The effect of social media on well-being differs from adolescent to adolescent

The question whether social media use benefits or undermines adolescents’ well-being is an important societal concern. Previous empirical studies have mostly established across-the-board effects among (sub)populations of adolescents. As a result, it is still an open question whether the effects are unique for each individual adolescent. We sampled adolescents’ experiences six times per day for one week to quantify differences in their susceptibility to the effects of social media on their momentary affective well-being. Rigorous analyses of 2,155 real-time assessments showed that the association between social media use and affective well-being differs strongly across adolescents: While 44% did not feel better or worse after passive social media use, 46% felt better, and 10% felt worse. Our results imply that person-specific effects can no longer be ignored in research, as well as in prevention and intervention programs

Promises and Pitfalls of Social Media Data Donations

Studies assessing the effects of social media use are largely based on measures of time spent on social media. In recent years, scholars increasingly ask for more insights in social media activities and content people engage with. Data Download Packages (DDPs), the archives of social media platforms that each European user has the right to download, provide a new and promising method to collect timestamped and content-based information about social media use. In this paper, we first detail the experiences and insights of a data collection of 110 Instagram DDPs gathered from 102 adolescents. We successively discuss the challenges and opportunities of collecting and analyzing DDPs to help future researchers in their consideration of whether and how to use DDPs. DDPs provide tremendous opportunities to get insight in the frequency, range, and content of social media activities, from browsing to searching and posting. Yet, collecting, processing, and analyzing DDPs is also complex and laborious, and demands numerous procedural and analytical choices and decisions

Understanding young children's television exposure: An investigation into the role of structural family circumstances.

Considerable research has indicated that infants, toddlers, and preschoolers spend large amounts of their time watching television. Triggered by questions about the potential consequences of the widespread use of television by infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, research has accumulated evidence that television may affect children both in positive and negative ways. While numerous studies have investigated the role of television in children’s lives, thereby increasing our understanding of the effects that television may have on children, the processes and mechanisms that determine children’s television selection are not fully understood, notwithstanding the importance of unraveling these mechanisms for our understanding of media effects. Scholars have particularly criticized the lack of research into the role of structural family circumstances as determinants of children’s television use. This dissertation aimed to address this lacuna and deepen our understanding of the determinants of young children’s television exposure. More specifically, the first aim of the dissertation was to investigate the relevance of traditional theoretical frameworks that emphasize the role of socio-demographic determinants, parental modeling, and parents’ attitudes toward television. To this end, two traditionally framed studies were conducted, that investigate the role of traditional determinants and relevant moderators (Part 1). The second aim of the dissertation was to extend traditional theoretical frameworks by introducing and validating a life logistics perspective on children’s television use, that emphasizes the role of structural family circumstances as determinants of children’s television use. To this end, three studies were conducted, that investigate the additional impact of structural family circumstances and the role of relevant moderators (Part 2). The first study (N = 844), relying on traditional theoretical frameworks and adding relevant moderators, investigates a two-stage model of socio-demographic, psychosocial, parental modeling, and viewing motivation correlates of children’s television use. The study shows that parents with more positive attitudes toward television, and, indirectly, parents who watch more television themselves, rely more often on television to occupy children. The use of television to occupy children is associated with increased television viewing, especially among children of parents with strong positive attitudes toward television and children of parents with more education. The second traditional study proposes a two-stage model that investigates the associations among parents’ cognitions regarding children’s television use, parents’ intentions regarding children’s television use, and children’s television use, drawing on reasoned action theory. The study (N = 282) shows that parents’ perceived normative pressure and perceived control over children’s television viewing are associated with children’s television viewing and that these relationships are mediated by parents’ intentions regarding children’s television viewing. Moreover, the study casts doubt on the role of parental attitudes as an explanation for children’s television use. In Part 2, we aimed to extend the traditionally framed studies of Part 1 by introducing and validating the life logistics perspective and investigating the role of structural family circumstances. The first study investigates maternal structural life circumstances longitudinally associated with children’s television viewing and potential mechanisms underlying this association. Using two-wave panel data of mothers of one- to four-year-olds (N = 404), the study demonstrates a longitudinal relationship between mothers’ working hours and children’s TV time, that is mediated by mothers’ parenting time pressure and well-being. Moreover, the study shows that children’s television viewing is more a marker of maternal well-being and parenting time pressure than of mothers’ attitudes toward television, with children of mothers with high parenting time pressure and poor well-being watching more television. The study demonstrates the relevance of structural family circumstances as determinants of children’s television use and emphasizes the importance of extending traditional theoretical perspectives with a life logistics perspective. The second study of Part 2 applies a life logistics perspective on children’s television use and investigates the contribution of structural family circumstances to the use of television to soothe children. In particular, the study examines the associations among children’s temperament, mothers’ mental well-being, mothers’ motivation for using television to soothe their children, and the time children spend watching television. A survey of mothers of one- to five-year-olds (N = 944) shows that mothers of children with temperamental problems and mothers who feel depressed are more likely to use television to soothe their children. Also, children with more temperamental problems watch more television, especially when their mothers experience mental distress. The third study of Part 2 deepens our understanding of the role of parental attitudes toward television by relying on the life logistics perspective. The two-wave panel study among mothers of children between ages six months and six years (N = 508) investigates the possibility of a reciprocal relationship between mothers’ attitudes toward television and children’s television viewing and the conditional probability of this reciprocal relationship. Two-wave multi-group cross-lagged analyses show that the role of mothers’ attitudes toward television in children’s television use appears to be contingent upon structural family circumstances, in particular the level of stress that mothers experience. Mothers’ attitudes toward television positively predict children’s subsequent television viewing among non-stressed mothers, but not among stressed mothers. Children’s television viewing predicts mothers’ subsequent negative attitudes toward television among stressed mothers, but not among non-stressed mothers. Overall, the dissertation shows that traditional orientations regarding the determinants of children’s television use, that emphasize the role of socio-demographic factors, parental modeling, and parents’ attitudes toward children’s television use, reveal important mechanisms and processes that determine children’s television use. By adding relevant moderators to the traditionally framed models, the dissertation shows among which parents and children traditional determinants have the strongest impact. However, the dissertation also demonstrates that complementing these traditional perspectives with a life logistics perspective provides new insights into the importance of the traditional determinants, showing that (1) structural family circumstances outweigh traditional determinants of children’s television use; (2) the role of parents’ attitudes in children’s television use needs to be put into perspective; and (3) the importance of traditional determinants of children’s television use is contingent upon structural family circumstances. The application of the life logistics perspective clearly shows that in order to fully understand young children’s television exposure, the role of structural family circumstances needs to be understood. The studies presented in the dissertation consistently show that children’s television viewing is more a marker of structural family circumstances than of traditional determinants. Moreover, the dissertation provides evidence for not overly relying on parental attitudes as an explanation of children’s television use. Traditional theoretical frameworks that emphasize the role of socio-demographic determinants, parental modeling, and parents’ attitudes toward television are not sufficient. Complementing these traditional determinants with structural family circumstances is necessary to more fully understand the processes and mechanisms that determine children’s television use and, to a wider extent, the effects that television may have on children.nrpages: 241status: publishe

Parents’ use of television as a babysitter for young children

Research found that parents have their children watch television for several reasons (Rideout & Hamel, 2006; Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, 2007). Parents might put their children in front of the television to calm them down or to accompany children’s bedtime. One often-heard reason among parents is to babysit the children (Evans, Jordan, & Horner, 2011; Götz, Bachmann, & Hofmann, 2007). According to several studies, parents sometimes sit their child down in front of the television set when they need something get done or when they are temporarily not able to supervise their child (Rideout & Hamel, 2006; Zimmerman et al., 2007). The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that television should not be used as an electronic babysitter for young children (AAP, 1999). However, little research has examined parents’ use of television as a babysitter as predictor of children’s time spent watching television. Therefore, this study investigates the associations between parent and child factors, the use of television as a babysitter and children’s viewing time. Data from 844 parents of children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years are reported. An integrative model was constructed and structural-equation modeling was performed to assess the relationships between parent and child factors, the use of television as a babysitter, and children’s television viewing time. Moderator analyses were conducted by means of multigroup analysis to investigate whether parental education and parental attitude toward television would moderate the associations. All analyses were performed using AMOS 19. Results show that almost half of the parents (48,1%) admitted to using television for their child to get things done on their own. More than one third of parents (36,2%) sometimes used television as a babysitter while they prepared meals; three out of ten parents (31,3%) indicated to do this often or very often. Additionally, more than a quarter of parents (26,5%) indicated that they sometimes sat their child in front of the television to get dressed themselves; 14,1% of parents often or very often used television for their child while getting dressed. Finally, almost four out of ten parents (37,3%) sometimes and another 12,4% of parents often or very often used television for their child while cleaning. Structural-equation modeling revealed that using television as a babysitter predicted increased time spent watching television, = .173, B = 8.707, SE = 1.868, p<.001. The more parents used television to replace parental supervision, the more television children watched. Parents’ attitude toward television emerged as best predictor of using television as a babysitter, = .256, B = .391, SE = .074, p<.001, indicating that parents with strong positive attitudes toward television tended to use television more often as a babysitter. As such, parents’ attitude toward television had a direct positive effect on the time children spent watching television, = .153, B = 11.762, SE = 2.885, p<.001, as well as an indirect effect, by directly predicting the use of television as a babysitter. Parents’ time spent watching television was the best predictor of the time children spent watching television, = .381, B = 1.141, SE = .094, p<.001. Both parental attitudes toward television and parental education moderated the effect of using television as a babysitter. First, moderator analyses revealed that the effect of using television as a babysitter on the time children spent watching television was stronger among children whose parents had strong positive attitudes toward child television viewing, = .300, B = 16.805, SE = 3.017, p<.001. The relationship between using television as a babysitter and time spent watching television just failed to reach significance within the group of children whose parents had little positive attitudes toward television, = .102, B = 4.077, SE = 2.133, p=.056. Second, moderator analyses demonstrated that the impact of using television as a babysitter was moderated by parental education. Surprisingly, using television as a babysitter only was a predictor of children’s viewing time among children of parents with high education (undergraduate education, = .254, B = 12.140, SE = 2.910, p<.001; graduate education, = .362, B = 13.956, SE = 3.265, p<.001), but not among children of parents with low education (no education or high school education, = .012, B = .641, SE = 3.481, p=.854). The more educated parents were, the more television as babysitter led to increased viewing among children. These findings indicate that children of parents with strong positive attitudes toward television and children of parents with high education are at greater risk for the impact of using television as a babysitter.status: publishe

Putting young children in front of the television: Antecedents and outcomes of parents’ use of television as a babysitter

This study investigates predictors and consequences associated with the use of television as a babysitter for young children. Survey data of 844 children between the ages of six months and six years are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Parents’ attitude toward television emerged as best predictor of using television as a babysitter, which in turn predicted increased time spent watching television. Children of parents with strong positive attitude toward television and, unexpectedly, children of parents with more education are at greater risk for increased television viewing if they are put in front of the television for being occupied.status: publishe

Adolescents’ (Active) Role in Sexually Oriented Computer-Mediated Communication

As research on sexual maturation suggests that a considerable proportion of adolescents actively explores their sexual identity, the aim of this study was to describe the incidence of sexually-oriented behaviors during online communication and explain the occurrence of this Sexually-oriented Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC). An online questionnaire was completed by 594 adolescents (ages 15-18), to test whether SCMC needs be seen as a response to a need for recreation and sensation (recreation hypothesis; Peter & Valkenburg, 2007) or rather as a compensation for a non-satisfying sexual situation (compensation hypothesis; Peter & Valkenburg, 2007). SCMC appears to be remarkably common among adolescents. The high prevalence indicates that adolescents may frequently and actively initiate SCMC, most likely as part of sexual exploration. Involvement in SCMC appears to be the result of more subtle contextual or personality factors; an interpretation supported by the fact that sexual attitude and sexual orientation seem to affect SCMC.status: publishe

The relationship between parental work demands and children’s television time

While there is some evidence for positive outcomes of television exposure, several studies among young children have found television to be associated with sleep disorders (e.g., Thompson & Christakis, 2005), obesity ( e.g., Dennison & Edmunds, 2008), and attention problems (e.g., Zimmerman & Christakis, 2007), among others. In this respect, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends to limit screen media exposure among young children (AAP, 2009; 2011). Nonetheless, young children spend substantial amounts of their time with television (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Because young children’s time with television is to a large extent controlled by their parents, it is important to understand what causes parents to have their children watch television. Research has revealed that parents, and working parents in particular, often feel unable to devote substantial time and energy to their children or to actively involve with their children, which makes it difficult to reduce children’s viewing time (Evans, Jordan, & Horner, 2011). An explanation for this may be found in time conflict theory (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005), which states that people are urged to divide their time and energy between work and family. Along these lines, it has been shown that more demanding work characteristics decrease the time parents spend with their child (e.g., Roeters, Van Der Lippe, & Kluwer, 2010). For instance, Brown, McBride, Bost and Shin (2011) showed that parents who worked longer hours played less with their child. However, the impact of parental work demands on the amount of children’s television viewing time remains largely unexamined. Therefore, the current study investigates the impact of parental working hours on the time children spend watching television. More specifically, the aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature by testing hypotheses derived from time conflict theory (Eby et al., 2005) in an integrative model. The first hypothesis will test whether higher parental work demands, as indicated by parents’ working hours, result in parental distress and, subsequently, parenting time pressure, which in turn discourages parents to participate in shared activities with their children. Because scholars have argued that how parents engage with their children is important (Huston & Rosenkrantz Aronson, 2005), the second hypothesis will test whether the impact of work demands is stronger for shared play than for shared television viewing. Finally, the question arises as to how these shared activities relate to children’s television time. In this regard, we will test two hypotheses predicting that shared play and shared television viewing are related to children’s television viewing time. Data from 855 parents of children aged six months to six years (M = 3.04, SD = 1.713) are reported. An integrative model was constructed and structural equation modeling was performed to assess the hypothesized relationships. All analyses were performed using AMOS. Results showed that high working hours make parents feel more time pressured in their parenting, β = .13, B = .01, SE = .00. However, contrary to our expectations, this relationship was not mediated by parental distress, because parents’ working hours were not a significant predictor of parental distress, β = -.01, B = -.00, SE = .00. Subsequently, parenting time pressure discourages parents to play together with their child and to watch television together with their child (β = -.37, B = -.69, SE = .09 for play; β = -.11, B = -.28, SE = .11 for television viewing). The critical ratio for differences showed that the impact of working hours, mediated by parenting time pressure, was significantly stronger on shared play than on shared television viewing (crfd = 2.997). Finally, the findings revealed that less parent-child shared play increases children’s television time, β = -.17, B = -1.08, SE = .24, and that less parent-child television viewing decreases children’s viewing time, β = .21, B = 1.00, SE = .18. This study emphasizes the role of parents’ work demands as an important contributor to children’s television time. The findings of this study have several important implications. First, being less involved in watching television with a child, may well decrease the child’s total television time, it may also imply that the child watches more television unsupervised. Second, the finding that less parent-child play increases children’s television time, implies that the more developmentally appropriate parent-child play is displaced by time spent watching television, which is a less cognitively stimulating activity. The latter finding should especially warrant us, because parents’ work demands appear to be most influential on parent-child play.status: publishe

Predictors and consequences of using television as a babysitter for young children

Prior studies found that parents have their children watch television for several reasons. One such reason is babysitting the children. However, little research has examined predictors and consequences of using television as a babysitter for young children. This study investigates child and parent characteristics associated with the use of television as a babysitter and examines the impact of parents’ use of television as a babysitter on children’s viewing time. Data from 844 parents of children between the ages of six months and six years are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Parents’ attitude toward television emerged as best predictor of using television as a babysitter, which in turn predicted increased time spent watching television. Children of parents with strong positive attitudes toward television and, unexpectedly, children of parents with more education are at greater risk for increased television viewing if they are put in front of the television for being occupied.status: publishe

Attention and Intensity of Play as a Function of Television Exposure in Very Young Children

Play behavior is an important component of early childhood. Play allows children to explore the world around them, experience new functionalities and acquire major skills (Ginsburg, 2007; Piaget, 1951 as cited in Courage & Setliff, 2010; Power, 2000). At the same time, infants and toddlers are surrounded by electronic screen media. Research has shown that very young children, even when they are only a few months old, watch television on a fairly regular basis (Courage, Murphy, Goulding, & Setliff, 2010; Vandewater et al., 2007). Given the evidence for the significance of play in very young children’s life and the considerable time spent with television, the question arises whether television exposure may affect young children’s play behavior. This study will adopt a differentiating approach, in the sense that it will distinguish between foreground and background television, and between solitary play and joint play. Based on Cohen’s attention-getting and attention-holding principles (Cohen, 1972), the first objective of this study is to explore whether television has an effect on the attention of children at play. More specifically, we might expect that background television could get the attention of young children at play, whereas foreground television could both get and hold their attention. The second objective of this study is to investigate whether television has an impact on the intensity of children’s play behavior. As research has shown that television interferes with children’s behavior, and play behavior in particular, this study sought to expand this evidence by exploring whether television disturbs children’s intensity of play. We might expect play to be more often diffuse when television is on compared to when television is off. In addition, it could be expected that foreground television would have a more profound effect on children’s play than background television. Home observations of 26 infants aged 9 months to 5 years were carried out to explore the impact of television exposure on play behavior. Log-linear analyses and post-hoc chi-square tests were conducted to explore how television and play interact. This study reveals that television exposure, especially foreground television programming, has an impact on children’s play behavior. Results indicate that background television gets children’s attention to the screen during play, while foreground television programming both gets and holds the attention of children at play. Log-linear analyses revealed that television exposure both directly and indirectly affects the intensity of children’s play. When television is on, children are more than twice as likely to play in a diffuse way. In addition, children are almost twice as likely to engage in solitary play when television is on, which in turn is associated with almost twice as much diffuse play. In situations where children are exposed to foreground television programming, children’s play behavior is almost three times more likely to be diffuse compared to situations where they are exposed to background television. This study supports the importance to distinguish between foreground and background television. First, this study confirms that both background and foreground television compete for children’s attention while they are engaged in play behavior. However, while both background and foreground television succeed in getting children’s attention to the screen, the impact of foreground television is more far-reaching. In fact, in our study, background television was never effective in holding the attention to the screen while children were at play, whereas foreground programming in some instances did receive full attention. Second, the impact of television on children’s play is different when television programming is foreground compared to when television programming is background. When television programming is foreground, children’s play behavior is almost three times more likely to be diffuse compared to situations where television programming is background. However, the results of this study show that foreground programming as well as background programming turn children’s play behavior to be diffuse. With respect to background television, this may be explained by the fact that background television draws children’s attention away from their play onto the television, whereby the play behavior becomes diffuse. With respect to foreground television, it seems possible that these findings are due to both the attention-getting and attention-holding potential. This explains why foreground television is more often associated with diffuse play: foreground television gets the attention of children, whereby attention is drawn away from their play onto the screen; additionally, foreground television holds the attention to the screen, whereby children experience difficulties to resume their play behavior.status: publishe