Dec
15
2018

CcaM researcher Caroline van Straten videopresented her latest paper "Technological and interpersonal trust in child-robot interaction: An exploratory study" at the 6th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction.

Nov
15
2018

In an article published in Human Communication Research, CcaM researchers Ine Beyens, Patti Valkenburg, and Jessica Piotrowski present a developmental approach to parental media mediation. They show that parents’ mediation increases across early childhood, peak around age 8, and then slowly decline throughout middle childhood. 

Oct
1
2018

The relationship between children’s screen media use and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has long been a subject of debate. Parents, health practitioners, and scholars often express concern that children’s screen media use increases the prevalence of ADHD-related behaviors (i.e., attention problems, hyperactivity, and impulsivity). In a review of four decades of research, now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), CcaM researchers identify what is known and what remains open for investigation.

Sep
26
2018

CcaM Director Jessica Taylor Piotrowski sat down with James Creech to discuss the sunny and dark sides of media on his podcast All Things Video.

Sep
21
2018

Why is it that the use of social media makes some adolescents feel happy while leaving others feeling blue? This week Project AWeSome, a new interdisciplinary collaboration between the Universities of Amsterdam and Tilburg, officially kicked off. The project’s aim is to answer this and other questions related to the effects of adolescents’ social media use on their wellbeing.

June
27
2018

Which came first – media or ADHD? CcaM researchers Ine Beyens, Jessica Taylor Piotrowski, and Patti Valkenburg sought to answer to this long-standing question. They learned that it is not media use that is predicting attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Instead, ADHD behaviors (i.e., hyperactivity, impulsivity, attention problems) predict children’s (violent) media use.

May
24
2018

As with past years, numerous CcaM faculty, postdocs, and PhD students are presenting new research at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association (ICA). Running from May 25^th through May 28^th in Prague, this annual competitive conference highlights some of the best communication research from around the world.  This year, CcaM researchers will deliver 18 presentations on a wide array of topics. Of these, 2 have been recognized by the Children, Adolescents, & Media division of ICA as top papers.

Apr
27
2018

Today’s app space is jam-packed with apps for young children! But, we know very little about how parents decide what apps to select for young users. In a new study, CcaM researchers - Francette Broekman, Jessica Piotrowski, Hans Beentjes, and Patti Valkenburg - sought to shed light on this process.

Mar
27
2018

In a new study, CcaM researchers investigated whether apps can support creativity in middle childhood. Results suggest that developmentally-appropriate creative apps are more engaging and appealing than developmentally-inappropriate apps, but more work is needed to move the needle on creativity. Results also lend support to the use of well-developed media guidance tools for aiding media selection.

Mar
14
2018

The digital media landscape has grown increasingly complex, and with it, we have seen a new array of questions emerge. At CcaM, our scholars are often tackling these questions, particularly as they relate to young people's digital media use. For example, how do parents select apps for their young children? What motivates social media users to share private information, and what are the consequences of doing this?