Center on Media and Child Health

Recently Added Studies to the CMCH Database of Research

Take a look at some of the studies we recently added to the CMCH Database of Research.

Goldsmith, A.Y., et al. (2012). The cover story: What the book jacket of Adele Michin's young adult novel. The Beat Goes On, communicates about HIV/AIDS. The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults.

• This study analyzed a book cover to determine whether cover art communicates subject matter.

Nan, X., et al. (2012). HPV vaccine information in the Blogosphere: How positive and negative blogs influence Vaccine-related risk perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. Health Communication  27(8), 829-836.

• This study looked at college students and their attitudes toward the HPV vaccine by exposing them to positive- or negative-perspective blogs about the vaccine.

Roman, Z., et al. (2012). The Brand and the Bold: Synergy and sidekicks in licensed-based children’s television. Global Media Journal, 12(20), 1-15.

• This study analyzed the gender and commercialism in Batman's sidekicks in a children's television show.

Looking for research on other topics? Search the rest of the database for more studies.

Connections in News, Media, and Research: Women's History Month

March is celebrated as Women's History Month. Before the end of the month, we wanted to share with you some interesting research, news, and media relating to women's health, gender stereotypes, and more.

• March is also Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, and often these two issues go hand in hand. Take a look at this analysis of dating in Twilight, this 2011 study on how viewing media depictions of violence influences aggression, and an article on how teen girls' magazines frame stories of dating violence around the female victims.
• This report from Hollywood.com looks at how few women directors there are in Hollywood, and how many fewer get recognized. Did you know only four women have ever been nominated for a Best Director Oscar, and only one (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009, The Hurt Locker) has ever won?
• A recent panel at SXSW discussed the propensity of woman-owned media outlets that call Millennial and older women "girls" and wax poetic about kittens and cupcakes. Is it demeaning to women? A reclaiming of a term and new definition? How do you think this might influence today's young girls and teens as they grow into adults?
• Looking for some age-appropriate reading for your whole family to do? Check out Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month for book suggestions and literature discussion.
• Are you caught up on CMCH's other blog, Ask the Mediatrician? Check out some of the past posts that have dealt with gender: talking to girls about media and body image, marketing pink toys to girls, slut lists, and more.
• Take a look at feminist scholar and critic Anita Sarkeesian's video (and transcripts) series "Tropes vs. Women," which unpacks stereotypical female characters in movies, television, and video games.
• By the way, if you think it's only parents who notice that toy marketing is especially gendered, take a look at this little girl schooling her father on gender double standards.

How did you observe Women's History Month this year?

Connections in News, Media, and Research: Eating Disorders Awareness Week

From February 24 to March 2, we observe Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Here is some news, research, and media on the subject.

• National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is sponsored by the National Eating Disorders Association. You can learn about them here.
• Have you heard of "pro-ana" websites? User-generated and maintained web communities, pro-anorexia sites offer encouragement and tips for those suffering from eating disorders to continue their habits. Check out a 2007 study on functions of such websites and a 2006 study that looked at which adolescents use these sites.
• "Recovery is absolutely possible, and with a supportive, loving family member like you on her side, the light at the end of the tunnel shines a little brighter," says an advice columnist to a girl worried that her sister has an eating disorder. Older girls give advice to younger girls on weight, body image, eating, and more on teen e-mag Rookie. 
• Consider taking a look at teen and children's fiction about eating disorders and body image for some new perspectives on the issue. For contemporary takes, recent titles include Butter by Erin Jade Lange (YA), Skinny by Donna Cooner (YA), and Perfect by Natasha Friend (middle grade). Some classic titles include Judy Blume's Blubber (middle grade), Fat Camp Commandoes by Daniel Pinkwater (middle grade), and Life in the Fat Lane (YA) by Cherie Bennett. You can also take a look at the Young Adult Library Services Association's blog post in honor of this week.
• Research in 2006 pointed to media literacy interventions as having a great positive effect on college-aged women's body image and eating disorder risk.
• Often people point to the images of women in the media as a huge contributor to eating disorders and body dissatisfaction. A 2006 study found that girls who were more interested in fashion images had higher body dissatisfaction than those interested in fitness images, while a 2003 study considered what these images of females say to boys and what they say to girls.
• Based on the comments on YouTube, R&B trio TLC's music video for "Unpretty" still hits a nerve with its honest lyrics about body and self image. 
• A literary magazine consisting completely of teen work since 1989, Teen Ink has published personal narratives of teens who have experienced eating disorders, including this essay on beating it.

Do you have resources or stories to share in honor of Eating Disorder Awareness Week? Let us know.

Recently Added Studies on Children, Media, and Health

Here are some studies that were recently added to the CMCH Database of Research.

Behm-Morawitz, E., & Mastro, D.E. (2008). Mean girls? The influence of gender portrayals in teen movies on emerging adults' gender-based attitudes and beliefs. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 85(1), 131-146.

• This study found that teen movies imply a sense of normality to aggressive female friendships.

Coyne, S.M., et al. (2011). Media depictions of physical and relational aggression: Connections with aggression in young adults' romantic relationships. Aggressive Behavior, 37(1), 56-62.

• Researchers asked college students about their television viewing preferences and looked for connections between the shows they watched and their dating experiences.

Sloane, K., et al. (2012). A content analysis of the portrayal of alcohol in televised music videos in New Zealand: Changes over time. Drug and Alcohol Review, 32(1), 47-52.

• Researchers analyzed the presence of alcohol imagery and messages in music videos and determined that only 4% portrayed alcohol in a negative light.

Wang, H., et al. (2011). Problematic Internet use in high school students in Guangdong province, China. PLoS One, 6(5), e19660.

• Researchers in this study attempted to identify which lifestyle and relationship factors led to problematic Internet use in adolescents.

Looking for more research? Take a look in the CMCH Database of Research.

Connections in News, Media, and Research: World AIDS Day Edition

December 1st is World AIDS Day, but the awareness month continues until the new year. Here is some news and research on media and its connections with sexual health, STI/STD prevention, and sexual health literacy.

• Take a look at the official World AIDS Day website, with statistics, videos, event listings, and more. Did you know it was the first global health day?
• Why is this an important day to recognize, especially for CMCH? Research shows that the numbers of young people infected with HIV are growing, and around 60% of these teens don't even know they are affected, meaning that they miss out on healthcare and could pass HIV on to new partners. For us, that means that it's ever more important to teach health literacy, using a variety of methods - including meda - to get vital messages across.
• If you're curious about how sexual activity is portrayed in fictional media like novels, movies, and television shows, we have some research in our database. Here is an analysis of sexual activity content in young adult novels. A 2011 study looked at whether exposure to sex on TV varied by show genre. In 2010, researchers asked teens for their judgment on sexual content in television shows, and in 2009 researchers looked at whether viewing sexual content on television was related to a lower fear of contracting AIDS.
• You don't have to be an adult to care about teens and health literacy. Take a look at this blog post by a 17-year-old writer on why it's important to get tested for HIV. That same writer also wrote another post linking to a video on touring reproductive health clinics in order to lower fears and stigma associated with such visits.
• Many healthcare providers have been experimenting with using new media to engage with adolescents and encourage preventive sexual health practices. Here's a study on computer-based interventions targeting teens in rural areas, and this study looked at the efficacy of similar programs. There is also a texting-based prevention program. And what do you think of this much older (1990) method, an AIDS comic book?
• In this study, teens themselves took the lead on teaching their peers about media representations of sex.
• For more global perspectives on HIV/AIDS prevention, take a look at these studies based in Brazil, Uganda, Jamaica, and a global initiative with a study based in Nepal, Brazil, and Senegal.
• Rookie is an online teen magazine (and huge phenomenon) started by a teenage girl and featuring adult and teen contributors. It's a great way for teen girls to teach and converse with each other about sexual health issues, empowerment, and concerns. Take a look at some of these great posts: 1, 2, and 3.

To look at more research on the effects of media on child and adolescent health, check out the free CMCH Database of Research.

Recently Added Studies on Children, Media, and Health

Check out these studies of interest that were recently added to our database.

Durham, Meenakshi Gigi. (2011). Blood, lust and love: Interrogating gender violence in the Twilight phenomenon. The Journal of Children and Media, 6(3), 281-299.

• The researcher investigated the popular YA book series The Twilight Saga and looked at gender stereotypes and dating activities and customs. The author considered what influence the gender roles in the series might have on its readers.

Lwin, May O., & Malik, Shelly. (2011). The role of media exposure, peers, and family on body dissatisfaction amongst boys and girls in Singapore. Journal of Children and Media, 6(1), 69-82.

• Researchers surveyed 10- to 13-year-old children in Singapore to learn about their body image and body dissatisfaction. They found that both parents and peer groups have an effect on tweens and early adolescents' body image, as does media exposure.

McDermott, Jeanne T. (2011). Getting it on: An examination of how contraceptives are portrayed in young adult literature. Young Adult Library Services, 9(4), 47-53.

• The author of this study, a youth services librarian, analyzed the content of 25 YA novels published between 1995 and 2010 to determine what types of portrayals of contraceptive use each book contained. She determined that fiction alone was not a good enough resource for teens.

Mossle, Thomas, et al. (2010). Media use and school achievement--boys at risk? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28(pt 3), 699-725.

• In this study, researchers looked at the connection between media use and academics. They found that boys who used media frequently were more likely than girls to have lower school achievement, especially when video and computer games were involved. They also found that children whose schools had a media literacy education program were more likely to have high achievement.

Wansink, B., et al. (2012). Can branding improve school lunches? Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 166(10), 967-968.

• This letter from the researchers described an experiment in which schoolchildren were given branded and unbranded food items, healthy and unhealthy, in an effort to determine whether the presence of a recognizable character, such as Elmo, would make them more likely to choose a certain item.

To find more studies on children, media, and health, click here to search our database.

Recently Added Studies on Children, Media, and Health

Check out these studies of interest on the topics of children, media, and health that were recently added to the CMCH database:

Barroso, C.S., et al. (2011). Saturday morning television advertisements aired on English and Spanish language networks along the Texas-Mexico border. Journal of Applied Research on Children, 2(2), 1-22.

• This study analyzed food-related commercials aired during children's television programming in an area at high risk for obesity, the Texas-Mexico border. The researchers found that only a small amount of the total commercial time was dedicated to food advertisements, but of that portion, the majority of advertisements were for unhealthy foods.

Boisseau, C.L., et al. (2011). Representation of ideal figure size in Ebony magazine: A content analysis. Body Image, 8(4), 373-378.

• This study looked at issues published over the last couple of decades of Ebony magazine, a publication meant for African American women. They looked at female readers' reactions to diet- and exercise-related content, sizes and shapes of female models, and other factors. They concluded that the African American community may have more accepting attitudes about different body sizes and shapes, and that this was reflected in the magazine.

Devis-Devis, V.J., et al. (2012). Brief report: Association between socio-demographic factors, screen media usage and physical activity by type of day in Spanish adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 35(1), 213-218.

• This study looked at Spanish adolescents' leisure activities that were media-based and looked at associations between media usage and physical activity. Media usage/physical activity relationships depended on the type of media and whether it was a weekday or weekend.

Jones, R.K., & Biddlecom, A.E. (2011). Is the Internet filling the sexual health information gap for teens? An exploratory study. Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, 16(2), 112-123.

• Researchers asked high school students whether they used the Internet to seek information on sexual health topics. They found that most students only used the Internet for this purpose when it was a school assignment, not when it was for their own interests. However, the researchers concluded that the Internet could be used as a way to offer sexual health information so long as teachers use media literacy training to help students assess the validity of websites.

 Young, R., et al. (2011). Keeping in constant touch: The predictors of young Australians' mobile phone involvement. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), 333-342.

• This study looked at which characteristics were shared by teens who used mobile phones in Australia. They found that young people used mobile phones more. Interestingly, more positive self concept was correlated with higher phone usage as well. 

Looking for other studies? Click here to search the CMCH Database of Research.

Connections in News, Media, and Research: Teen Read Week Edition

In honor of Teen Read Week (October 14-20), we are highlighting some recent news and studies available in our database that are related to children/adolescents and literacy, reading, books, and magazines.

• The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) sponsors Teen Read Week and has a website that will let you learn more about it, whether you're a librarian or not. They encourage teens to read any sort of media (print books, ebooks, magazines, graphic novels, etc) just for the fun of it. Their reasoning for a special week dedicated to encouraging teen engagement with literacy? "Although teens realize the importance of reading, they have a huge menu of activities to choose from when deciding how to spend their free time, and reading gets lost in the shuffle. Reading skills get rusty when they are not used. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports that over the last 20 years there have been only modest gains in reading achievement. And although there are many active literacy campaigns, very few efforts focus on teenagers."
• In a 2011 study, researchers asked children to watch television clips on literacy and assessed the children's reactions to them. They found that the children could remember and understand the clips, but they did not find any connection between watching the clips and changing opinions of literacy. Then again, only three years earlier, a study asked 4- to 8-year-old children what they thought of kids who read, kids who watched television, and kids who played video games. Their answers? Readers were "smart," TV fans "lazy," and gamers "bored."
• Children's and Young Adult (YA) novels are gaining in popularity, leading to fans of all ages. CMCH has been collecting content analyses and studies that look at how these books (and children's and teens' magazines) might portray things like substance use, thinness and beauty messages, violence, tobacco use, aggression, sexual initiation, and food advertising.
• Has your son/daughter/patient been spending more time on social networks not called Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace? If they're readers, they might be members of social reading sites, gaining in popularity, which are dedicated to reading lists, user book reviews, and community, all through shared reading experiences and interests. Popular sites include GoodReads, LibraryThing, Copia, and BookLamp.
• There's no doubt that different media messages can contribute to self-image. If you're interested in how this works in print media for young people, check out this study on portrayals of disability in picturebooks, one on magazine advertisements and body image, one on how media exposure affects sexual behavior in teens, and one on how reading can improve emotional health and school performance.

Do you have any plans for Teen Read Week?

Recently Added Studies on Children, Media, and Health

Check out these studies of interest on the topics of children, media, and health that were recently added to the CMCH database:

Hawkes, C., & Harris, J.L. (2011). An analysis of the content of food industry pledges on marketing to children. Journal of Public Health and Nutrition, 14(8), 1403-1414.

• This article looked at a variety of pledges and commitments made by food companies with regards to advertising to children. They found that while certain types of foods, like sugary snacks, were restricted, in general children were still exposed to a large amount of food advertising.

Lapierre, Matthew A., et al. (2012). Background television in the homes of US children. Pediatrics, published online.

• This new study, receiving a lot of publicity, surveyed parents to find out how often television was on their homes, how many televisions were in the house, and whether there were televisions in bedrooms. They found that children are exposed to many more minutes of television than previously thought, and that African American and younger children were most likely to be exposed to high levels of background television.

Luder, M.T., et al. (2011). Associations between online pornography and sexual behavior among adolescents: Myth or reality? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(5), 1027-1035.

• This study looked at teens who had and had not looked at online pornography. The researchers made associations between pornography usage and sexual orientation and condom use, but they did not find evidence that engaging with online pornography led to specific sexual behaviors or risks.

Manganello, J., & Chauhan, A.G. (2011). Car riding behavior in television programs watched by adolescents in the US. Journal of Children and Media, 5(2), 194-203.

• In this content analysis, researchers looked at 15 television shows popular with teens and analyzed the different driving behaviors portrayed in them, from drunk driving to seatbelt use to speeding. They also looked at associations between behaviors and race and behaviors and gender.

Looking for other studies? Click here to search the CMCH Database of Research.

Media in the Media - News We're Following

Here at CMCH, we're always finding news, websites, games, and other great stuff that promotes positive use of media, shows young people engaging with technology in creative ways, informs us of new studies underway, and highlights other items of interest to practitioners, researchers, parents, teachers, and advocates. Here are some of the things we're excited about lately.

• GenZPlay has developed an app for kids that only functions if they're doing physical activity. What an interesting way to make sure technology-loving kids go outside and play once in awhile!Available for iPhone, Big Cat Race pits the iPhone holder against a lion, leopard, or cheetah and encourages them to race.
• In a study titled "The New Definition of Childhood," The Global Kids Study found that kids use technology in a variety of positive ways, helping make this generation's world a lot smaller than it is for their parents.
• YA (young adult, meant for teens) literature has enjoyed a surge of popularity lately and is becoming more widely read by both tweens and adults. In these two posts at Teen Librarian's Toolbox, bloggers Christie and Karen discuss what the covers of YA books might say, imply, or promote about body image and size.
• The great accessibility of the Internet has led to crowdsourcing new musical albums, book reviews, and health information. Just take a look at Kickstarter, Goodreads, or HealthTap if you want to see how people of all backgrounds provide others--even if they don't know them in person--with everything from support for a business upstart to answers to common health questions. Now teens are doing that too, with the public launch of Hallway, a crowd-sourced homework help website.
• Confused about why so many girls love seemingly vapid and meaningless pop songs? This insightful essay about Taylor Swift, the guitar-playing young popstar known for writing songs about breakups and heartbreak (and directly naming her exes) talks about why Swift's lyrics really are quite accurate and pertinent to teen life.
• Those interested in understanding how teens use various forms of technology might be curious about the approach, opinions, and expertise of those who work with adolescents outside of the medical sphere. Professional magazine VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) provides freely available archives online of their column Tag Team Tech, which discusses everything from cyberbullying to pleasure reading to visual literacy. 
• With so many media messages about how girls should hate math or how computer programming is for boys, it's great to see this news about African American girls succeeding at and enjoying computer programming. The program Black Girls Code aims not only to educate and engage these girls but also to change their perspectives on what the stereotypical programmer looks and acts like, hoping to get a little more diversity into the field.
• GURL.com talks about why celebrity "bump watching" is silly, and they also take a jab at the idea that girls who don't watch their eating must be pregnant. Previously, though, they encouraged readers to speculate on whether actress and singer Selena Gomez, who was rushed to the hospital, was pregnant or just sick. What do you think tabloid media and reality shows that focus on pregnancy or pregnancy speculation do to the perceptions of the teens that read and watch them? P.S. If you want to see what else this site, frequented by teen girls and dedicated to everything from health tips to fashion, says, click on the links at the bottom of the article for "pregnant" and "pregnancy."

If you're looking for peer-reviewed articles and scholarly research, remember to check the CMCH database.