Geography vs Psychology on Children and Media:

Gill Valentine, a Professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield: All the studies I seem to do on how geography affects people really only focus on adults. Have you ever wondered about how boundaries can affect children?

Johnathan S. Comer from Columbia University Department of Psychiatry (and other contributors): Of course we have. We find the development of children an especially rich area to study. 

GV: I think a child seems relatively easy to define. You can picture them as dependent, a little thing adults have to drag around. And adult is someone that is independent, one who can take care of themselves. What is harder to define is the weird youth period, like 16-25 where we fluctuate between dependence and independence, and maintain certain boundaries. 

Comer et al: I guess the definition of child is more complicated. Can you elaborate on this transition state of "youth." 

GV: In my observations, there are certain transitions like getting a job that help children mature into adults. They seem to have more responsibilities which make them closer to adult than child. However, for example if an "adult" reacts immaturely to a situation, he is more child than adult. 

Comer et al: With your definition of child, I can see how my studies of media influence are a complicating  factor. The results of our psychoanalytical study showed that "children's television use was associated with elevated perceptions of personal (but not societal) vulnerability to world threats (i.e., crime, terrorism, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods)." 

GV: That sounds like a type of maturation. Even though I did not address media in my study, I think your findings support my conclusion about maturing. Your study provides another perspective to my work and enriches the idea of child development, especially that media use could expedite the transition to "adult." 

Comer et al: Unfortunately, our sample size was small, only 90 kids ages 7-13. This is even considered part of your child, not "youth," category. However, since media is increasingly accessible to younger populations with little regulation from parents, we can see this is a type of independence a younger population receives. While they are dependent on parents for transportation and money, the things you analyzed, they are independent in their media use. Therefore, it allows kids to start the transition to youth even earlier than the boundaries you described. 

GV: Considering your research in comparison to mine has given me a new perspective. I can see that child development has any factors, but it looks like media is a significant factor. 

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