Original articleEffect of Visual Media Use on School Performance: A Prospective Study
Section snippets
Theoretical Model
We have developed a heuristic model, based on social–cognitive theory, that suggests several pathways through which visual media exposure can affect school performance (Figure 1). First, time spent on media use could simply displace time spent doing other activities that promote academic performance, such as doing homework or reading books. Second, viewing certain types of adult content could affect school performance by increasing adolescents' involvement in risky behaviors, such as smoking
Design/setting/participants
A national sample of U.S. youth aged 10 to 14 years was recruited between June and October 2003 through a random digit dial telephone survey. Details on the recruitment methods have been published previously [7], [9]. Trained interviewers administered the survey. To ensure privacy, a Westat (Rockville, MD) computer-assisted telephone interview system was used so that adolescents could respond to sensitive questions by pressing numbers on the telephone keypad rather than speaking them out loud.
Results
The interviewed sample was 6,486 at Time 1, 4,995 at Time 3, and 4533 at Time 4. At Time 1, the mean age of youth was 12 (range: 10–14); 62% were white, 18% Hispanic, 11% black, and 9% were other race. Overall, 31% had a parent with a college degree, and household income ranged from $10,000 or less (8%) to over $75,000 (30%). Analyses of attrition showed that persons who dropped out of the study were somewhat more likely to be of nonwhite race and lower socioeconomic status, and to score higher
Discussion
Using a longitudinal study design, we found a detrimental effect of visual media use on school performance. We tested three mechanisms for the relation between media use and worsened school performance, through effects of media variables on adolescents' substance use, school problem behavior, and disposition for sensation seeking. Each of these variables showed change over the study period, and a structural equation modeling analysis showed that both time spent with television/videogames and
Acknowledgments
This work was presented in part at the annual meetings of the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research in Philadelphia, March 2007, and the Pediatric Academic Societies, May 2007. Supported by CA-77026, National Institutes of Health.
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