No abstract

Mood management theory predicts that people experiencing stress use television to block anxious thoughts and to replace dysphoric moods. In a survey of 491 adults, Study 1 found that stress as measured by life events was unrelated to time spent TV viewing but for women, was positively related to scores on a scale of television addiction. In Study 2, viewing diaries of 329 families were examined with relation to stressful life events. Mood management theory was confirmed in that stress was associated with increased comedy and decreased news in the viewing diet. Stressed women watched more game and variety programming as well as more overall TV. Stressed men watched more action and violent programming. Study 3 examined time-lapse video recordings of 140 adults' TV viewing at home. In men, there was a positive correlation of stress with amount of looking at the TV.

No abstract

In 2 studies, the authors explored preadolescent and adolescent use of personal homepages in relation to mastery and identity formation. In Study 1, the authors attempted to determine the prevalence of personal homepage and online journal (blog) construction among a random sample (N=500) of preadolescents and adolescents. Adolescents were more likely to create personal homepages or blogs than preadolescents. Creation was related to feelings of mastery, expressions of identity, and a means to socialize. In Study 2, the authors explored the relationship of homepages to mastery and identity formation by content analysis of a random sample of homepages. Results suggest children use personal homepages to express and explore their forming identities.

Television viewing at home by 50 individuals in 5 age groups (2-, 5-, 8-, 12-year-olds, and adults) was recorded on 1-s time-lapse videotapes over 10-day periods. Coding was based on 5-min point samples. Analysis examined looking at the TV screen in relation to the visual presence of the features cuts, movement, animation, man, woman, child, and nonhuman; content features were child vs. adult programming and overt purposeful character behavior. Cuts, movement, and overt purposeful character behavior were positively related to looking independent of child vs. adult programming. Associations with looking for the remaining features depended on the viewer's age or sex or type of content within which they occurred.