Relations between media use and self-reported symptomatology in young adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents spend more than one-third of their waking lives using media such as TV, print, audio and computer media. This paper focuses on the relationship between media use and health in adolescents from a stress-theoretical perspective, exploring the dynamics between the extent of media use, the functional value of media use in terms of coping, and stress symptoms reported by 357 fifth-graders. For different kinds of media, extent and functions of media use were recorded as well as symptomatology using the Youth Self Report (YSR). The results show gender differences with regard to both externalizing and internalizing symptomatology, and the extent of media use. Further analyses reveal significant positive correlations between media use and symptomatology. These correlations are partly mediated by the use of media in the function of coping; media use can partly be explained as an attempt to cope with stress experiences.

Keywords:

• Media use
• stress symptomatology
• coping
• adolescence
• gender differences