Objectives

To determine the longitudinal and cross-sectional associations between different types of electronic media use (mobile phones, TV, computers, video games, and music) and young adolescents' depressive symptoms, and to explore the potential for household media rules to reduce young people's depression.

Methods

126 young adolescents were recruited from the Northeastern USA. Each type of media use was assessed using survey questions, time use diaries, and ecological momentary assessment. The Beck Depression Index for Primary Care was administered at baseline and 1 year later as part of a questionnaire that also included items assessing the presence of household rules about TV and video games.

Results

Baseline use of mobile phones and TV viewing were associated with higher levels of depression 1 year later controlling for demographic information and baseline depression score. Having household rules about TV at baseline predicted lower levels of depression at follow-up.

Conclusions

Both TV viewing and mobile phone use may contribute to the development of depressive symptoms. Implementing household rules about the duration and content of TV could help reduce depression in young adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Increased prevalence and penetration of cellphone and mobile Internet use have raised significant concerns about childrens health and safety by offering new spaces for cyberbullying, harassment, and sexual misconduct. Cyberhero Mobile Safety is a videogame-based education program designed using tenets of the capacity model with the goal of instilling the knowledge and skills necessary to safely and productively navigate the mobile online environment. This study evaluates its usability, appeal, and perceived impact and usefulness. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six educational videogames were part of a program delivered to 3rd-6th grade students (n=108) across six public schools in Upstate New York. Videogame play was electronically captured to evaluate usability. Likeability, acceptability, and perceived usefulness of videogame content were evaluated through postgame questionnaires. RESULTS: Videogame usability criteria were achieved on 82.7 percent of the students gameplays. On a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high), mean ratings were 4.09 (standard deviation [SD]=1.28) for likeability, 3.54 (SD=1.61) for acceptability, and 4.16 (SD=1.33) for perceived message usefulness. CONCLUSIONS: The Cyberhero Mobile Safety program is a feasible and potentially effective platform for delivering information about safe and healthy cellphone and Internet use to children. Results support the use of the capacity model to design educational videogames because games that aligned with theory principles were reported as having the most impact and being the most useful at shifting childrens online behaviors. Future research should directly test the individual components of the capacity model to inform educational game design.