Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.
Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Center for Children and Families, Modesto A. Maidique Campus, Miami, Florida.
J Adolesc Health. 2018 Oct;63(4):459-465. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.05.019.
To date, little is known about underlying psychophysiological contributions to the impact of media content and overall screen time on adolescent psychological functioning. In the present study we examine respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as a moderator of the link between specific types of media content use, overall media exposure, and the development of internalizing and aggressive symptoms in youth.
A sample of 374 adolescents (mean age = 15) reported on their media use, internalizing behavior, and aggressive behavior at time 1 (2011) and 1-year follow-up (2012). RSA reactivity was gathered during a challenging laboratory task. Path analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized three-way interaction model between media use, media content, and RSA reactivity, separately for internalizing and aggressive problems.
Significant interactions were found for aggressive, but not prosocial, media content. For aggressive content, youth exhibiting RSA withdrawal reported significantly greater internalizing and aggressive symptoms when exposed to higher amounts of screen time and aggressive content.
These findings suggest that profiles of heightened RSA withdrawal may place adolescents at greater risk to the negative impact of violent media, whereas prosocial media content may not significantly impact youth development of psychopathology. Implications for the role of psychophysiology in our understanding of media effects are discussed.
迄今为止，人们对媒体内容和总体屏幕时间对青少年心理功能的影响的潜在心理生理贡献知之甚少。在本研究中，我们研究了呼吸窦性心律失常（RSA）作为特定类型的媒体内容使用、总体媒体暴露与青少年内化和攻击症状发展之间联系的调节剂的作用。
一项由 374 名青少年（平均年龄为 15 岁）组成的样本在第一次（2011 年）和 1 年随访（2012 年）时报告了他们的媒体使用、内化行为和攻击行为。在一项具有挑战性的实验室任务中收集了 RSA 反应性。进行路径分析以检验假设的媒体使用、媒体内容和 RSA 反应性之间的三向交互模型，分别针对内化和攻击问题。
对于攻击性行为，但不是亲社会行为，发现了显著的交互作用。对于攻击性行为内容，当暴露于更高的屏幕时间和攻击性内容时，表现出 RSA 撤退的青少年报告的内化和攻击症状明显更多。
这些发现表明，高度 RSA 撤退的特征可能使青少年面临暴力媒体的负面影响的风险更大，而亲社会的媒体内容可能不会对年轻人的心理病理发展产生重大影响。讨论了心理生理学在我们对媒体效应的理解中的作用。
