Children Are in Families Too! The Presence of Children in Communication Research

Abstract

Based on an analysis of top communication journals, this study examines the presence of children in communication research. A content analysis of articles reporting on youth under the age of 18 revealed the extent to which children have been represented in communication research from 1997–2010, as well as the methodologies, topical areas, and theories guiding communication research on children. Results indicate that only 3.7% of all published articles in leading communication journals focused on children, a number far less than the 10% speculated in previous research. This article uncovers a vast array of theories employed in studies of children, with social cognitive/learning theory being the most common and survey methods the most common tool for collecting information. Implications of this underrepresentation of children are discussed for the future of communication scholarship, particularly family communication.

Notes

¹For more information see Weindling's (2004) “Nazi medicine and the Nuremberg Trials: From medical war crimes to informed consent.”

²Those studies employing indirect involvement of youth are deemed to represent, as coined by Yingling and Socha (2000), “invisible children.”

³Interested readers are referred to http://www.comm.ohio-state.edu/ahayes/macros.htm where a copy of the SPSS macro can be downloaded and instructions for its use are provided.

⁴As an example, see “FIRSt families” at the Pennsylvania State University. http://firstfamilies.psych.psu.edu/