Scientific Findings

The analysis, conclusions, and recommendations contained in each paper are solely a product of the individual workgroup and are not the policy or opinions of, nor do they represent an endorsement by, Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development.

Scientific Findings

As part of Children and Screens’ ongoing support and curation of cutting-edge, objective, scientifically-rigorous interdisciplinary research, we invited nearly 140 preeminent experts from 10 different disciplines in 22 workgroups to compile the latest research on the effects of media on growth and development, cognition and mental health in toddlers, children and adolescents.

The resulting findings were aggregated and published in a special supplement, “Children, Adolescents, and Screens: What We Know and What We Need to Learn”, in the highly-regarded journal Pediatrics, released on November 1, 2017.

Subsequent new research has also been synthesized and presented where applicable.

IGD

Academic Performance and Student Wellbeing

Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development conducted a survey in November 2021 in collaboration with the National Association of School Psychologists. The main aim of the survey was to...Read more...

IGD

Addiction and Internet Gaming Disorder

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) was recently included by the American Psychological Association as a potential psychiatric diagnosis, with the recommendation that further study was necessary to understand... Read more...
Image

Advertising and Marketing

Children and teens growing up in the United States are surrounded by commercial messages. They see them in television and movies, they surf by them online, they pass them on the street, and they frequently act... Read more...

IGD

Anxiety and Depression

There have always been concerns about the impact of media on children’s mental health, and these concerns have been growing with the advent of newer technologies, which allow children to have access to... Read more...

Advertising

Civic Engagement

In this era of concerns about “fake news,” polarization and internet extremism, it can be hard to see the advantages of teens involvement in activism or advocacy. However, research suggests that civic and... Read more...

Cognitive-Impacts

Cognitive Impacts

Media used by children have long been thought to have both positive and negative effects on knowledge and cognitive skills. With respect to screen media, most research concerns television, but there has... Read more...

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying

The word cyberbullying is often used, but defining it has proved difficult. Traditional bullying is cruel behavior that is intentional, repetitive, and perpetrated by a more powerful individual over a less... Read more...

Immigrants-And-Low-Income

Digital Inequality

Tens of millions of children growing up in the U.S. are in low-income and minority families. They are more likely to experience digital inequality — too little access to the internet and devices that connect... Read more...

Texting-and-Driving

Digital Literacy

Anywhere, anytime learning that digital and media literacies support is now a fundamental human right that calls for equal access by all. Yet the gap between today’s world of education and that of an... Read more...

Well-being

Digital Life and Youth Well-being

Digital media are woven into the fabric of most young people’s lives today. This social fact raises concerns about the varied impacts of frequent (often ongoing) engagement on social network sites and... Read more...

Texting-and-Driving

Driving Safety

Small screen technology is almost completely pervasive. The apps that go with the hardware are designed by people with a good working knowledge of how to make them capture the attention of an already... Read more...

Global Perspectives

International research shows that digital opportunities benefit children worldwide. However, despite high hopes about this potential for enabling children’s access to information, education and participation... Read more...

Media Multitasking

Estimates of media use among teens are staggering: approximately eight hours, or one-third of each 24-hour day, is the average amount of time a teen engages with media. A large portion of this time... Read more...

Obesity

A large body of research has demonstrated relationships between greater amounts of screen media use —television, video games, and computers — and obesity in children and adolescents. In fact, obesity is one... Read more...

Parenting

Children spend more hours engaging with screens than with any other activity. Research has found that media use can have a host of both positive and negative effects on child development, though it depends... Read more...

Immigrants-And-Low-Income

Privacy

Our article offers an overview of young people’s engagement with today’s always-on, interactive media culture, focusing particularly on the privacy implications of the advertising that appears on social media... Read more...

Risky Behaviors

Our paper reviews the latest evidence regarding adolescent exposure to online content that might encourage the use of substances, such as alcohol and tobacco, and gambling. The research we review suggests... Read more...

Sexual Content

Sex in the media is one of the leading sex educators for young people today. Traditional media (e.g., TV, movies, music) influence teens’ attitudes and beliefs about sex and gender, as well as sexual behavior... Read more...

Sleep

This brief report summarizes the literature on electronic media and sleep and provides research recommendations. This topic is important and timely because of the pervasive and understudied... Read more...

Media-Portrayals

Media Portrayals

As social beings, children and adolescents look to cues in the world around them to develop understandings of themselves and others. These understandings are marked in part by social group categorization... Read more...

Media-Violence

Violent Content

Children today are immersed in entertainment and news media, like fish are immersed in water. Using hand-held devices, children can consume media just about anywhere or anytime they want. Violence is a common... Read more...

Virtual Reality

Pediatric interventions often aim at functional enhancements through reestablishing previously learned behavior patterns or establishing new patterns of activity. Recent advances in virtual reality... Read more...