Media and young children's learning

Electronic media, particularly television, have long been criticized for their potential impact on children. One area for concern is how early media exposure influences cognitive development and academic achievement. Heather Kirkorian, Ellen Wartella, and Daniel Anderson summarize the relevant research and provide suggestions for maximizing the positive effects of media and minimizing the negative effects. One focus of the authors is the seemingly unique effect of television on children under age two. Although research clearly demonstrates that well-designed, age-appropriate, educational television can be beneficial to children of preschool age, studies on infants and toddlers suggest that these young children may better understand and learn from real-life experiences than they do from video. Moreover, some research suggests that exposure to television during the first few years of life may be associated with poorer cognitive development. With respect to children over two, the authors emphasize the importance of content in mediating the effect of television on cognitive skills and academic achievement. Early exposure to age-appropriate programs designed around an educational curriculum is associated with cognitive and academic enhancement, whereas exposure to pure entertainment, and violent content in particular, is associated with poorer cognitive development and lower academic achievement. The authors point out that producers and parents can take steps to maximize the positive effects of media and minimize the negative effects. They note that research on children's television viewing can inform guidelines for producers of children's media to enhance learning. Parents can select well-designed, age-appropriate programs and view the programs with their children to maximize the positive effects of educational media. The authors' aim is to inform policymakers, educators, parents, and others who work with young children about the impact of media, particularly television, on preschool children, and what society can do to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs.     

Children's media policy

Amy Jordan addresses the need to balance the media industry's potentially important contributions to the healthy development of America's children against the consequences of excessive and age-inappropriate media exposure. Much of the philosophical tension regarding how much say the government should have about media content and delivery stems from the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection against government interference in free speech, including commercial speech. Courts, Jordan says, have repeatedly had to weigh the rights of commercial entities to say what they please against the need to protect vulnerable citizens such as children. This balancing act is complicated even further, she says, because many government regulations apply only to broadcast television and not to non-broadcast media such as the Internet or cable television, though Congress has addressed the need to protect children's privacy online. The need to protect both free speech and children has given rise to a fluid media policy mix of federal mandates and industry self-regulation. Jordan describes the role of the three branches of the federal government in formulating and implementing media policy. She also notes the jockeying for influence in policymaking by industry lobbies, child advocacy groups, and academic researchers. The media industry itself, says Jordan, is spurred to self-regulation when public disapproval grows severe enough to raise the possibility of new government action. Jordan surveys a range of government and industry actions, from legislatively required parental monitoring tools, such as the V-Chip blocking device on television sets, to the voluntary industry ratings systems governing television, movies, and video games, to voluntary social website disclosures to outright government bans, such as indecency and child privacy information collection. She considers the success of these efforts in limiting children's exposure to damaging content and in improving parents' ability to supervise their children's media use. Jordan concludes by considering the relevance and efficacy of today's media policy given the increasingly rapid pace of technological change. The need for research in informing and evaluating media policy, she says, has never been greater.     

The impact of home computer use on children's activities and development

The increasing amount of time children are spending on computers at home and school has raised questions about how the use of computer technology may make a difference in their lives--from helping with homework to causing depression to encouraging violent behavior. This article provides an overview of the limited research on the effects of home computer use on children's physical, cognitive, and social development. Initial research suggests, for example, that access to computers increases the total amount of time children spend in front of a television or computer screen at the expense of other activities, thereby putting them at risk for obesity. At the same time, cognitive research suggests that playing computer games can be an important building block to computer literacy because it enhances children's ability to read and visualize images in three-dimensional space and track multiple images simultaneously. The limited evidence available also indicates that home computer use is linked to slightly better academic performance. The research findings are more mixed, however, regarding the effects on children's social development. Although little evidence indicates that the moderate use of computers to play games has a negative impact on children's friendships and family relationships, recent survey data show that increased use of the Internet may be linked to increases in loneliness and depression. Of most concern are the findings that playing violent computer games may increase aggressiveness and desensitize a child to suffering, and that the use of computers may blur a child's ability to distinguish real life from simulation. The authors conclude that more systematic research is needed in these areas to help parents and policymakers maximize the positive effects and to minimize the negative effects of home computers in children's lives.     

Is television viewing associated with social isolation? Roles of exposure time, viewing context, and violent content

OBJECTIVE: To estimate associations between children's peer integration and amount of time they spend (1) watching television, (2) watching violent television, and (3) co-viewing television with friends. DESIGN: Survey using nationally representative data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement Wave 1. SETTING: Nationwide survey of families with young children performed in 1997. PARTICIPANTS: Of 3562 children, 1356 had sufficient data for inclusion in analyses (563 children aged 6 to 8 years and 793 children aged 9 to 12 years). MAIN EXPOSURE: Total time viewing television, with and without friends present, and time viewing violent and nonviolent television content. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Amount of time children spent with friends as reported in two 24-hour activity diaries. RESULTS: Viewing violent programs (but not nonviolent programs) was negatively related to time children spent with friends (aged 6-8 years, unstandardized regression coefficient [beta] = - 0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI], - 0.59 to - 0.08; aged 9-12 years, beta = - 0.41, 95% CI, - 0.65 to - 0.18). More time viewing television with friends was associated with more time engaging in other activities with friends (aged 6-8 years, beta = 0.98, 95% CI, 0.61 to 1.36; aged 9-12 years, beta = 1.03, 95% CI, 0.72 to 1.34). CONCLUSIONS: The more time that children spent viewing violent programs, the less time they spent with their friends. While this study cannot determine the direction of effects for this relationship, a cyclical process between violent media and peer integration best explains the findings. To optimize social development and mental health, children's access to violent media should be limited.     

Children who witness violence,and parent report of children's behavior

OBJECTIVES: To examine how much distress children report in response to violence that they have witnessed and how this is associated with parental reports of children's behavior. METHODS: As part of a study of in utero exposure to cocaine, children completed the Levonn interview for assessing children's symptoms of distress in response to witnessing violence. The children's caregivers completed the Exposure to Violence Interview (EVI), a caretaker-report measure of the child's exposure to violent events during the last 12 months. The EVI was analyzed as a 3-level variable: no exposure, low exposure, and high exposure. The caregivers also completed the Children's Behavior Checklist (CBCL). RESULTS: Of 94 six-year-old children, 58% had no exposure to violence, 36% had low exposure to violence, and 6% had high exposure to violence, according to caretaker reports. The children's median+/-SD Levonn score was 64 (SD +/- 19.3). The mean SD +/- CBCL total T-score was 53 (SD +/- 10.2). In multiple regression analyses with gender, low and high exposure on EVI, Levonn, and prenatal cocaine exposure status as predictors, the Levonn score explained 4.8% of total variance in children's CBCL internalizing scores, 9.1% of the total variance in CBCL externalizing score, and 12.2% of the total variance in CBCL total score (P =.04, P =.004, and P<.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: After accounting for the caretaker's report of the level of the child's exposure to violence, the child's own report significantly increased the amount of variance in predicting child behavior problems with the CBCL. These findings indicate that clinicians and researchers should elicit children's own accounts of exposure to violence in addition to the caretakers' when attempting to understand children's behavior.     

Childhood obesity: trends and potential causes

The increase in childhood obesity over the past several decades, together with the associated health problems and costs, is raising grave concern among health care professionals, policy experts, children's advocates, and parents. Patricia Anderson and Kristin Butcher document trends in children's obesity and examine the possible underlying causes of the obesity epidemic. They begin by reviewing research on energy intake, energy expenditure, and "energy balance," noting that children who eat more "empty calories" and expend fewer calories through physical activity are more likely to be obese than other children. Next they ask what has changed in children's environment over the past three decades to upset this energy balance equation. In particular, they examine changes in the food market, in the built environment, in schools and child care settings, and in the role of parents-paying attention to the timing of these changes. Among the changes that affect children's energy intake are the increasing availability of energy-dense, high-calorie foods and drinks through schools. Changes in the family, particularly an increase in dual-career or single-parent working families, may also have increased demand for food away from home or pre-prepared foods. A host of factors have also contributed to reductions in energy expenditure. In particular, children today seem less likely to walk to school and to be traveling more in cars than they were during the early 1970s, perhaps because of changes in the built environment. Finally, children spend more time viewing television and using computers. Anderson and Butcher find no one factor that has led to increases in children's obesity. Rather, many complementary changes have simultaneously increased children's energy intake and decreased their energy expenditure. The challenge in formulating policies to address children's obesity is to learn how best to change the environment that affects children's energy balance.     

After-school child care programs

When the public, elected officials, and child advocates focus on the risks and opportunities inherent in after-school hours, discussions quickly hone in on the benefits that after-school programs might offer. This article points out, however, that parents and children consider a wide variety of options for the after-school hours. Children may be with a parent or relative, they may go to lessons or play sports, they may spend time alone or with friends. For many children, this pattern of activities is reflective of their families' resources and neighborhood surroundings as well as their own needs and interests. Drawing on recent studies, this article documents children's experiences in different settings, discusses the variable quality of after-school programs, and indicates how program participation and exposure to self-care can affect children's adjustment in elementary school.     

Mitigating the effects of gun violence on children and youth

Countless children and youth are exposed to gun violence each year--at home, at school, in their communities, or through the media. Gun violence can leave lasting emotional scars on these children. This article reviews research regarding the psychological effects of gun violence on children and youth, and offers suggestions for how parents, school administrators, and mental health workers can mitigate these negative effects. Children exposed to gun violence may experience negative short- and long-term psychological effects, including anger, withdrawal, posttraumatic stress, and desensitization to violence. All of these outcomes can feed into a continuing cycle of violence. Certain children may be at higher risk for negative outcomes if they are exposed to gun violence. Groups at risk include children injured in gun violence, those who witness violent acts at close proximity, those exposed to high levels of violence in their communities or schools, and those exposed to violent media. Parents, school administrators, and mental health workers all can play key roles in protecting children from gun violence and helping them overcome the effects of gun-related trauma. The authors recommend a number of strategies that adults can adopt to help children cope with gun violence, such as increasing parental monitoring, targeting services to youth at risk of violent activity, and developing therapeutic interventions to help traumatized young people.     

Does children's screen time predict requests for advertised products? Cross-sectional and prospective analyses

OBJECTIVE: To examine children's screen media exposure and requests for advertised toys and food/drinks. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Twelve elementary schools in northern California. PARTICIPANTS: Eight hundred twenty-seven third grade children participated at baseline; 386 students in 6 schools were followed up for 20 months. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Child self-reported requests for advertised toys and foods/drinks. RESULTS: At baseline, children's screen media time was significantly associated with concurrent requests for advertised toys (Spearman r = 0.15 [TV viewing] and r = 0.20 [total screen time]; both P<.001) and foods/drinks (Spearman r = 0.16 [TV viewing] and r = 0.18 [total screen time]; both P<.001). In prospective analysis, children's screen media time at baseline was significantly associated with their mean number of toy requests 7 to 20 months later (Spearman r = 0.21 [TV viewing] and r = 0.24 [total screen time]; both P<.001) and foods/drinks requests (Spearman r = 0.14 [TV viewing] and r = 0.16 [total screen time]; both P<.01). After adjusting for baseline requests and sociodemographic variables, the relationship between screen media exposure and future requests for advertised foods/drinks remained significant for total TV viewing and total screen media exposure. The relationship with future requests for toys remained significant for total screen media exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Screen media exposure is a prospective risk factor for children's requests for advertised products. Future experimental studies on children's health- and consumer-related outcomes are warranted.     

Welfare reform, fertility, and father involvement

Recognizing that most poor families are single-parent families, the federal welfare reform law of 1996 emphasized the responsibility of both parents to support their children. In addition to strengthening the child support enforcement system, the law included several provisions designed to decrease childbearing outside of marriage and to promote two-parent families. This article focuses on the important role that fathers play in children's lives and how public policies have affected childbearing and father involvement. Key observations are: Compared with children living with both biological parents, children in father-absent families often have fewer economic and socioemotional resources from their parents, and do not fare as well on many outcome measures. Efforts to reduce the rising number of father-absent families by focusing on preventing unwanted pregnancy among unmarried women, especially teen girls, have met with some success; those programs seeking to alter adolescents' life opportunities in addition to providing education or family planning services appear to hold the most promise. Efforts to encourage greater father involvement by focusing almost exclusively on increasing absent parents' child support payments reap only minimal benefits for poor children because their absent parents often have few resources and little incentive to make support payments. To date, efforts to increase the emotional involvement of unmarried fathers with their children have produced disappointing results, but new research suggests that such programs can make a difference when targeting fathers at the time of a child's birth. Many children spend some time living away from their fathers, deprived of the financial and emotional resources they can provide. Because of the importance of fathers to child well-being, the authors conclude that new directions in research and public policies are needed to encourage greater father involvement across the wide diversity of family arrangements in society today.     

In the best interests of society

Each year, exposure to violent trauma takes its toll on the development of millions of children. When their trauma goes unaddressed, children are at greater risk for school failure; anxiety and depression and other post-traumatic disorders; alcohol and drug abuse, and, later in life, engaging in violence similar to that to which they were originally exposed. In spite of the serious psychiatric/developmental sequelae of violence exposure, the majority of severely and chronically traumatized children and youth are not found in mental health clinics. Instead, they typically are seen as the 'trouble-children' in schools or emerge in the child protective, law enforcement, substance abuse treatment, and criminal justice systems, where the root of their problems in exposure to violence and abuse is typically not identified or addressed. Usually, providers in all of these diverse service systems have not been sufficiently trained to know and identify the traumatic origins of the children's presenting difficulties and are not sufficiently equipped to assist with their remediation. This multiplicity of traumatic manifestations outside the mental health setting leads to the inescapable conclusion that we are dealing with a supra-clinical problem that can only be resolved by going beyond the child's individual clinical needs to enlist a range of coordinated services for the child and the family. This paper will focus on domestic violence as a paradigmatic source of violent traumatization and will (a) describe the impact and consequences of exposure to violence on children's immediate and long-term development; (b) examine the opportunities for, as well as the barriers to, bridging the clinical phenomena of children's violent trauma and the existing systems of care that might best meet their needs; and (c) critique current national policies that militate against a more rational and coherent approach to addressing these needs.     

Children, adolescents, and the media: health effects

The media can be a powerful teacher of children and adolescents and have a profound impact on their health. The media are not the leading cause of any major health problem in the United States, but they do contribute to a variety of pediatric and adolescent health problems. Given that children and teens spend >7 hours a day with media, one would think that adult society would recognize its impact on young people's attitudes and behaviors. Too little has been done to protect children and adolescents from harmful media effects and to maximize the powerfully prosocial aspects of modern media.     

The impact of violence on children

Existing research on the effects of children's exposure to violence covers a broad range of community, family, and media violence. This research is relevant and useful to an examination of domestic violence in two key ways. First, understanding how exposure to various types of violence affects children and what best enables them to cope can point to important considerations when trying to help children cope with exposure to domestic violence in particular. And second, many families experiencing domestic violence are exposed to other types of violence as well. Exposure to violence on multiple levels can affect the parents' behavior and can compound the effects on children. This article begins with an overview of the extent of children's exposure to various types of violence, and then examines what is known about the effects of this exposure across the developmental continuum. Key protective factors for children exposed to violence are examined. Research indicates that the most important resource protecting children from the negative effects of exposure to violence is a strong relationship with a competent, caring, positive adult, most often a parent. Yet, when parents are themselves witnesses to or victims of violence, they may have difficulty fulfilling this role. In the final section, directions for future research are discussed.     

Sleep disruptions and emotional insecurity are pathways of risk for children

BACKGROUND: Sleep problems are prevalent in American children. A critical need is to identify sources and processes related to sleep disruptions and their sequelae. We examined a model linking parental marital conflict and children's emotional insecurity, sleep disruptions, and their adjustment and academic problems. METHOD: One hundred and sixty-six elementary school children reported on marital conflict and their emotional insecurity, the quantity and quality of children's sleep were examined through actigraphy, and parents and teachers reported on child functioning. RESULTS: In the context of exposure to normative levels of marital conflict, children's emotional insecurity regarding their parents' marital relationship is an intervening variable in the marital conflict-sleep disruptions link. In turn, disruptions in the quality and duration of children's sleep have a negative effect on children's behavioral, emotional, and academic performance. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the importance of marital conflict and children's emotional insecurity as variables that can affect a fundamental aspect of biological regulation, sleep, which consequently influences children's adjustment and academic performance.     

Preschool children's cardiac reactivity moderates relations between exposure to family violence and emotional adjustment

This study examined relations between cardiac reactivity, family violence exposure (i.e., child maltreatment [CM] and inter-partner violence [IPV]), and preschool children's emotional adjustment. A sample of 92 mother-preschooler dyads was drawn from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Dyads participated in a laboratory session in which children's Electrocardiograph (ECG) monitoring occurred during a resting baseline, joint-challenge, and individual emotional and cognitive tasks. Mothers consented to review of Children & Youth Services (CYS) records for CM and completed an IPV measure. Mothers rated children's emotional adjustment, and observers rated children on their frustration and positive affect. Children's vagal suppression was shown to moderate relations between family violence exposure and emotional adjustment. Findings indicated that children greater in vagal suppression showed better emotional adjustment when from families low in violence. However, regardless of children's level of vagal suppression, all children showed poorer emotional adjustment when from families high in violence.     

Children and computers: new technology--old concerns

Computer technology has ushered in a new era of mass media, bringing with it great promise and great concerns about the effect on children's development and well-being. Although we tend to see these issues as being new, similar promises and concerns have accompanied each new wave of media technology throughout the past century: films in the early 1900s, radio in the 1920s, and television in the 1940s. With the introduction of each of these technologies, proponents touted the educational benefits for children, while opponents voiced fears about exposure to inappropriate commercial, sexual, and violent content. This article places current studies on children and computers in a historical context, noting the recurrent themes and patterns in media research during the twentieth century. Initial research concerning each innovation has tended to focus on issues of access and the amount of time children were spending with the new medium. As use of the technology became more prevalent, research shifted to issues related to content and its effects on children. Current research on children's use of computers is again following this pattern. But the increased level of interactivity now possible with computer games and with the communication features of the Internet has heightened both the promise of greatly enriched learning and the concerns related to increased risk of harm. As a result, research on the effects of exposure to various types of content has taken on a new sense of urgency. The authors conclude that to help inform and sustain the creation of more quality content for children, further research is needed on the effects of media on children, and new partnerships must be forged between industry, academia, and advocacy groups.     

Pre-attack symptomatology and temperament as predictors of children's responses to the September 11 terrorist attacks

BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to assess the psychological response of children following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC and to examine prospective predictors of children's post-attack responses. METHOD: Children's responses were assessed in a community sample of children in Seattle, Washington, participating in an ongoing study. Symptomatology and temperament assessed prior to the attacks were examined as prospective predictors of post-attack post-traumatic stress (PTS), anxiety, depression and externalizing problems. RESULTS: Children demonstrated PTS symptoms and worries at levels comparable to those in children directly experiencing disasters, with 77% of children reporting being worried, 68% being upset by reminders, and 39% having upsetting thoughts. The most common PTS symptom cluster was re-experiencing, and 8% of children met criteria consistent with PTSD. African-American children reported more avoidant PTS symptoms and being more upset by the attacks than European-American children. Girls reported being more upset than boys. Prior internalizing, externalizing, social competence and self-esteem were related to post-attack PTS; and child inhibitory control, assessed prior to the 9/11 attacks, demonstrated a trend towards an association with post-attack PTS symptoms controlling for prior levels of symptomatology. PTS predicted child-report anxiety and conduct problem symptoms at follow-up, approximately 6 months after 9/11. CONCLUSIONS: Children experiencing a major disaster at a distance or indirectly through media exposure demonstrated worries and PTS symptoms suggesting that communities need to attend to children's mental health needs in response to national or regional disasters. Pre-disaster symptomatology or low self-regulation may render children more vulnerable in response to a disaster, and immediate post-disaster responses predict subsequent symptomatology. These variables might be used in the identification of children in need of intervention.     

Emotional reactivity and regulation in anxious and nonanxious youth: a cell-phone ecological momentary assessment study

Background: Reviews have highlighted anxious youths’ affective disturbances, specifically, elevated negative emotions and reliance on ineffective emotion regulation strategies. However, no study has examined anxious youth’s emotional reactivity and regulation in real‐world contexts. Methods: This study utilized an ecological momentary assessment approach to compare real‐world emotional experiences of 65 youth with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, or social phobia (ANX) and 65 age‐matched healthy controls (CON), ages 9–13 years. Results: Hierarchical linear models revealed that ANX reported higher levels of average past‐hour peak intensity of nervous, sad and upset emotions than CON youth but similar levels during momentary reports of current emotion. As expected, ANX youth reported more frequent physiological reactions in response to a negative event; however, there were no group differences in how frequently they used cognitive–behavioral strategies. Avoidance, distraction and problem solving were associated with the down‐regulation of all negative emotions except nervousness for both ANX and CON youth; however, group differences emerged for acceptance, rumination and physiological responding. Conclusions: In real‐world contexts, ANX youth do not report higher levels of momentary negative emotions but do report heightened negative emotions in response to challenging events. Moreover, ANX youth report no differences in how frequently they use adaptive regulatory strategies but are more likely to have physiological responses to challenging events. They are also less effective at using some strategies to down‐regulate negative emotion than CON youth.     

THE AUTISTIC CHILD''S APPRAISAL OF EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION

Groups of MA-matched autistic, normal and non-autistic retarded children were tested for their ability to choose drawn and photographed facial expressions of emotion to "go with" a person videotaped in gestures, vocalizations and contexts indicative of four emotional states. Although both autistic and control subjects were adept in choosing drawings of non-personal objects to correspond with videotaped cues, the autistic children were markedly impaired in selecting the appropriate faces for the videotaped expressions and contexts. Within the autistic group, the children's performance in this task of emotion recognition was related to MA. It is suggested that autistic children have difficulty in recognizing how different expressions of particular emotions are associated with each other, and that this might contribute to their failure to understand the emotional states of other people.