© 2008-2011 Douglas A. Gentile; All Rights Reserved
Developmental psychologist Douglas Gentile is an award-winning research scientist,
educator, author, and one of the world's leading experts on the effects of mass media
on children, adolescents, and adults.
Dr. Gentile conducts scientific research on the positive and negative effects of
media on children, adolescents, and adults, including such topics as media violence,
educational media, video games, advertising, media ratings, and technology “addictions.”
The media provide benefits and risks for healthy child development. Studying the
effects of media scientifically can provide parents, educators, and policy makers
with the information that they need to improve children’s outcomes.
Abstracts and full text of Dr. Gentile’s academic research papers, conference papers,
and general audience papers.
Includes materials and links for parents, including recorded interviews and the Science
of Parenting radio show.
Multiple resources are available, including research articles, audio podcasts, books,
videos, frequently asked questions, etc.
Includes podcast interviews, papers, FAQs, and research measures for students studying
media effects.
Using a Risk and Resilience Approach to Understanding Media Violence: This longitudinal study shows that media violence acts just like other known risk factors for aggression, and deserves neither special concern nor dismissal as a risk for youth aggression. Click here to read more.
Dr. Gentile was recently named one of the 300 Best Professors in the US by the Princeton Review. Click here to read more.
On the Science of Parenting Radio Show: Dr. Gentile and Michael Murray discuss children’s allowances and how to manage money with children. Click here to listen to the show.
Media and Attention Problems: A longitudinal study of 3000 children found that children with attention problems sought to play more video games, but that the amount of video game playing also increased later attention problems. Click here to read the study.
Brains on Video Gaming: A discussion with other researchers (e.g., Green, Bavalier, Han, et al.) about the multiple effects games can have. Click here to read more.
Problems with Media Ratings: Three national surveys of parents demonstrate that the current age-based rating systems are not working for parents, as only 6% of parents feel they are always accurate and more importantly, parents disagree about what age it’s ok for children to see different types of content. Click here for a brief summary. Full paper here.
