From Video Games to Facebook: Teens’ Health and the Media
Jane Brown
Jane Brown
Research Presentation
Wednesday, May 20
1:30―3 pm
Adolescents in the United States today spend more time using media (music, movies, the Internet, television, magazines, videogames) each day than they do in school or with their parents. For teens, media frequently become sources of norms and expectations, and help shape as well as signal their developing identities. The images, sounds and messages that surround adolescents also frequently promote unhealthy behaviors, including early and risky sexual behavior, aggressive behavior and disordered eating. In this presentation, current research on the effects of the media on teens’ behavior will be summarized and possible remedies discussed.
Jane Brown, Ph.D., is the James L. Knight Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is an expert on how the media are used by and influence adolescents’ health and has studied the influence of the media on adolescents’ tobacco and alcohol use, aggression, and sexual behavior. Brown is the co-editor or co-author of four books, including Sexual Teens, Sexual Media (Erlbaum, 2002),and the Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media (Sage, 2008). She serves on the research advisory board of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy, the Trojan Sexual Health Advisory Council, and the Institute of Medicine Board on Children, Youth and Families.
Self-Regulation and School Readiness: What Neuroscience Tells Us and How to Support its Development in the Early Childhood Classroom
Deborah Leong
Research Presentation
Tuesday, May 19
1:30 ― 3 pm
What is self regulation? It is most noticeable when it is absent. Preschool teachers report disruptive behaviors (i.e., the absence of self-regulation) as their most difficult challenge (Arnold, McWilliams, Arnold, 1998). Research shows that early self-regulation has a stronger association with later academic achievement than IQ or entry-level reading or math skills (Lyon & Krasnegor, 1996; Raver & Knitzer, 2002).
This research presentation is designed to help early childhood educators understand what self-regulation is from a number of theoretical perspectives, including that of Lev Vygotsky’s Information Processing and the Cultural Historical Theory, which have long been concerned with self regulation capacities in young children, also known as executive function.
Dr. Deborah J. Leong is professor emerita of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver, where she taught for 32 years. She is the director for the Center for Improving Early Learning, home of Tools of the Mind. She is also a research fellow at the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. Leong has a Ph. D. from Stanford University, an M. Ed. from Harvard University and a B. A. from Stanford University. Dr. Leong developed Tools of the Mind approach with Dr. Elena Bodrova, with whom she has written numerous books and articles on the Vygotskian approach. Tools of the Mind was named an exemplary program by the International Bureau of Education at UNESCO in 2001. Leong has also written extensively on authentic early childhood assessment, Assessing and Guiding Young Children’s Development and Learning with Dr. Oralie McAfee. Along with Drs McAfee and Bodrova, Dr. Leong wrote the Basics of Assessment which is NAEYC’s most popular book on assessment.
The Environment of Childhood Poverty
Gary Evans
Gary Evans
Research Presentation
Tuesday, May 19
10:30 ― 12 noon
We all know that poverty is bad for children and their families. But why? This presentation will examine the role of physical and social factors in the lives of children growing up in poverty, arguing that the confluence of risks add up to a toxic mix for child development.
Gary Evans is a developmental and environmental psychologist interested in the role of the physical environment in children’s development in conjunction with social factors, particularly poverty. He is the Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Ecology, Cornell University and a member of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health and the National Academy of Sciences Board on Children, Youth, and Families. For the past two decades he has been examining cumulative risk exposure among a sample of low- and middle- income children growing up in rural New York areas. A recent Washington Post article highlighted some of Evans' work tracking the effects of stress on poor youths' ability to learn.
Empowerment Theory and Adolescent Resilience: Applications for Prevention
Marc Zimmerman
Marc Zimmerman
Research Presentation
Wednesday, May 20
10:30 am – 12 noon
How do empowerment and resiliency theories overlap to inform intervention? In his research presentation, Dr. Marc A. Zimmerman will present empirical evidence to support linkages between the two theories. The presentation will close with an application of the ideas, presented in a youth violence-prevention project: Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES).
Zimmerman is professor and chair in the department of health behavior and health education in the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He is also a professor in the department of psychology, and the combined program in education and psychology, and a research scientist in the Center for Human Growth and Development. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, and an M.S. in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Oregon. He is the director of the Centers for Disease Control-funded Prevention Research Center of Michigan, which incorporates a community-based research approach. He is principle investigator of the Flint Adolescent Study, a National Institute of Drug Abuse-funded, 12-year longitudinal study of ninth graders. He is editor of Health Education & Behavior and is a member of the editorial board for Health Education Research and Psyche (a Chilean psychology journal). His primary research has focused on empowerment theory, and the study of adolescent health and resiliency. His research has consistently focused on individual and community assets, resiliency and community-based research methods.
