Child Development: Fear Response

• Does the content from media result in an enduring fright response?
• The movie Jaws is about a shark attacking people.

Age and Fear Response

• Developmental susceptibility shapes how the age introduces a fear response.
• The Preoperational stage is approximately ages 2-6.
• The Concrete operational stage is approximately ages 7-12.

Preoperational vs. Concrete Operational

• In the Preoperational stage, centrism and concreteness are factors.
• Centration includes the fixation on one feature such as a visually obvious feature.
• Concreteness means the fixation on what is readily noticeable or visually obvious, focusing on what is happening right now.
• Children in the preoperational stage have a failure to understand transformations and distinguishing reality from fantasy.
• Concrete operational children are able to make these distinctions.

What Children Find Frightening

• A child in the preoperational stage with the quarter believes the amount of quarters changes when spaced out.
• A child in the preoperational stage concentrates on the height of the water in the skinny cup.
• A child in the concrete operational stage understands the stick is still there and moved, despite only part of it showing.
• A child in the concrete operational stage understands the amount of water does not change when poured to different sized cups.
• A 5-year-old watching the IT video is an example of the preoperational stage.
• The 5-year-old focuses on the white face and black background of the clown, seeing themself as georgie, and the clown in the sewer breaking reality.
• A 10-year-old watching Jaws is an example of the operational stage.
• The 10-year-old sees shark attacks as reality.
• Common themes are teeth, white faces, black backgrounds, blood, and crunching.

Take Home Message

• The age at which content is viewed influences fright responses.
• Identical content can have different responses at different ages.
• Older viewers might find some content funny.
• Developmental susceptibility plays a role.

Fear in Children

• Children saw a clip of the Hulk and reported how scared they were before, during, and after.

Enduring Fright Responses

• Ghostwatch affected 10-year-old boys and caused hospitalization.

Types of Phobias

• Animal phobias, dogs/bites
• Environmental phobias, storms/fires
• Blood/injection/injury phobias related to doctors
• Situational phobias related to heights and enclosed spaces.
• Phobias include other triggers like loud noises.

Coding of Fear

• Immediate symptoms, increased heart rate, sweating, crying.
• Enduring symptoms, altering behaviors, avoidance, obsessive thoughts.
• Effects last from hours to years.
• 5 types of phobias are related to stimulus types.
• Coping strategies include behavioral and cognitive.

Findings on Fear

• Almost everyone has a fear response of varying lengths.
• 26.8% reported crying or screaming.
• 23.9% reported trembling and shaking.
• 20.3% reported nausea or stomach pain.
• 18.1% reported clinging to a companion and increased heart rate.
• 17.4% reported freezing or feeling paralyzed.

Frightening Stimuli

• The most frequent reported frightening stimuli was blood/injection/injury at 65.2%.
• The second most frequent disturbing sounds/noises at 60.1%.
• Animal type was reported by 11.6%.
• Behavioral coping is used more by 0–7-year-olds and cognitive coping by 13+.

Discussion on Fear

• Media content can invoke a fear response.
• This can be across a wide array of stimuli.
• Some fear responses have a short duration, others can last for years.
• Fear responses are highly dependent or determined by the age content was perceived and the fear response that resulted.
• Common media, movies, and TV designed to be scary have lasting impacts.
• Content that is innocuous is impactful as well.
• The fear of others also affects responses per developmental level.
• Developmental susceptibility matters overall.

Aspects of Adolescent Development

• Aspects include identity vs. role confusion.
• It includes movement toward intimacy vs. isolation.

Identity Development

• Separation-individuation involves the shift of attachment from parents.
• Younger children adhere to what their parents say.
• Adolescents individuate from their parents.
• Adolescents pay attention to what their friends like and do.

Adolescent Egocentrism

• Adolescents know others have thoughts, but don't understand the target of those thoughts, this is adolescent egocentrism.
• Imaginary Audience ideation includes thoughts that there is unseen others who judge at all times.
• Personal fable ideation is the sense of specialness that nothing bad will ever happen to them and no one understands them.
• Egocentrism is related to cognitive development.

Adolescence

• Adolescents try to figure out who they are and seek intimate relationships.
• Adolescents are paying close attention to what their friends like and do.
• Adolescents feel invulnerable.

Adolescent Peers and Media

• If peers watch sexually explicit content or talk about it that could influence an individual's own media use.
• This can change an individual's thoughts about sex.
• Peers influence exposure to content, and adolescents believe they are invulnerable to negative effects.

Peers, Media, and Sex

• 45% of American adolescents report that they get sexual information from peers.
• 30% report getting sexual information from media.
• 7% of adolescents are getting information from parents.
• 3% are getting information from sex education.
• A study in 2016 reported that teens use porn as the primary source for info about sex.
• Peer and media interaction is important.

Influences on Adolescents

• Exposure to sex-related media influences attitudes and behaviors regarding sex.
• It influences perceptions of their friends' attitudes/behaviors regarding sex.
• These perceptions influence the adolescents' attitudes.
• Media and peer norms interact to influence adolescents' attitudes and norms toward sex and sexuality.

Exposure to Sexually Explicit Content

• Over half of males watch pornography, and that goes up from ages 12–14.

Susceptibility to Content

• Adolescents are susceptible to seeing sexually explicit content.
• Peers can make others susceptible to exposure.
• Susceptible people to view sexual content, makes friends more susceptible as well.

Exposure Influences

• There are unrealistic expectations created by unrealistic pornographic content.
• It provides some sexual socialization.
• This can be important, as new youth or adolescents may not know what to do.

Cultivation Theory

• The more TV watched, the more likely we are to believe own reality is consistent with TV assumptions.
• Watching certain things makes assumptions on that content.

Social Cognitive Theory

• Actions followed by positive consequences are more likely to be modeled.
• This gives way to a script.

Sexual Scripts

• Symbolic guidelines include who can be sexual, what to do, who initiates is important, and what is the consequences.
• Scripts include Acquisition, Activation, Application.

Method of Media Analysis

• 1074 7th and 8th graders were studied.
• Measured movies, magazines, internet usages, as well as personal permissive sexual norms, progressive gender role attitudes, and sexual harassment.
• Oral and sexual intercourse status was studied.

Sexual Behaviors for Adolescent Males and Females

• The data showed factors such as age, race and sensation seeking are related to the use of  sexually explicit media (SEM).

Adolescents

• Adolescents are more or less susceptible to explicit media
• Exposure greatly influences the attitudes about gender and sexuality, same with behaviors.
• This is occurring during early adolescence.

Adolescents Socializing Parents

• Adolescents influence their parents opinions on media portrayals.
• This is particularly true within the LGBTQ community.

Parent Socialization

• Two-thirds of adolescents report that their parents were very receptive, but about one-fourth report that the experience was negative.
• LGBTQ have to deal with this
• It is important for LGBTQ kids and what their acceptance may be.
• Social media and peer networks become important
• Also important, who is that best close one?
• Can have mental health consequences

Prejudice Reduction

• Do media characters in the LGBTQ community reduce prejudice towards heterosexual peers?
• Intergroup contact can reduce prejudice, but has to be maintained.
• There was a 10-week long study.
• Sanitized media can allow for conversation to open up for a discussion.

Procedure and Results of the Prejudice study

• Every week for 10 weeks, participants would watch LGBTQ media, and record feelings.
• Results show parasocial relationships increase between peers over given time.
• Prejudice towards LGBTQ was lower.
• The study showed that more exposure created less sexual prejudice.

Social Aggression

• Content matters sexually.
• Media, social media all have relationships to one another and have their place in relationships
• Overall it can help, and create sex positive messages.

In-group Loyalty

• Children have an innate ability to have a certain feeling they have towards group loyalty.
• That in-group feeling can affect what is being exposed to social media or media period.
• Children do not associate with different people.

The Role of Media

• Prosocial media has attempted to promote inclusion, but without much success.
• The actual structure of the show often does not promote equality.
• Content for kids may try to teach, but does it?

Inserts in Programing

• Do inserts really affect whether or not the viewer truly engages with the material.
• The insert may help them be involved at the same time.

Development

• Innate sense and understanding but grow with the understanding.
• Can peak around early adolescence.
• Not wanting be the outcast.
• It goes to evolutionary psychology and the development of it and what happens to youth.

Outcomes and Exclusion

• One of the outcomes is if you do not adhere to what is asked, the outcome will be exclusion.
• The Bystander effect occurs, will someone stop this effect?

The Role of Media Again

• Children and adolescents may also engage in exclusion.
• These individuals may experience mental scrips for one to use.

Children’s Media Use

• How can what has been reviewed can help reduce these issues
• Exposure to TV provides ways to use certain behaviors
• Long term use creates mental scenarios.

Method

• 5-12 age and diverse groups.
• Teachers to fill out questionnaires to eliminate bias.
• Less biased.

Findings

• It is hard to reduce and not affect what may result.
• Females in show have more in common.
• Boys do better than girls in physical and mental aggression.

Internalization of Normalization

• Easy to be exposed, easy to spread over time.
• Becomes hard to affect what is valued among peer groups.
• Normal has been distorted as it goes forward on media.

De Lenne et al 2018

• Helps you view beliefs and behaviors.
• In terms of: professional, social sexual or romantic ideals.

Method of Internalize

• Used to analyze how social media affects people
• Is how you are suppose to have a social relationship
• How does social media affect these ideals.

Discussion of Social Media

• Not always that the links are direct.
• Culture plays a major factor for the future.
• Long term affect on adolescents.

Media Message

• Has innate idea from media to create an impact. How do children perceive content in shows How media effects them if you do not address content

Methods For Viewing

• Social media can create what you will learn.
• Has had high effects in mental health.

What Children Will Choose

• Innate feelings from others creates understanding they can do if they follow media.

Emotional Regulation

• A concept of media.

Research on the Matter

• Studies show it has not always translated into physical skills.
• Hard to see how people actually feel if you do not engage in physical interactions.

Research of Skills

• Loosening can result in not knowing how to engage properly in public.
• Media has a part on how these effects can be negative or positive.
• Affective vs cognitive empathy.

Research from UCDavis and Konreth

• Social media skills do not translate.
• Reduces skills.
• Lose ability to understand or be a feeling individual.

Summary of the data collected

• Media and emotional development for children matters.
• Media can take the place of other skills.

Consumer of Media Is Important

• Learning how to perceive what makes sense for society
• How does the affect create what effects adolescents and the public.

To Understand Children and Media

• One has to understand children and the media they
• What is the ability to access analyze and compute.
• What and why the need for this ability has an impact.
• Should engage and know what to be used.

Media In-Light

• Ask children if what being engaged in the now is real.
• Why is the media that way.
• Let us help children understand if that media is okay or not okay.

2022 Method To Be Clear About

• Adolescents being closed off
• School set being a factor on what is right wrong.

Conclusion To the Matter on Social Media

• Longtitudinally one can not address.
• How global and is that effect?

Longtitudinally and More.

• There has to be a better plan to see the long-term effects of one in the long term.

Differences In Youth

• American youth have anxiety and depression more than other peers.
• These factors have to be used more.
• Social media and the access has to be addressed.

Factors That May Aid In The Matter

• More discussion that have to happen more

N=1 Effects Has Aid

• Has shown relationships to negative and more facts.
• This has aided the people that are not open on the matter on the table.
• Has been more understanding.

Data Collected

• Understand the relationship is with one to look at media for.
• Body shaming

Media Awareness

• There have to be long term answers to more understanding for younger youth.

For South Korea or The North

• Long term studies are in order for what and why for.

More Studies

• How is there no real help or aid for people that deal with the stigma daily.

More Information Can Equal Less Bias

• Act the age one is, and more.
• Has changed the outlook at times.
• More data is needed as well.

All In all This

• To understand younger minds we need to help and give media to be a tool not a harm.