Center on Media and Child Health

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The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) is a non-profit organization based at Boston Children's Hospital. CMCH was founded in 2002, by pediatrician Michael Rich, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; and Associate Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Contents

Mission

CMCH conducts scientific research to improve the understanding of media influence and provide evidence-based expertise to initiatives and programs that address children's involvement with media. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Research

CMCH researchers investigate correlations between media use and children's physical and mental health outcomes, measuring media exposure in youth. [12] Combining techniques of momentary sampling and video capture, this method is more sensitive to the variety of media used, more responsive to media multitasking, and more accurate in its capture of both media content and usage time.

CMCH researchers have developed the Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA) method, [13] a research method that allows children and teen patients the opportunity to create video diaries about living with an illness. These videos can be used to teach physicians more about the realities of various conditions. CMCH maintains a database [14] of scientific studies on how media affects children's health. David Bickham has researched the role of television viewing and social isolation. [15] CMCH has also been involved in research which addresses the media education of pediatric residents. [16]

Related Research Articles

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Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the age of 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends people seek pediatric care through the age of 21, but some pediatric subspecialists continue to care for adults up to 25. Worldwide age limits of pediatrics have been trending upward year after year. A medical doctor who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician. The word pediatrics and its cognates mean "healer of children," derived from the two Greek words: παῖς and ἰατρός. Pediatricians work in clinics, research centers, universities, general hospitals and children's hospitals, including those who practice pediatric subspecialties.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It is headquartered in DuPage County, Illinois, and maintains an office in Washington, D.C. The AAP has published hundreds of policy statements, ranging from advocacy issues to practice recommendations.

School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment. It includes many forms of bullying and carrying weapons in school. The one or more perpetrators typically have more physical, social, and/or psychological power than the victim. It is widely believed by society to have become a serious problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved.

Children's culture includes children's cultural artifacts, children's media and literature, and the myths and discourses spun around the notion of childhood. Children's culture has been studied within academia in cultural studies, media studies, and literature departments. The interdisciplinary focus of childhood studies could also be considered in the paradigm of social theory concerning the study of children's culture.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childhood obesity</span> Obesity in children

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Zuckerman</span>

Barry S. Zuckerman is Professor and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center. He started the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston City Hospital and was one of 12 founders of the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. He was appointed chair of Pediatrics in 1993 and was asked to be First Medical Director of Boston Medical Center when Boston City Hospital merged with University Hospital. He is a co-founder of Reach Out and Read, a national childhood literacy program in the United States, founder of Medical-Legal Partnership, and co-founder of Health Leads, Healthy Steps, and the Nutrition & Fitness for Life pediatric obesity program, all of which have transformed pediatric care for low-income families. Most recently, along with colleagues, he developed a free app for pediatric primary care called "Small Moments, Big Impact" to promote the mother-infant relationship and emotional well-being for low-income mothers from birth through the first six months of their baby's life.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">David A. Wolfe</span>

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The media and American adolescent sexuality relates to the effect the media has on the sexuality of American adolescents and the portrayal thereof.

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Screen time is the amount of time spent using a device with a screen such as a smartphone, computer, television, or video game console. The concept is under significant research with related concepts in digital media use and mental health. Screen time is correlated with mental and physical harm in child development. The positive or negative health effects of screen time are influenced by levels and content of exposure. To prevent harmful exposure to screen time, some governments have placed regulations on its usage.

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References

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  2. Calvert, S. L., & Kotler, J. A. (2003). Lessons from children's television: The impact of the Children's Television Act on children's learning. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(3), 275–335.
  3. Friedrich, L. K., & Stein, A. H. (1973). Aggressive and prosocial television programs and the natural behavior of preschool children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38(4), 1–64.
  4. Rice, M. L., et al. (1990). Words from "Sesame Street": Learning vocabulary while viewing. Developmental Psychology, 26(3), 421–428.
  5. Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2008). Adolescents' identity experiments on the Internet. Communication Research, 35(2), 208–231.
  6. Titus-Ernstoff, L., Dalton, M. A., Adachi-Mejia, A. M., Longacre, M. R., & Beach, M. L. (2008). Longitudinal study of viewing smoking in movies and initiation of smoking by children. Pediatrics, 121(1), 15–21.
  7. Adachi-Mejia, A. M., Longacre, M. R., Gibson, J. J., Beach, M. L., Titus-Ernstoff, L. T., & Dalton, M. A. (2007). Children with a TV in their bedroom at higher risk for being overweight. Int J Obes (Lond), 31(4), 644–651.
  8. Rebecca, L. C. (2005). Sex on television and its impact on American youth: Background and results from the RAND television and adolescent sexuality study. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America, 14(3), 371–385.
  9. Harrison, K., Taylor, L. D., & Marske, A. L. (2006). Women's and men's eating behavior following exposure to ideal-body images and text. Communication Research, 33(6), 507–529.
  10. Cantor, J., & Omdahl, B. L. (1991). Effects of fictional media depictions of realistic threats on children's emotional responses, expectations, worries, and liking for related activities. Communication Monographs, 58(4),384 – 401.
  11. Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C. L., & Eron, L. D. (2003). Longitudinal relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977–1992. Dev Psychol, 39(2), 201–221.
  12. Michael, R., David, B., Shimrit, K., Parul, A., Carl de, M., & Lydia, S. (2007). Measuring youth media exposure (MYME): A pilot study. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 40(2), S5-S6.
  13. Rich, M., Lamola, S., Gordon, J., & Chalfen, R. (2000). Video intervention/prevention assessment: a patient-centered methodology for understanding the adolescent illness experience. J Adolesc Health, 27(3), 155–165.
  14. Rich, M., & King, B. E. (2008). Center on Media and Child Health: Scientific evolution responding to technological revolution. Journal of Children and Media 2(2),183–188.
  15. Bickham, D. S. and M. Rich (2006). Is television viewing associated with social isolation?: Roles of exposure time, viewing context, and violent content. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine,160(4), 387–392.
  16. Rich, M., & Bar-on, M. (2001). Child health in the information age: Media education of pediatricians. Pediatrics, 107(1),156–162.