The first national sample study of its kind ever conducted in the US, which provides a comprehensive picture of young people's media behavior ever assembled. This 2003 book provides the first detailed examination of US young people's media use by examining the full array of media available to children and adolescents. List of Tables and Figures xii Acknowledgments xxiii The Changing Media Landscape 1(12) The Changing Media Landscape 3(2) Children and Media: A History of Concern 5(3) Previous Research on Children's Media Use 8(5) The Measurement of Media Behavior 13(16) Measuring Young People's Media Behavior 16(1) The Samples 17(2) Young children: The In-Home sample 18(1) Older children and adolescents: The In-School sample 18(1) Questionnaires 19(10) Questionnaire administration 19(1) Media exposure measures 20(2) The home media environment 22(1) Media attitudes 22(1) Social/psychological well-being 23(1) Demographic and background items 23(1) Media-use diaries 24(1) Statistical analyses 25(1) Age as a baseline variable 26(3) The Media Environment 29(28) Media in the Home 30(8) Overall in-home access 30(3) Age and in-home access 33(1) Socioeconomic status and in-home access 33(2) Race/ethnicity and in-home access 35(3) Gender and in-home access 38(1) Multiple-Media Homes 38(4) Media in Young People's Bedrooms 42(6) Age and bedroom media 42(1) Gender and bedroom media 43(1) Socioeconomic status and bedroom media 44(2) Race/ethnicity and bedroom media 46(2) Household Television Orientation 48(7) Age/gender and household television orientation 51(1) Socioeconomic status and household television orientation 51(3) Race/ethnicity and household television orientation 54(1) Summing Up the Media Environment 55(2) Screen Media: Television, Videos, and Movies 57(27) Amount of Screen Exposure 58(10) Age and screen exposure 58(4) Gender and screen exposure 62(1) Socioeconomic status and screen exposure 63(2) Race/ethnicity and screen exposure 65(2) Household television orientation and screen exposure 67(1) Content Preferences 68(6) Television content 69(3) Video content 72(2) Movie content 74(1) Summing up screen content preferences 74(1) The Context of Exposure 74(6) Attitudes toward Television 80(2) Summing Up Screen Media Exposure 82(2) Audio Media: Radio, Tapes, and CDs 84(13) Amount of Audio Exposure 85(5) Predictors of audio exposure 88(2) Music Content Preferences 90(5) Predictors of content preferences 92(3) Audio Media: A Coda 95(2) Print Media: Books, Magazines, and Newspapers 97(16) Amount of Print Exposure 98(11) Gender and print exposure 101(1) Socioeconomic status and print exposure 102(3) Race/ethnicity and print exposure 105(1) Place of residence and print exposure 106(1) Household television orientation and print exposure 106(2) Magazine subscriptions and print exposure 108(1) Content Preferences: What Young People Read 109(1) Summing Up Print Behavior 110(3) Interactive Media 113(23) A further word about access 114(3) Who Uses Computers? 117(4) Amount of Computer Use 121(6) Video Games 127(2) Content Preferences 129(4) Interactive games 129(3) Chat rooms 132(1) Web sites 132(1) Summing Up Interactive Media Use 133(3) Patterns of Overall Media Consumption 136(29) Exposure versus Use 137(2) Overall Media Exposure 139(11) Age and media exposure 139(3) Gender and media exposure 142(1) Race/ethnicity and media exposure 143(1) Socioeconomic status and media exposure 144(4) Family composition and media exposure 148(1) Residence locale and media exposure 149(1) The Media Budget 150(15) Age and media budgets 153(2) Gender and media budgets 155(2) Race/ethnicity and media budgets 157(1) Socioeconomic status and media budgets 158(5) Family composition and media budgets 163(1) Residence locale and media budgets 164(1) Media Behavior: A Youth Perspective 165(25) Personal Contentedness and Media Use 165(6) Academic Performance and Media Use 171(3) Heavy versus Light Media Users 174(6) A Typology of Young People's Media Behavior 180(10) Media lite 182(3) Interactor 185(1) VidKid 186(1) Restricted 187(1) Indifferent 187(1) Enthusiast 188(2) Summary and Conclusions 190(14) The Media Environment 191(1) Media Exposure/Media Use 192(2) Subgroup Differences in Media Consumption 194(1) Heavy versus Light Media Use 195(1) New Media versus Old 196(1) Gender Differences 197(1) Music Tastes 198(1) Absence of Adults 199(1) Attitudes toward Media 200(1) Psychological and Social Adjustment 201(1) The Need to Pay Attention 202(2) Appendixes to Chapter 2: Methods 204(7) 2.1 Sampling Details 204(4) 2.2 Content Genres for Each Medium 208(3) Appendixes to Chapter 3: The Media Environment: Results and Statistical Tests 211(26) 3.1 Households Containing One or More of Each Medium 211(7) 3.2 Households Containing Three or More of Each Medium 218(7) 3.3 Youths with Each Medium in Their Bedrooms 225(6) 3.4 Household TV Orientation 231(6) Appendixes to Chapter 4: Screen Media: Results and Statistical Tests 237(33) 4.1 Amount of Screen Media Exposure 237(12) 4.2 Household TV Environment 249(3) 4.3 Screen Genres 252(7) 4.4 Screen Viewing Context 259(4) 4.5 Attitudes toward Television 263(7) Appendixes to Chapter 5: Audio Media: Results and Statistical Tests 270(12) 5.1 Amount of Audio Exposure 270(7) 5.2 Type of Audio Exposure 277(1) 5.3 Audio Genres 277(5) Appendixes to Chapter 6: Print Media: Results and Statistical Tests 282(20) 6.1 Amount of Print Media Exposure 282(13) 6.2 Print Genres (7th--12th Graders) 295(7) Appendixes to Chapter 7: Interactive Media: Results and Statistical Tests 302(22) 7.1 Amount of Interactive Media Use 302(13) 7.2 Interactive Media Genres 315(9) Appendixes to Chapter 8: Overall Media Consumption: Results and Statistical Tests 324(13) 8.1 Amount of Total Exposure and Proportion of Time Devoted to Each Medium 324(13) Appendixes to Chapter 9: Youth Perspective on Media Behavior 337(20) 9.1 Contentedness Index Correlations 337(1) 9.2 Amount of Total Media Exposure by Contentedness 338(1) 9.3 Amount of Total Media Exposure by Academic Achievement 339(8) 9.4 Heavy and Light Media Exposure 347(3) 9.5 Characteristics of Media User Types 350(7) References 357(12) Author Index 369(4) Subject Index 373