Research Findings

Despite efforts by the federal government to impose restrictions on Internet gambling, college age youth are visiting online gambling sites at a growing rate, according to the latest National Annenberg Survey of Youth (NASY). Compared to the last survey conducted in 2008, monthly use of Internet gambling sites shot up this year from 4.4% to

Researchers have long noted that movies and television shows seldom show drivers wearing seatbelts. In an analysis of high school youths’ exposure to such entertainment, APPC researchers Sally Dunlop and Dan Romer found that males with heavy exposure to such programming were less likely to think that their friends and school peers used seatbelts. Furthermore,

Using data from the Annenberg Sex and Media Study, current and former Annenberg Public Policy Center health communication researchers Jennifer A. Manganello, Vani R. Henderson, Amy Jordan, Nicole Trentacoste, Suzanne Martin, Michael Hennessy, and Martin Fishbein have published a paper that compares how teens and trained coders evaluate sexual content in media. “Adolescent Judgment of

In a report released online in the journal Tobacco Control, postdoctoral fellow Sally Dunlop and Dan Romer, director of APPC’s Adolescent Health Communication Institute, show how a dramatic increase in newspaper coverage of litigation against Philip Morris for its deceptive advertising for light cigarettes was associated with a decline in misperceptions about the benefits of

A study coordinated by researchers at APPC demonstrates the effectiveness of community-based screening to combat the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in high-risk adolescents. The study found that African-American youth ages 14 to 17 who were identified as positive for at least one of three STIs subsequently reduced their number of sexual partners and

In a newly released study conducted by APPC and published in Prevention Science online, researchers analyze data from the National Annenberg Survey of Youth showing that adolescents ages 14 to 22 do exert control over their risk-seeking tendencies. Although such tendencies tend to peak during adolescence, youth who can delay gratification are also able to

On Monday, February 22, APPC’s Annenberg Center for the Advanced Study in Communication (ACASC) held its Spring Youth and Media Colloquium, featuring Vikki Sara Katz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communication at Rutgers University. Dr. Katz’s talk — “What children’s media brokering can teach us about digital divides and health disparities: A view from an immigrant community” — drew from data collected

Sally Dunlop, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral fellow in APPC’s Annenberg Center for Advanced Study in Communication, and Dan Romer, Ph.D., associate director of APPC and director of its Adolescent Communication Institute, published a health brief, “Adolescent and young adult crash risk: Sensation seeking, substance use propensity and substance use behaviors,” in the Journal of Adolescent Health (vol. 46, 2010).

Despite the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s nine-year effort to debunk the connection, newspapers continue to perpetuate the myth that suicides rise during the end-of-year holiday period. According to an analysis of news reporting during last year’s (2008-09) holiday period, the proportion of stories that supported the myth remained at approximately the same level as during

Martin Fishbein, the Harry C. Coles, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and founding director of the Health Communication division of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, died in London of a heart attack, Friday, November 27. The founder of the theory of reasoned action, Fishbein worked at the Centers for