Kids and Media in America

by Donald F. Roberts , Ulla G. Foehr , With Victoria J. Rideout , Mollyanne Brodie

• ISBN13: 9780521821025
• ISBN10: 0521821029
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book reports the only national, random sample survey of US children and adolescents' use of all of the various media available to them conducted in at least the past 30 years. In addition to providing the first comprehensive look at how media-saturated our young people's lives have become, it is the first study to examine young people's overall media budgets, and the first to attempt to describe distinctly different types of young media users. Extensive background information and chapters devoted to each of the various media, to the overall media budget, and to particular types of media users, enables the authors to describe perhaps the most detailed map of US young people's media behavior ever assembled.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	xii
Acknowledgments	xxiii
1 The Changing Media Landscape	1	(12)
The Changing Media Landscape	3	(2)
Children and Media: A History of Concern	5	(3)
Previous Research on Children's Media Use	8	(5)
2 The Measurement of Media Behavior	13	(16)
Measuring Young People's Media Behavior	16	(1)
The Samples	17	(2)
Young children: The In-Home sample	18	(1)
Older children and adolescents: The In-School sample	18	(1)
Questionnaires	19	(10)
Questionnaire administration	19	(1)
Media exposure measures	20	(2)
The home media environment	22	(1)
Media attitudes	22	(1)
Social/psychological well-being	23	(1)
Demographic and background items	23	(1)
Media-use diaries	24	(1)
Statistical analyses	25	(1)
Age as a baseline variable	26	(3)
3 The Media Environment	29	(28)
Media in the Home	30	(8)
Overall in-home access	30	(3)
Age and in-home access	33	(1)
Socioeconomic status and in-home access	33	(2)
Race/ethnicity and in-home access	35	(3)
Gender and in-home access	38	(1)
Multiple-Media Homes	38	(4)
Media in Young People's Bedrooms	42	(6)
Age and bedroom media	42	(1)
Gender and bedroom media	43	(1)
Socioeconomic status and bedroom media	44	(2)
Race/ethnicity and bedroom media	46	(2)
Household Television Orientation	48	(7)
Age/gender and household television orientation	51	(1)
Socioeconomic status and household television orientation	51	(3)
Race/ethnicity and household television orientation	54	(1)
Summing Up the Media Environment	55	(2)
4 Screen Media: Television, Videos, and Movies	57	(27)
Amount of Screen Exposure	58	(10)
Age and screen exposure	58	(4)
Gender and screen exposure	62	(1)
Socioeconomic status and screen exposure	63	(2)
Race/ethnicity and screen exposure	65	(2)
Household television orientation and screen exposure	67	(1)
Content Preferences	68	(6)
Television content	69	(3)
Video content	72	(2)
Movie content	74	(1)
Summing up screen content preferences	74	(1)
The Context of Exposure	74	(6)
Attitudes toward Television	80	(2)
Summing Up Screen Media Exposure	82	(2)
5 Audio Media: Radio, Tapes, and CDs	84	(13)
Amount of Audio Exposure	85	(5)
Predictors of audio exposure	88	(2)
Music Content Preferences	90	(5)
Predictors of content preferences	92	(3)
Audio Media: A Coda	95	(2)
6 Print Media: Books, Magazines, and Newspapers	97	(16)
Amount of Print Exposure	98	(11)
Gender and print exposure	101	(1)
Socioeconomic status and print exposure	102	(3)
Race/ethnicity and print exposure	105	(1)
Place of residence and print exposure	106	(1)
Household television orientation and print exposure	106	(2)
Magazine subscriptions and print exposure	108	(1)
Content Preferences: What Young People Read	109	(1)
Summing Up Print Behavior	110	(3)
7 Interactive Media	113	(23)
A further word about access	114	(3)
Who Uses Computers?	117	(4)
Amount of Computer Use	121	(6)
Video Games	127	(2)
Content Preferences	129	(4)
Interactive games	129	(3)
Chat rooms	132	(1)
Web sites	132	(1)
Summing Up Interactive Media Use	133	(3)
8 Patterns of Overall Media Consumption	136	(29)
Exposure versus Use	137	(2)
Overall Media Exposure	139	(11)
Age and media exposure	139	(3)
Gender and media exposure	142	(1)
Race/ethnicity and media exposure	143	(1)
Socioeconomic status and media exposure	144	(4)
Family composition and media exposure	148	(1)
Residence locale and media exposure	149	(1)
The Media Budget	150	(15)
Age and media budgets	153	(2)
Gender and media budgets	155	(2)
Race/ethnicity and media budgets	157	(1)
Socioeconomic status and media budgets	158	(5)
Family composition and media budgets	163	(1)
Residence locale and media budgets	164	(1)
9 Media Behavior: A Youth Perspective	165	(25)
Personal Contentedness and Media Use	165	(6)
Academic Performance and Media Use	171	(3)
Heavy versus Light Media Users	174	(6)
A Typology of Young People's Media Behavior	180	(10)
Media lite	182	(3)
Interactor	185	(1)
VidKid	186	(1)
Restricted	187	(1)
Indifferent	187	(1)
Enthusiast	188	(2)
10 Summary and Conclusions	190	(14)
The Media Environment	191	(1)
Media Exposure/Media Use	192	(2)
Subgroup Differences in Media Consumption	194	(1)
Heavy versus Light Media Use	195	(1)
New Media versus Old	196	(1)
Gender Differences	197	(1)
Music Tastes	198	(1)
Absence of Adults	199	(1)
Attitudes toward Media	200	(1)
Psychological and Social Adjustment	201	(1)
The Need to Pay Attention	202	(2)
Appendixes to Chapter 2: Methods	204	(7)
2.1 Sampling Details	204	(4)
2.2 Content Genres for Each Medium	208	(3)
Appendixes to Chapter 3: The Media Environment: Results and Statistical Tests	211	(26)
3.1 Households Containing One or More of Each Medium	211	(7)
3.2 Households Containing Three or More of Each Medium	218	(7)
3.3 Youths with Each Medium in Their Bedrooms	225	(6)
3.4 Household TV Orientation	231	(6)
Appendixes to Chapter 4: Screen Media: Results and Statistical Tests	237	(33)
4.1 Amount of Screen Media Exposure	237	(12)
4.2 Household TV Environment	249	(3)
4.3 Screen Genres	252	(7)
4.4 Screen Viewing Context	259	(4)
4.5 Attitudes toward Television	263	(7)
Appendixes to Chapter 5: Audio Media: Results and Statistical Tests	270	(12)
5.1 Amount of Audio Exposure	270	(7)
5.2 Type of Audio Exposure	277	(1)
5.3 Audio Genres	277	(5)
Appendixes to Chapter 6: Print Media: Results and Statistical Tests	282	(20)
6.1 Amount of Print Media Exposure	282	(13)
6.2 Print Genres (7th-12th Graders)	295	(7)
Appendixes to Chapter 7: Interactive Media: Results and Statistical Tests	302	(22)
7.1 Amount of Interactive Media Use	302	(13)
7.2 Interactive Media Genres	315	(9)
Appendixes to Chapter 8: Overall Media Consumption: Results and Statistical Tests	324	(13)
8.1 Amount of Total Exposure and Proportion of Time Devoted to Each Medium	324	(13)
Appendixes to Chapter 9: Youth Perspective on Media Behavior	337	(20)
9.1 Contentedness Index Correlations	337	(1)
9.2 Amount of Total Media Exposure by Contentedness	338	(1)
9.3 Amount of Total Media Exposure by Academic Achievement	339	(8)
9.4 Heavy and Light Media Exposure	347	(3)
9.5 Characteristics of Media User Types	350	(7)
References	357	(12)
Author Index	369	(4)
Subject Index	373