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Preschool-aged children (M = 42.44 months-old, SD = 8.02) participated in a short-term longitudinal study investigating the effect of educational media exposure on social development (i.e., aggression and prosocial behavior) using multiple informants and methods. As predicted, educational media exposure significantly predicted increases in both observed and teacher reported relational aggression across time. Follow-up analyses showed that educational media exposure also significantly predicted increases in parent reported relational aggression across more than a two year period. Results replicate and extend prior research that has demonstrated links between educational media exposure and relational aggression, but not physical aggression, during early childhood. (Contains 3 tables.)

Research on parental monitoring of children's media use suggests parents can reduce the negative effects of media exposure on children, although this research is rarely conducted with elementary school children and leaves open questions about whether parents or children are better reporters. Participants were 1,323 children, their parents, and teachers. Parents and children reported on four aspects of monitoring for TV and video games: co-using, limit setting on amount, limit setting on content, and active mediation. Parents gave much higher estimates than did children. Monitoring was moderated by child age, child sex, parent marital status, parent education, and parent income. Although parent- and child-reported monitoring correlated rather poorly, both types were almost equally good predictors of children's screen time, media violence exposure, and teacher reports of school performance. When there were differences, the child reports tended to be slightly better predictors, demonstrating the validity of child reports of parental monitoring.

Preschool children (N = 78) enrolled in multi-informant, multi-method longitudinal study were participants in a study designed to investigate the role of media exposure (i.e., violent and educational) on concurrent and future aggressive and prosocial behavior. Specifically, the amount of media exposure and the nature of the content was used to predict concurrent and future physical, verbal and relational aggression as well as prosocial behavior for girls and boys. This two-year longitudinal study found that media exposure predicted various subtypes of aggression and prosocial behavior. These findings are qualified by the gender of the focal child. That is, parental reports of media exposure were associated with relational aggression for girls and physical aggression for boys at school. Ways in which these findings extend our understanding of the role of media during early childhood are discussed.

Background: We examined whether physical activity modifies the relationship between stress and the metabolic risk score in 8- to 18-year-old males (n = 37). Methods: Physical activity (PA) and television (TV)/videogame (VG) use were assessed via accelerometer and questionnaire, respectively. Stress was determined from self-report measures. A metabolic risk score (MRS) was created by summing age-standardized residuals for waist circumference, mean arterial pressure, glycosylated hemoglobin, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Results: Correlations between PA and MRS were low (r < -.13), and TV and VG were moderately associated with MRS (r = .39 and .43, respectively). Correlations between stress-related variables and MRS ranged from r = .19 to .64. After partitioning by PA, significant correlations were observed in the low PA group between school- and sports-related self-esteem and anxiety with the MRS. Conclusions: The results provide suggestive evidence that PA might modify the relationship between stress and MRS in male adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass media have numerous effects on children, ranging from influencing school performance to increased or reduced aggression. What we do not know, however, is how media availability in the bedroom moderates these effects. Although several researchers have suggested that bedroom media may influence outcomes by displacing other activities (the displacement hypothesis) or by changing the content of media consumed (the content hypothesis), these have rarely been tested directly. This study tested both hypotheses using several outcomes that are associated with bedroom media and some of the underlying mediating mechanisms. The hypotheses were tested using 3 longitudinal samples of varying methods, age, duration, and country. The results indicate that children who have bedroom media are likely to watch larger amounts of screen time which displaced important activities, such as reading and sleeping, which mediated later negative outcomes such as poor school performance. Bedroom media also influence risk for obesity and video game addiction. Children with bedroom media are also likely to be exposed to more media violence. The violent content increased normative beliefs about aggression, which increased physical aggression, providing support for the content hypothesis. This study demonstrates that media can have effects not just from what they show, but also because of what children are not exposed to. Bedroom media are therefore a robust risk factor for several aspects of child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American Psychiatric Association recently included Internet gaming disorder (IGD) as a potential diagnosis, recommending that further study be conducted to help illuminate it more clearly. This paper is a summary of the review undertaken by the IGD Working Group as part of the 2015 National Academy of Sciences Sackler Colloquium on Digital Media and Developing Minds. By using measures based on or similar to the IGD definition, we found that prevalence rates range between ~1% and 9%, depending on age, country, and other sample characteristics. The etiology of IGD is not well-understood at this time, although it appears that impulsiveness and high amounts of time gaming may be risk factors. Estimates for the length of time the disorder can last vary widely, but it is unclear why. Although the authors of several studies have demonstrated that IGD can be treated, no randomized controlled trials have yet been published, making any definitive statements about treatment impossible. IGD does, therefore, appear to be an area in which additional research is clearly needed. We discuss several of the critical questions that future research should address and provide recommendations for clinicians, policy makers, and educators on the basis of what we know at this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing concern regarding the influence of media exposure on American children's health and development. The current prospective study tested the direct relations between media exposure, sleep, and various health outcomes (e.g. attention problems, aggression, and body composition) and the indirect effect of media exposure through sleep disturbances. Child participants (N = 1,317) completed measures of media consumption and sleep. Teachers reported on children's attention problems and use of physical aggression. Results showed that media exposure at Time 1 was indirectly related to attention, physical aggression, and Body Mass Index at Time 3 (13 months later), mediated by sleep at Time 2. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that screen time is negatively related to health outcomes, and that displaced sleep is one of the mediating mechanisms underlying these relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This study had two goals: first, to examine the validity of the television rating system for assessing aggression in programs popular among girls; second, to evaluate the importance of inclusion of non-physical forms of aggression in the ratings system by examining associations between television aggression exposure and behavior. Ninety-nine fifth grade girls listed their favorite programs; 76 programs were coded for total, rewarded, and justified indirect, verbal, and physical aggression. Teachers reported participants'' aggressive and prosocial behaviors. Results indicated that the age-based ratings do not reflect the amount of total indirect and verbal aggression in programs, and there were higher levels of physical aggression and justified verbal aggression in children''s programs than in programs for general audiences, contrary to hypotheses. The industry violent content ratings identified programs with higher mean levels of physical aggression, but did not distinguish programs that contained violence from those that did not. Exposure to televised physical aggression, verbal aggression, and rewarded indirect aggression was associated with higher child aggression and decreased prosocial behavior. Implications for the validity of the industry ratings are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study documents family media habits in six areas: electronic and print Media Use, parental Monitoring of children''s media, parental Consistency regarding rules for children''s media use, parents'' reports of observable Media Effects on their children, parents'' Knowledge about media and media effects, and how much children participate in Alternative Activities to electronic media. A random national sample of 527 parents of 2- to 17-year-olds were surveyed. Normative descriptive statistics in each of the six categories are provided. In general, families'' scores in five of the six categories are positively correlated, indicating that families that practice positive media habits in one area tend to practice positive habits in other areas. Many family media habits predict children''s school performance. Furthermore, having TVs in children''s bedrooms is correlated with lower scores in all six areas, as well as with lower school performance. This study provides a normative baseline for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Given the potential negative mental health consequences of pathological video gaming, understanding its etiology may lead to useful treatment developments. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of impulsive and regulatory processes on pathological video gaming. Study 1 involved 2154 students from 6 primary and 4 secondary schools in Singapore. Study 2 involved 191 students from 2 secondary schools. The results of study 1 and study 2 supported the hypothesis that self-regulation is a mediator between impulsivity and pathological video gaming. Specifically, higher levels of impulsivity was related to lower levels of self-regulation, which in turn was related to higher levels of pathological video gaming. The use of impulsivity and self-regulation in predicting pathological video gaming supports the dual-system model of incorporating both impulsive and reflective systems in the prediction of self-control outcomes. The study highlights the development of self-regulatory resources as a possible avenue for future prevention and treatment research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Understanding the family dynamic surrounding media use is crucial to our understanding of media effects, policy development, and the targeting of individuals and families for interventions to benefit child health and development. The Families, Parenting, and Media Workgroup reviewed the relevant research from the past few decades. We find that child characteristics, the parent-child relationship, parental mediation practices, and parents' own use of media all can influence children's media use, their attitudes regarding media, and the effects of media on children. However, gaps remain. First, more research is needed on best practices of parental mediation for both traditional and new media. Ideally, this research will involve large-scale, longitudinal studies that manage children from infancy to adulthood. Second, we need to better understand the relationship between parent media use and child media use and specifically how media may interfere with or strengthen parent-child relationships. Finally, longitudinal research on how developmental processes and individual child characteristics influence the intersection between media and family life is needed. The majority of children's media use takes place within a wider family dynamic. An understanding of this dynamic is crucial to understanding child media use as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents regularly use media to help regulate their child's difficult emotions, particularly for those with a more difficult temperament. However, no research has examined how this may be related to the development of problematic (or addictive-like) media use in early childhood. The purpose of the study was to examine associations between temperament, parental media emotion regulation, and problematic media use in young children, using both questionnaires and observational data. Participants included 269 toddlers (2–3 years old) and their parents, who completed several observational tasks and questionnaires. Analyses revealed that higher levels of media emotion regulation was associated with more problematic media use and more extreme emotions when media was removed in toddlers. Additionally, temperament (specifically negative affect and surgency) was related to problematic media and extreme emotions and was mediated by media emotion regulation. Parents should avoid using media as a primary way of regulating their children's emotions as this may be related to the development of problematic media strategies during infancy. • Media emotion regulation was associated with problematic media use in toddlers. • Parents used media emotion regulation at different rates depending on child temperament. • Parents should avoid using media as a primary way of regulating their children's emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effects of pro-social cartoon models on aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors in kindergartners are examined. • Watching prosocial cartoons reduces aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors. • Watching prosocial cartoons reduces more aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors of boys than those of girls. • The prosocial cartoon effect on aggressive behaviors is partially mediated by aggressive cognitions. Although research has examined violent cartoon effects, little research has evaluated the effects of prosocial cartoons on kindergartners. Based on the general learning model (GLM) and social learning model (SLM), we examined how prosocial cartoon models affect aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors. A total of 174 children aged 5 and 6 years (50% girls) who had been nominated by their teacher and peers as aggressive were recruited from three Chinese kindergartens. Half of them were assigned to the experimental group to watch prosocial cartoons for five consecutive days, while the other half were assigned to the control group that did not watch cartoons. The modified semantic classification task (MSCT) and the competitive reaction time task (CRTT) were employed to measure aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors. Children who watched the prosocial cartoons displayed lower aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors than those who did not watch the cartoons. Specifically, watching prosocial cartoons reduced aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors more for boys than girls. Aggressive cognitions partially mediated the effect of prosocial cartoon viewing on aggressive behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]