How U.S. Children and Adolescents Spend Time: What It Does (and Doesn't) Tell Us About Their Development

Young people develop as "the sum of past experiences," and data on their time use are one means of quantifying those experiences. U.S. children and adolescents spend dramatically less time than in the agrarian past in household and income-generating labor. Because such labor is usually repetitive and unchallenging, this reduction has probably not deprived youths of crucial developmental experience. The schoolwork replacing this time has a clearer relationship to developmental outcomes. American teens, however, spend less time on schoolwork than teens in other industrialized countries. American teenagers have more discretionary time, much spent watching television or interacting with friends; spending large amounts of time in these activities is related to negative developmental outcomes. Increasing amounts of young people's discretionary time, however, appear to be spent in structured voluntary activities, like arts, sports, and organizations, which may foster initiative, identity, and other positive developmental outcomes.     

从一心一意到三心二意：青少年的媒体多任务行为

计算机时代的到来带来了青少年媒体使用行为的变化,其中媒体多任务现象尤为显著。为全面了解在青少年群体中日渐普及的媒体多任务行为,本文首先介绍该现象的概念界定,其次概括研究中的理论基础和测量方式,并总结了青少年媒体多任务的影响因素和影响后果。未来应加强对智能手机等新兴媒体对媒体多任务行为的影响、媒体多任务行为的性别差异、媒体多任务行为的生态化测量以及媒体多任务行为积极影响的研究。     

The importance of parents and other caregivers to the resilience of high-risk adolescents

Relationships between 43 high-risk adolescents and their caregivers were examined qualitatively. Parents and other formal and informal caregivers such as youth workers and foster parents were found to exert a large influence on the behaviors that bolster mental health among high-risk youth marginalized by poverty, social stigma, personal and physical characteristics, ethnicity, and poor social or academic performance. Participants' accounts of their intergenerational relationships with caregivers showed that teenagers seek close relationships with adults in order to negotiate for powerful self-constructions as resilient. High-risk teens say they want the adults in their lives to serve as an audience in front of whom they can perform the identities they construct both inside and outside their homes. This pattern was evident even among youth who presented as being more peer-than family-oriented. The implications of these findings to interventions with caregivers and teens is discussed.     

Religiosity,Meaning in Life and Suicidal Tendency Among Jews

The study examines the impact that meaning in life, or lack thereof, has on suicidal tendencies among youth, as well as the nexus between level of religiosity, meaning in life and suicidal tendencies. Subjects were 450 students from both Jewish religious and Jewish secular schools aged 15–18. Findings: a significant and negative correlation was found between a sense of meaning in life and suicidal tendencies, beyond gender or level of religiosity. In addition, no difference was found in level of suicidal tendency between Jewish religious and Jewish secular youth; however, among Jewish religious teens, a lower level of depression was reported in comparison with their secular peers. The study therefore concludes that meaning in life is the dominant variable in minimizing suicidal tendencies among youth. The results of this study may promote the establishment of prevention, intervention and therapy plans, especially in the age range that is crucial for suicide. Such programs should be based upon finding meaning in life.     

Are Parental Rules regarding Screen Behaviors Associated with Youth’ Sedentary Behavior? The UP&DOWN Study

Abstract

This study aims to examine the associations of parental rules with sedentary behavior (SB) in youth. Leisure-time SB was assessed by accelerometry and questionnaire. In boys, parental rules regarding TV were negatively associated with objectively-measured leisure-time SB and time spent in all screen behaviors, but positively associated with educational SB. Among girls, the total number of parental rules was negatively associated with the time spent surfing the Internet, but positively related with educational SB, on weekends. The imposition of rules by parents may be a simple and effective strategy to improve sedentary patterns in youth, especially among boys.     

Gender and Age Group Differences in Mass Media and Interpersonal Influences on Body Dissatisfaction Among Chinese Adolescents

Despite evidence that middle adolescent girls (ages 14–17) experience more body dissatisfaction than early adolescent girls (ages 10–13) or boys at these ages, researchers have rarely considered whether such differences are observed regarding factors related to body dissatisfaction, particularly within non-Western samples. To address this issue, gender and age group differences in media and interpersonal influences on body dissatisfaction were assessed among early and middle adolescents living in Chongqing, China. In Study 1, 595 boys and 648 girls completed self report measures of demographics, public self-consciousness and appearance-based social pressure, comparisons, and conversations. Compared to boys, girls reported more appearance pressure from mass media and close interpersonal networks (friends, family), appearance comparisons with peers, and appearance conversations with friends; these effects were qualified by interactions with age group, indicating media and interpersonal factors were more prominent in the lives of middle adolescent girls than other groups. Effects were observed independent of body mass index (BMI) and public self-consciousness. In Study 2, 738 girls and 661 boys completed the same measures and a body dissatisfaction scale. By and large, gender and age differences were replicated. Middle adolescent girls also reported more body dissatisfaction than peers did. Perceived appearance pressure from mass media and interpersonal ties were both implicated in mediation analyses to explain this gender × age group effect.     

Distorted Reflections: Media Exposure and Latino Adolescents' Conceptions of Self

Because Latinos are underrepresented and often negatively stereotyped in the media, concern is frequently expressed that repeated exposure to these portrayals may reflect poorly on Latino adolescents' self-esteem. To test this issue empirically, we conducted 2 studies examining associations between multiple dimensions of self-esteem and several forms of media use. Testing 40 Latino high school students in Study 1, we found that more frequent and more active TV viewing was associated with lower social and appearance self-esteem. Many of these general patterns were replicated in Study 2 with 115 college students and with several demographic controls. Additional analyses of possible moderators revealed more consistent negative correlations among women and among participants with a stronger Latino ethnic identity. Together, these findings provide powerful evidence of a potential link between media use and the self-conceptions of Latino youth.     

Current Considerations in the Assessment of Youth Narcissism: Indicators of Pathological and Normative Development

The present study summarizes research on youth narcissism and examines the relations between different measures of youth narcissism and various indicators of behavioral, emotional, and social functioning. This area of research has grown dramatically in only a few years and speaks to the recognized role of self-perception in general and narcissism specifically in youth adjustment. Data are presented for 117 adolescents ages 16 to 19 attending a residential program. Results showed a moderate level of association across three measures of youth narcissism. In addition, each of the measures appeared to capture unique variance in different indicators of behavioral and social functioning. The implications of this area of research for conceptualizations of youth personality, assessment, and behavioral problems are discussed.     

The evil eye: Eye gaze and competitiveness in social decision making

We demonstrate that a person's eye gaze and his/her competitiveness are closely intertwined in social decision making. In an exploratory examination of this relationship, Study 1 uses field data from a high‐stakes TV game show to demonstrate that the frequency by which contestants gaze at their opponent's eyes predicts their defection in a variant on the prisoner's dilemma. Studies 2 and 3 use experiments to examine the underlying causality and demonstrate that the relationship between gazing and competitive behavior is bi‐directional. In Study 2, fixation on the eyes, compared to the face, increases competitive behavior toward the target in an ultimatum game. In Study 3, we manipulate the framing of a negotiation (cooperative vs. competitive) and use an eye tracker to measure fixation number and time spent fixating on the counterpart's eyes. We find that a competitive negotiation elicits more gazing, which in turn leads to more competitive behavior.     

Community Involvement and Narrative Identity in Emerging and Young Adulthood: A Longitudinal Analysis

This study examines community engagement in youth and emerging adulthood from a narrative identity perspective, based on analyses of a longitudinal data set of 72 participants from ages 17 to 32. At ages 26 and 32, participants told narratives about a key community experience from their personal lives, which was rated for six dimensions. In addition, questionnaire measures of community involvement and general identity status development were administered at ages 17, 26, and 32. We found that patterns of community involvement at age 17 predicted levels of community involvement and qualities of community narratives at ages 26 and 32 and that community narratives were significantly correlated with concurrent measures of identity maturity and community involvement. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

Adolescent adaptation before,during and in the aftermath of the Great Recession in the USA

This study examines the impact of the “Great Recession” (from December 2007 to June 2009) on 8th and 10th graders in the USA, using annual nationally representative data from the Monitoring the Future study. Historical changes in youth adjustment (self‐esteem, depressed mood, risk taking, aggression and property crime), school achievement (grade point average [GPA], time spent on homework and educational expectations) and structured and unstructured activities (volunteering, employment, sports and evenings out for fun) were examined between 1991 and 2014. Overall, there were only slight changes in mean levels of adjustment, achievement and most youth activities. However, the percentage of youth working during the school year did decline during the Great Recession. Several longer‐term trends were also evident, though not directly tied to the Great Recession. These include an increase in GPA, a decrease in time spent on homework, rising educational expectations and more time spent volunteering. Future work should assess how the shift to unpaid work activities (e.g. volunteering and internships) among youth is impacting the transition from school to work in the contemporary economy, and whether the Great Recession had deleterious impacts for younger children or among youth whose parents lost work or had their homes foreclosed.     

How young children spend their time: television and other activities.

Time-use diaries were collected over a 3-year period for 2 cohorts of 2- and 4-year-old children. TV viewing declined with age. Time spent in reading and educational activities increased with age on weekdays but declined on weekends. Time-use patterns were sex-stereotyped, and sex differences increased with age. As individuals' time in educational activities, social interaction, and video games increased, their time watching entertainment TV declined, but time spent playing covaried positively with entertainment TV. Educational TV viewing was not related to time spent in non-TV activities. Maternal education and home environment quality predicted frequent viewing of educational TV programs and infrequent viewing of entertainment TV. The results do not support a simple displacement hypothesis; the relations of TV viewing to other activities depend on the program content, the nature of the competing activity, and the environmental context.     

Terror mismanagement: evidence that mortality salience exacerbates phobic and compulsive behaviors

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that cultural worldviews and self-esteem function to buffer humans from mortality-related anxiety. TMT research has shown that important behaviors are influenced by mortality salience (MS) even when they have no obvious connection to death. However, there has been no attempt to investigate TMT processes in anxious responding. The present research examines that question. In Study 1, compared to a control condition, MS increased anxious responding to spider-related stimuli, but only for participants who met criteria for specific phobia. In Study 2, compared to an aversive control condition, MS increased time spent washing hands, but only for those scoring high on a measure of compulsive hand washing (CHW). In Study 3, compared to a different aversive control condition, MS increased avoidance of a social interaction, but only for those scoring high on a measure of social interaction anxiety. The relevance of TMT in anxious responding is discussed.     

Measuring gratitude in youth: assessing the psychometric properties of adult gratitude scales in children and adolescents

Before the developmental trajectory, outcomes, and related interventions of gratitude can be accurately and confidently studied among the youth, researchers must ensure that they have psychometrically sound measures of gratitude that are suitable for this population. Thus, considering that no known scales were specifically designed to measure gratitude in youth, this study aimed to answer an important question: Are the existing gratitude scales used with adults valid for use with youth? The present study is an empirical investigation, based on a large youth sample (N = 1,405) with ages ranging from 10 to 19 years old, of the psychometric properties of scores of the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6; M. E. McCullough, R. A. Emmons, & J.-A. Tsang, 2002), the Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAC; M. E. McCullough, R. A. Emmons, & J.-A. Tsang, 2002), and the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT)-short form (M. Thomas & P. Watkins, 2003). Single-group and multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the factor structures of these gratitude scales resemble those found with adults and were invariant across age groups. Scores of all three gratitude scales revealed acceptable internal consistency estimates (i.e., >.70) across age groups. Results showed that whereas scores of all three gratitude scales were positively correlated with each other for 14- to 19-year-olds, GRAT-short form scores tended to display relatively low correlations with scores of the other two measures for younger children (10-13 years old). Furthermore, the nomological network analysis showed that scores of all three gratitude scales were positively correlated with positive affect and life satisfaction scores across the age groups. The relationships with negative affect and depression scores, however, seemed dependent on the child's age. Pending results from subsequent research recommendations for researchers interested in studying gratitude in youth are offered.     

Young adults' media use and attitudes toward interpersonal and institutional forms of aggression

Links between media violence exposure and favorable attitudes toward interpersonal violence are well established, but few studies have examined whether associations extend to include favorable attitudes toward institutional forms of aggression. Studies on this topic have not assessed multiple forms of media use and statistically controlled for individual characteristics likely to influence attitudes beyond sociodemographic information. In this study, undergraduate students (N=319) aged 18-20 years (56% male) completed a survey assessing media use (number of hours per week spent playing videogames, watching movies/TV shows, watching TV sports) and attitudes toward interpersonal violence, punitive criminal justice policies, and different types of military activities (preparedness/defense and aggressive intervention). Greater number of hours spent watching TV contact sports was associated with more favorable attitudes toward military preparedness/defense, aggressive military intervention, and punitive criminal justice policies among men independently of parental education, lifetime violence exposure within the home and community, aggressive personality, and constrained problem solving style. Greater number of hours spent watching violent movies/TV was associated with more favorable attitudes toward military preparedness/defense among men and with more favorable attitudes toward interpersonal violence and punitive criminal justice policies among women, but these associations became non-significant when adjusting for covariates.     

Preliminary Examination of a Cartoon-Based Hostile Attributional Bias Measure for Urban African American Boys

The current study illustrates how researchers developed and validated a cartoon-based adaptation of a written hostile attributional bias measure for a sample of urban, low-income, African American boys. A series of studies were conducted to develop cartoon illustrations to accompany a standard written hostile attributional bias vignette measure (Study 1), to determine initial psychometric properties (Study 2) and acceptability (Study 3), and to conduct a test–retest reliability trial of the adapted measure in a separate sample (Study 4). These studies utilize a participatory action research approach to measurement design and adaptation, and suggest that collaborations between researchers and key school stakeholders can lead to measures that are psychometrically strong, developmentally appropriate, and culturally sensitive. In addition, the cartoon-based hostile attributional bias measure appears to have promise as an assessment and/or outcome measure for aggression and bullying prevention programs conducted with urban African American boys.     

Does Media Type Matter? The Role of Identification in Adolescent Girls�� Media Consumption and the Impact of Different Thin-Ideal Media on Body Image

Previous research on media exposure and body image focuses on TV and magazines, rather than the under researched types of media heavily consumed by adolescents, such as music videos. The present research, involving 199 adolescent girls (aged 14?C16) from South-East England, examines girls?? media consumption (types and genres) and identification with media models, then uses an exposure experiment to investigate whether the different media formats in which ??body perfect?? ideals are presented affects their impact on body image. ??Study 1?? showed that neither type nor amount of media use was related to body dissatisfaction, however media model identification was. ??Study 2?? demonstrated that regardless of media type, experimental exposure to the body perfect led to significantly higher body and appearance dissatisfaction, compared to control images, but primarily amongst those girls who strongly identified with media models. Theoretical and intervention implications are discussed.     

The younger siblings of teenage mothers: a follow-up of their pregnancy risk

This study followed 243 younger brothers and younger sisters of parenting teens and nonparenting teens across a 1.5-year period. The average age of siblings was 13.6 years at Time 1 and 15 years at Time 2. Relative to other youths, the sisters of parenting teens exhibited a sharp increase in drug and alcohol use and partying behavior across time and had the highest pregnancy rate at Time 2 (15%). The siblings of parenting teens spent 10 hr a week caring for their sisters' children, and, for girls, many hours of child care was associated with negative outcomes including permissive sexual behavior. Findings suggest that the younger sisters of parenting teens are at very high risk of early pregnancy and that this risk becomes increasingly pronounced across time.     

Links between television exposure and toddler dysregulation: Does culture matter?

Television exposure in early childhood has increased, with concerns raised regarding adverse effects on social-emotional development, and emerging self-regulation in particular. The present study addressed television exposure (i.e., amount of time watching TV) and its associations with toddler behavioral/emotional dysregulation, examining potential differences across 14 cultures. The sample consisted of an average of 60 toddlers from each of the 14 countries from the Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium (JETTC; Gartstein & Putnam, 2018). Analyses were conducted relying on the multi-level modeling framework (MLM), accounting for between- and within-culture variability, and examining the extent to which TV exposure contributions were universal vs. variable across sites. Effects of time watching TV were evaluated in relation to temperament reactivity and regulation, as well as measures of emotional reactivity, attention difficulties, and aggression. Results indicated that more time spent watching TV was associated with higher ratings on Negative Emotionality, emotional reactivity, aggression, and attention problems, as well as lower levels of soothability. However, links between TV exposure and both attention problems and soothability varied significantly between cultures. Taken together, results demonstrate that increased time spent watching television was generally associated with dysregulation, although effects were not consistently uniform, but rather varied as a function of culturally-dependent contextual factors.