A Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship Between Media Use and Self-Competence During Adolescence

The primary goal of this longitudinal study was to examine whether media use predicts adolescent self-competence and/or whether adolescent self-competence predicts media use. The sample included 1,031 10th and 11th grade boys and girls from the United States. The adolescents completed a self-report questionnaire in 2007 and 2008 to assess their media use (talking and texting on the phone, listening to music, e-mailing/IMing, playing video games, and working on the computer) and self-competence (social competence, scholastic competence, athletic competence, and perceived physical appearance). Path analysis results revealed that media use had a minimal effect on adolescent self-competence. In contrast, adolescent self-competence consistently predicted media use. Results from this study highlight the need to examine both directions of influence between adolescent media use and adjustment

Media and Youth Development: An Overview of Issues, Theory, and Research

The homes of today’s youth are filled with a variety of media options, ranging from televisions (71%) and video game consoles (50%) in their bedrooms to portable handheld devices (e.g., iPods/mp3 players, 76%) and cell phones (71%) that can accompany youth wherever they go. Of course, youth also have access to centralized media found in homes, such as televisions (99% of homes) and computers with and without Internet access (93% and 84% of homes, respectively). Not surprisingly, youth consume media for about 7.5 hours per day, much of which involves using more than one media at the same time (i.e., multitasking), with adolescents consuming significantly more media than children (Lenhart, 2012; Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010)

Steps to Growing Up Healthy: a Pediatric Primary Care Based Obesity Prevention Program for Young Children

Background Leading medical organizations have called on primary care pediatricians to take a central role in the prevention of childhood obesity. Weight counseling typically has not been incorporated into routine pediatric practice due to time and training constraints. Brief interventions with simple behavior change messages are needed to reach high-risk children, particularly Latino and Black children who are disproportionately affected by obesity and related comorbidities. Steps to Growing Up Healthy (Added Value) is a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of brief motivational counseling (BMC) delivered by primary care clinicians and the added value of supplementing BMC with monthly contact by community health workers (CHW) in the prevention/reversal of obesity in Latino and Black children ages 2-4 years old. Methods/Design Mother-child dyads (targeted n=150) are recruited for this 12-month randomized trial at an inner-city pediatric primary care clinic and randomized to: 1) BMC delivered by clinicians and nurses at well, sick, and WIC visits with the goal of reducing obesogenic behaviors (BMC); 2) BMC plus monthly phone calls by a CHW (BMC+Phone); or 3) BMC plus monthly home visits by a CHW (BMC+Home). During BMC, the medical team facilitates the selection of a specific goal (i.e., reduce sugar sweetened beverage consumption) that is meaningful to the mother and teaches the mother simple behavioral strategies. Monthly contacts with CHWs are designed to identify and overcome barriers to goal progress. Dyads are assessed at baseline and 12 months and the primary outcome is change in the child’s BMI percentile. We hypothesize that BMC+Phone and BMC+Home will produce greater reductions in BMI percentiles than BMC alone and that BMC+Home will produce greater reductions in BMI percentiles than BMC+Phone. Discussion Steps to Growing Up Healthy will provide important information about whether a brief primary care-based intervention that utilizes a motivational interviewing and goal setting approach can be incorporated into routine care and is sufficient to prevent/reverse obesity in young children. The study will also explore whether monthly contact with a community health worker bridges the gap between the clinic and the community and is an effective strategy for promoting obesity prevention in high-risk families

A Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship Between Media Use and Self-Competence During Adolescence

The primary goal of this longitudinal study was to examine whether media use predicts adolescent self-competence and/or whether adolescent self-competence predicts media use. The sample included 1,031 10th and 11th grade boys and girls from the United States. The adolescents completed a self-report questionnaire in 2007 and 2008 to assess their media use (talking and texting on the phone, listening to music, e-mailing/IMing, playing video games, and working on the computer) and self-competence (social competence, scholastic competence, athletic competence, and perceived physical appearance). Path analysis results revealed that media use had a minimal effect on adolescent self-competence. In contrast, adolescent self-competence consistently predicted media use. Results from this study highlight the need to examine both directions of influence between adolescent media use and adjustment

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Relationship Between Educational Investment and Adolescent Sexual Activity

The relation between educational investment and sexual behavior was examined longitudinally in a sample of 479 rural adolescents. Surveys were administered to the subjects twice—once when they were in the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades, and again 2 years later when they were in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. Results indicated that among girls, educational investment predicted sexual activity, with academic grades in school significantly predicting reported frequency of sexual activity 2 years later. In contrast for boys, sexual involvement predicted later educational investment, particularly involvement in academic activities. These findings suggest different developmental patterns for boys and girls. For girls, academic involvement may limit their sexual activity. However sexual activity does not seem to reduce educational involvement. In contrast, sexual activity is associated with less involvement in academic activities for boys. The possible reasons for these gender differences are discussed

Heterogeneity in the costs and benefits of co-rumination

FULL PUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34843311/ DiGiovanni AM, Vannucci A, Ohannessian CM, Bolger N. Modeling heterogeneity in the simultaneous emotional costs and social benefits of co-rumination. Emotion. 2021 Oct;21(7):1470-1482. doi: 10.1037/emo0001028. Epub 2021 Nov 29. PMID: 34843311