Development of the Adolescent Preoccupation with Screens Scale

Abstract Background Although public health concerns have been raised regarding the detrimental health effects of increasing rates of electronic screen use among adolescents, such effects have been small. Instruments currently available tend to be lengthy, have a clinical research focus, and assess young people’s screen use on specific screen-based activities (e.g., TV, computer, or internet). None appear to address screen use across a broad range of screens, including mobile devices and screen-based activities. The objective was to develop a new and short self-report scale for investigating adolescents’ screen use across all screens and screen-based activities in non-clinical settings. Methods The Adolescent Preoccupation with Screens Scale (APSS) was developed over a three stage process. First, a review of the current literature and existing instruments was undertaken and suitable items identified. Second, the draft APSS was piloted with adolescents and item affectivity and discrimination indices were calculated. Third, a cross sectional school based online survey of 1967 Australian adolescents in grades 5 (10 years old), 7 (13 years) and 9 (15 years) from 25 randomly selected schools was conducted. Results Factor Analysis on a sub-sample of the data (n = 782) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis on the remaining sub-sample (n = 1185), supported a two-factor model. The first factor reflects adolescents’ mood management with screen use, and the second reflects a behavioural preoccupation. The measure demonstrated strong invariance across sex and across Grades 5, 7, and 9. Both factors displayed good internal consistency (α = .91 and .87, respectively). Sex and grade differences on both scales were investigated and boys in Grade 5 reported higher levels of both mood management and behavioural preoccupation with screens. There were no sex differences on mood management in Grades 7 and 9, but girls reported higher behavioural preoccupation in both these later grades. Conclusion The APSS provides researchers with a new, brief and robust measure of potentially problematic screen use across a wide array of screens, including mobile devices, so readily accessed during adolescence

The screens culture: impact on ADHD

Children’s use of electronic media, including Internet and video gaming, has increased dramatically to an average in the general population of roughly 3 h per day. Some children cannot control their Internet use leading to increasing research on “internet addiction.” The objective of this article is to review the research on ADHD as a risk factor for Internet addiction and gaming, its complications, and what research and methodological questions remain to be addressed. The literature search was done in PubMed and Psychinfo, as well as by hand. Previous research has demonstrated rates of Internet addiction as high as 25% in the population and that it is addiction more than time of use that is best correlated with psychopathology. Various studies confirm that psychiatric disorders, and ADHD in particular, are associated with overuse, with severity of ADHD specifically correlated with the amount of use. ADHD children may be vulnerable since these games operate in brief segments that are not attention demanding. In addition, they offer immediate rewards with a strong incentive to increase the reward by trying the next level. The time spent on these games may also exacerbate ADHD symptoms, if not directly then through the loss of time spent on more developmentally challenging tasks. While this is a major issue for many parents, there is no empirical research on effective treatment. Internet and off-line gaming overuse and addiction are serious concerns for ADHD youth. Research is limited by the lack of measures for youth or parents, studies of children at risk, and studies of impact and treatment

School-based prevention for adolescent Internet addiction: prevention is the key. A systematic literature review

Adolescents’ media use represents a normative need for information, communication, recreation and functionality, yet problematic Internet use has increased. Given the arguably alarming prevalence rates worldwide and the increasingly problematic use of gaming and social media, the need for an integration of prevention efforts appears to be timely. The aim of this systematic literature review is (i) to identify school-based prevention programmes or protocols for Internet Addiction targeting adolescents within the school context and to examine the programmes’ effectiveness, and (ii) to highlight strengths, limitations, and best practices to inform the design of new initiatives, by capitalizing on these studies’ recommendations. The findings of the reviewed studies to date presented mixed outcomes and are in need of further empirical evidence. The current review identified the following needs to be addressed in future designs to: (i) define the clinical status of Internet Addiction more precisely, (ii) use more current psychometrically robust assessment tools for the measurement of effectiveness (based on the most recent empirical developments), (iii) reconsider the main outcome of Internet time reduction as it appears to be problematic, (iv) build methodologically sound evidence-based prevention programmes, (v) focus on skill enhancement and the use of protective and harm-reducing factors, and (vi) include IA as one of the risk behaviours in multi-risk behaviour interventions. These appear to be crucial factors in addressing future research designs and the formulation of new prevention initiatives. Validated findings could then inform promising strategies for IA and gaming prevention in public policy and education

Gender differences in the use of cardiovascular interventions in HIV-positive persons; the D:A:D Study

Peer reviewe

Drinking water quality in newly constructed houses

Dit rapport bevat een erratum d.d. 17 januari 2008 op de laatste paginaDrinkwater in nieuw gebouwde woningen bevat vaak verhoogde gehalten lood, nikkel en koper. Daardoor voldoet het drinkwater in deze woningen niet aan de eisen van het Waterleidingbesluit. Mogelijk is de kwaliteit van het drinkwater ook bij oplevering van de woning onvoldoende. Vooralsnog is echter geen sprake van acute gezondheidsrisico's. De normstelling gaat uit van een langdurige blootstelling aan deze metalen, en dat is in deze situatie waarschijnlijk niet het geval. Dit probleem kan verholpen worden door voor de oplevering langdurig en tijdens de eerste maanden van bewoning dagelijks 's ochtends de kranen een aantal minuten te laten lopen. Bewoners dienen hierover beter geinformeerd te worden door de installateur of het waterleidingbedrijf. Dit concludeert het RIVM nadat het de drinkwaterkwaliteit in bijna honderd nieuwbouwwoningen heeft onderzocht. Het onderzoek is uitgevoerd in samenwerking met Kiwa Water Research en een aantal waterleidinglaboratoria. In vrijwel alle onderzochte nieuwbouwwoningen zijn de verhoogde gehalten metalen aangetroffen. Ze zijn afkomstig uit gebruikte materialen zoals, kranen, koppelingen, soldeer en leidingen. Nieuwe materialen geven gedurende de eerste maanden metalen af. Ook zijn hoge aantallen bacterien aangetroffen. Er zijn echter geen aanwijzingen dat er ziekteverwekkende organismen in het drinkwater zitten.Drinking water in newly constructed houses often contains increased amounts of lead, nickel and copper. Consequently, it does not meet the quality standards set by the Drinking Water Act of the Netherlands. It is possible that the drinking water quality is also inadequate at the completion of these houses. To date, no acute health risks have been associated with this deficiency. The established quality standards are based on long-term exposure of individuals to these metals, which most likely does not occur with residents of newly built houses. This problem can be rectified by regularly flushing the water in each tap for a considerable length of time during house construction and by flushing the taps each morning for several minutes during the first months of occupancy. Plumbers/installers and/or the water company should provide the occupants of newly built houses with better information on this subject. This is the conclusion drawn by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands after analysing the drinking water quality in nearly one hundred newly constructed houses. This project was carried out in collaboration with Kiwa Water Research and a number of laboratories run by water companies. Increased amounts of lead, nickel and copper were found in almost all of the newly constructed houses investigated. These metals originated from the materials used in the construction of the plumbing system, such as taps, meters, connectors and pipes. High counts of microorganisms were also found, but there no was no evidence of pathogenic microorganisms in the drinking water samples.VROM-Inspecti