsequent attention problems in childhood. It seems that a similar association among television, video games, and attention problems exists in late adolescence and early adulthood.

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