Children and Digital Media

Calvert, Sandra L.

doi:10.1002/9781118963418.childpsy410

Cited by 26 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 211 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Among the few studies that have examined the ramifications of digital game play for cognitive development during middle childhood or adolescence (see Blumberg & Fisch, ; Calvert, ), findings have shown enhanced executive functioning (Best, ; Flynn & Richert, ; Flynn, Richert, Staiano, Wartella, & Calvert, ; Staiano, Abraham, & Calvert, ), metacognition (VanDeventer & White, ), mental rotation skills (De Lisi & Wolford, ; Quaiser‐Pohl, Geiser, & Lehmann, ), basic mathematical understanding (Deater‐Deckard, El Mallah, Chang, Evans, & Norton, ; Fisch, Lesh, Motoki, Crespo, & Melfi, ), and problem‐solving ability more generally (Blumberg & Randall, ; Greenfield et al., ). Further, it is increasingly recognized that games may enhance some of the core cognitive abilities, such as selective attention, that underlie the ability to acquire academic content or skills (Franceschini et al., )—a process that has been dubbed “learning to learn” (Bavelier, Green, Pouget, & Schrater, ).…”

Section: Media Use During Middle Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Games as a Context for Children's Cognitive Development: Research Recommendations and Policy Considerations

Blumberg

Deater‐Deckard

Calvert

et al. 2019

Social Policy Report

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We document the need to examine digital game play and app use as a context for cognitive development, particularly during middle childhood. We highlight this developmental period as 6‐ through 12‐year olds comprise a large swath of the preadult population that plays and uses these media forms. Surprisingly, this age range remains understudied with regard to the impact of their interactive media use as compared to young children and adolescents. This gap in knowledge about middle childhood may reflect strong and widely held concerns about the effects of digital games and apps before and after this period. These concerns include concurrent and subsequent influences of game use on very young children's and adolescents’ cognitive and socioemotional functioning. We highlight here what is currently known about the impact of media on young children and adolescents and what is not known about this impact in middle childhood. We then offer recommendations for the types of research that developmental scientists can undertake to examine the efficacy of digital games within the rapidly changing media ecology in which children live. We conclude with a discussion of media policies that we believe can help children benefit from their media use. Our hope is that this review will foster greater investigation of the cognitive socialization, as raised over 20 years ago by developmental psychologist and early games researcher Patricia Greenfield, that digital games serve during the middle childhood period, and childhood more generally.

show abstract

Section: Media Use During Middle Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Games as a Context for Children's Cognitive Development: Research Recommendations and Policy Considerations

Blumberg

Deater‐Deckard

Calvert

et al. 2019

Social Policy Report

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some researchers claim that digital technologies will bring education into the future and enhance learning (Dicheva et al 2015). Others state that digital technologies are detrimental to children's emotional and social well-being (Calvert 2015). Selwyn (2012) argues that it is imperative to look beyond simplistic, technologically determinist ideas, urging researchers to undertake empirical study of actual use when discussing the learning potential of digital technologies.…”

Section: Research On Games In Early Childhood Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving and re-mediated activities when preschool children play analogue and digital Memory games

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Social skills are elaborated upon in horizontal relationships that involve friendships with peers (Hartup, 1989). Both vertical and horizontal relationships also occur in children's relationships with media characters (Calvert, 2015(Calvert, , 2017. A key component of close relationships-be it horizontal or vertical-involves trust, which is a component of attachment with actual people as well as with imaginary relationships (Bond & Calvert, 2014a;Bowlby, 1969;Corriveau & Harris, 2009;Gleason & Hohmann, 2006).…”

Section: Young Children's Early Relationships and Psrsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s Parasocial Breakups With Media Characters From the Perspective of the Parent

Aguiar

Richards

Bond

et al. 2018

Imagination, Cognition and Personality

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Children's parasocial relationships (PSRs) with media characters end through a process called PSR breakups. An online parent report measure was used to describe preschool and school-aged children's breakups with media characters, as well as the attributes of past and current favorite characters. According to parents (N ¼ 138), 51% of children experienced PSR breakups. PSRs lasted about two years before a breakup occurred. Past and current favorite characters were animated, human-like, and embedded in fantastical content. Current favorite characters taught fewer academic lessons than past favorite characters. Both boys and girls had current favorite characters that were more gendered in their physical appearance than past favorite characters. However, girls' current favorite characters had more masculine traits than past favorite characters. Our findings suggest possible avenues for the design of future media characters that can teach as they entertain.

show abstract

Children and Digital Media

Abstract: from the Children's Digital Media Center at Georgetown University for their assistance in gathering some of the literature for this chapter and Common Sense Media and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation for use of tables and figures.

Cited by 26 publications

References 211 publications

Digital Games as a Context for Children's Cognitive Development: Research Recommendations and Policy Considerations

Digital Games as a Context for Children's Cognitive Development: Research Recommendations and Policy Considerations

Evolving and re-mediated activities when preschool children play analogue and digital Memory games

Children’s Parasocial Breakups With Media Characters From the Perspective of the Parent

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About