Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
European Journal of Pediatrics
Published in: European Journal of Pediatrics 4/2012

01-04-2012 | Review

Clinical practice

Fear effects by the media

Authors: Kathleen Custers, Jan Van den Bulck

Published in: European Journal of Pediatrics | Issue 4/2012

Login to get access

Abstract

Both news media and entertainment fiction may lead to short-term and enduring fright reactions. Even TV programs, movies and news made for children may trigger fear. Preoperational children (3 to 7 years of age) are most afraid of fantasy characters, transformations and interpersonal violence. Operational children (8 to 11 years) are more afraid of abstract ideas and imagined implications regarding their own risk. Pediatricians must include media in their history taking and beware of ensuing fear, phobias, sleep and behavior problems. Parents can play a vital role in preventing exposure to or mediating the effects of frightening media. Hospitals must have a pediatric media exposure policy. Conclusion: Media use can have immediate and enduring fear effects that affect many children and that are far from trivial.
Literature
1.
Cantor J (2004) “I'll never have a clown in my house”—why movie horror lives on. Poet Today 25:283–304CrossRef
2.
Cantor J (2009) Fright reactions to mass media. In: Bryant J, Oliver MB (eds) Media effects: advances and in theory and research, 3rd edn. Routledge, New York, pp 287–303
3.
Cantor J, Byrne S, Moyer-Gusé E, Riddle K (2010) Descriptions of media-induced fright reactions in a sample of US elementary school children. J Child Media 4:1–17CrossRef
4.
Cantor J, Hoffner C (1990) Children's fear reactions to a televised film as a function of perceived immediacy of depicted threat. J Broadcast Electron 34:421–442CrossRef
5.
Cantor J, Mares ML, Oliver MB (1993) Parents' and children's emotional reactions to TV coverage of the Gulf War. In: Greenberg BS, Gantz W (eds) Desert storm and the mass media. Hampton Press, Creskill, New Jersey
6.
Cantor J, Nathanson AI (1996) Children's fright reactions to television news. J Commun 46:139–152CrossRef
7.
Cantor J, Sparks G (1984) Children's fear responses to mass media: testing some Piagetian predictions. J Commun 34:90–103CrossRef
8.
Cantor J, Sparks GG, Hoffner C (1988) Calming children's television fears: Mr. Rogers vs. The Incredible Hulk. J Broadcast Electron 32:271–288CrossRef
9.
Cantor J, Wilson BJ (1984) Modifying fear response to mass media in preschool and elementary school children. J Broadcast 28:431–443CrossRef
10.
Cantor J, Wilson BJ, Hoffner C (1986) Emotional responses to a televised nuclear holocaust film. Commun Res 13:257–277CrossRef
11.
Flavell JH (1985) Cognitive development, 2nd edn. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
12.
Harrison K, Cantor J (1999) Tales from the screen: enduring fright reactions to scary media. Media Psychol 1:97–116CrossRef
13.
Hoekstra SJ, Harris RJ, Helmick AL (1999) Autobiographical memories about the experience of seeing frightening movies in childhood. Media Psychol 1:117–140CrossRef
14.
Korhonen P, Lahikainen AR (2008) Recent trends in young children's television-induced fears in Finland. J Child Media 2:147–162CrossRef
15.
Otto MW, Henin A, Hirshfeld-Becker DR et al (2007) Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following media exposure to tragic events: impact of 9/11 on children at risk for anxiety disorders. J Anxiety Disord 21:888–902PubMedCrossRef
16.
Saylor CF, Cowart BL, Lipovsky JA, Jackson C, Finch AJ Jr (2003) Media exposure to September 11: elementary school students' experiences and posttraumatic symptoms. Am Behav Sci 46:1622–1642CrossRef
17.
Schuster MA, Stein BD, Jaykox LH et al (2001) A national survey of stress reactions after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. N Engl J Med 345:1507–1512PubMedCrossRef
18.
Simons D, Silveira WR (1994) Post-traumatic stress disorder in children after television programmes. Br Med J 308:389CrossRef
19.
Smith SL, Moyer-Gusé E (2006) Children and the war on Iraq: developmental differences in fear responses to television news coverage. Media Psychol 8:213–237CrossRef
20.
Smith SL, Wilson BJ (2000) Children's reactions to a television news story: the impact of video footage and proximity of the crime. Commun Res 27:641–673CrossRef
21.
Smith SL, Wilson BJ (2002) Children's comprehension of and fear reactions to television news. Media Psychol 4:1–26CrossRef
22.
Sparks GG, Cantor J (1986) Developmental differences in fright responses to a television program depicting a character transformation. J Broadcast Electron 30:309–323CrossRef
23.
Valkenburg PM (2008) Beeldschermkinderen: Theorieën over kind en media. Boom, Amsterdam
24.
Valkenburg PM, Cantor J, Peeters AL (2000) Fright reactions to television: a child survey. Commun Res 27:82–99CrossRef
25.
Valkenburg PM, Krcmar M, Peeters AL, Marseille NM (1999) Developing a scale to assess three styles of television mediation: “instructive mediation”, “restrictive mediation”, and “social coviewing”. J Broadcast Electron 43:52–66CrossRef
26.
Van den Bulck J (2004) Media use and dreaming: the relationship among television viewing, computer game play, and nightmares or pleasant dreams. Dreaming 14:43–49CrossRef
27.
Walma van der Molen JH (2004) Violence and suffering in television news: toward a broader conception of harmful television content for children. Pediatrics 113:1771–1775PubMedCrossRef
28.
Walma van der Molen JH, Bushmann BJ (2008) Children's direct fright and worry reactions to violence in fiction and news television programs. J Pediatr 153:420–424CrossRef
29.
Walma van der Molen JH, Valkenburg PM, Peeters AL (2002) Television news and fear: a child survey. Communications 27:303–317CrossRef
Metadata
Title
Clinical practice
Fear effects by the media
Authors
Kathleen Custers
Jan Van den Bulck
Publication date
01-04-2012
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
European Journal of Pediatrics / Issue 4/2012
Print ISSN: 0340-6199
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1076
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-011-1632-1

Other articles of this Issue 4/2012

European Journal of Pediatrics 4/2012 Go to the issue

Original Article

Late-onset neonatal infections: incidences and pathogens in the era of antenatal antibiotics

Original Article

Melatonin does not influence sleep deprivation electroencephalogram recordings in children

Original Article

Complete and incomplete Kawasaki disease: two sides of the same coin

Review

Diagnosing Hunter syndrome in pediatric practice: practical considerations and common pitfalls

Short Communication

Intussusception in an extremely premature infant following bacterial sepsis

Editorial

Atypical Kawasaki disease—a clinical challenge