“Katerina gets mad”: Infants’ physiological and behavioral responses to co‐viewing educational, self‐regulatory media

Abstract

A growing body of research has focused on the physiological impact of media on older children and adolescents. Less research has been focused on the potential physiological impact of media on infants and younger children, especially media designed to be age appropriate and educational in content. In this study, we examined respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in infants (N = 269, M age = 17.13 months) while they co-viewed an educational video clip that modeled emotion regulation and contrasted their physiological response to an unoccupied baseline and a frustration paradigm (arm-restraint).Given parent reports showing the calming effect of educational media viewing in young children, we anticipated that a similar pattern of calming would be observed physiologically in infants. Results showed that relative to baseline, most infants demonstrated an increase in RSA while co-viewing, suggesting greater parasympathetic (regulatory) activation consistent with behavioral calming. However, infants who demonstrated vagal withdrawal during co-viewing (decrease in RSA) were more likely to have parents who used a tablet to help infants go to sleep at night. Vagal withdrawal was also associated with increased levels of negative affect observed during the coviewing task. Findings are discussed in relation to the contextual effect of co-viewing age-appropriate, educational media on children's physiological responses.

Toddlers’ physiological response to parent's mobile device distraction and technoference

“…In contrast, research shows that vagal activation (RSA increase) or a flattened RSA response in the face of social challenges may reflect poorer adaptation to stress (e.g., Wagner et al, 2023) such has been observed in the face of frequent exposure to interparental conflict (e.g., El-Sheikh et al, 2001;Katz & Gottman, 1995) or children exhibiting ambivalent attachment (Paret et al, 2015). By comparison, vagal activation (RSA increase) in the face of nonthreatening social stimuli, such as when children are watching a calming video vignette, is believed to be indicative of increased attention and physiological regulation (Porter, Stockdale, et al, 2022;Wagner et al, 2023) At the same time, we recognize that some toddlers may demonstrate a contrasting pattern of physiological response to parents mobile device distraction, experiencing vagal activation (RSA increase) rather than vagal withdrawal. We suspect that children exposed more frequently to parents' technoference may develop less adaptive physiological responses to parents' cell phone distractions.…”

“…When the vagal brake is engaged, parasympathetic inputs increase, causing HR to slow while simultaneously increasing HR variability (HRV). This response is believed to undergird regulatory processes that support dynamic social interactions (Porges & Furman, 2011; Porter, Yang, et al., 2022). However, when the vagal brake is released, parasympathetic influences are removed, and sympathetic responses are activated that causes HR to accelerate while simultaneously causing HRV to decrease to help prepare the body to respond to environmental challenges (Porges, 2007).…”

“…Despite the lack of research on the developmental impact of technoference on young children's regulatory abilities, a large body of research speaks to the importance of well-coordinated, synchronous interactions between parents and children in supporting emerging regulatory systems (e.g., Busuito et al, 2019;Feldman, 2007;Porter & Dyer, 2017;Porter, Yang, et al, 2022). Specifically, smoothly coordinated interactions between parents and young children have been shown to enhance children's regulatory abilities, including better physiological regulation (see Porter, Stockdale, et al, 2022). For instance, Feldman, Magori-Cohen, et al (2011) have shown that during periods of affective and vocal synchrony, cardiac activity becomes increasingly synchronized between mothers and infants.…”

“…This work suggests that the mutual behaviors of interactive partners may, in the short‐term, impact infants’ ability to synchronize and regulate physiological responses that mirror caregiver behaviors. A history of such interactions is believed to play an important role in helping to sculpt children's regulatory abilities (Feldman, 2007; Field, 2012; Moore & Calkins, 2004; Porter et al., 2022). Thus, when interactive states are disrupted by more frequent mobile device distraction, it may undermine children's ability to not only maintain physiological homeostasis but influence the emergence of regulatory mechanisms.…”

Overview of Islamic Boarding School Educational Communication Media: A Bibliometric Analysis Study

“…Karena dampaknya terhadap peningkatan perilaku dan status kesehatan gigi dan mulut pada anak (Maulanti & Nurmala, 2021), tidak hanya itu saja ternyata media pendidikan juga dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan dan pemahaman masyarakat terhadap kasus-kasus yang sering muncul di masyarakat sebagai suatu permasalahan seperti gizi, imunisasi dan pneumonia (Solikhah et al, 2021). Adapun topik yang menarik untuk dibahas saat ini adalah berkaitan dengan media Pendidikan yang diberikan pada anak-anak harus sesuai dengan respon fisiologis anak (Porter et al, 2022) bisa kita lihat dari kecendrungan orang tua yang menggunakan tablet untuk membantu anak tidur. Topik selanjutnya yang menarik untuk dibahas pentingnya penerapan strategi komunikasi terutama melalui semua media, bertujuan untuk memantapkan kesadaran dan perilaku lingkungan warga negara sebagai kepentingan global (Rojas et al, 2022) serta media merupakan basis model komunikatif praktik pendidikan saat ini (Kotlyar et al, 2022) .…”