Research Findings

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

Michael Hennessy, Ph.D., research analysis manager at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, was lead author of a paper, “Estimating the Longitudinal Association Between Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Exposure to Sexual Media Content,” published in the Journal of Sex Research. Co-authors were APPC’s Dr. Amy Bleakley, Professor Martin Fishbein (principal investigator of the study), and Dr.

In a study just released in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Adolescent Communication Institute (ACI) and five other universities along with a Philadelphia media development firm report that a mass media program directed to African American youth ages 14 to 18 reduced sexual risk behavior, especially among

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued the report: “Implementation of the Child Safe Viewing Act; Examination of Parental Control Technologies for Video or Audio Programming” (August 31, 2009). The report to Congress frequently cites the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s early assessment of the efficacy of the V-Chip television blocking technology.   Lead author Amy

Recent news reports that stated the use of the social networking site, Facebook, hurts students’ grades in school are contradicted by recent results from the National Annenberg Survey of Youth (NASY) and previous data collected by Eszter Hargittai of Northwestern University. Results were published in the online journal, First Monday, after a fast-tracked peer-review process.

During a March 3, 2009 appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor discussed her new civics education initiative, “Our Courts,” and highlighted Annenberg Public Policy Center research on civics knowledge in the American public. Specifically Justice O’Connor cited a national Annenberg survey indicating that only one-third of Americans can name