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Citizen science research has been rapidly expanding in the past years and has become a popular approach in youth education. We investigated key drivers of youth participation in a citizen social science school project and the effects of participation on scientific and topic-related (i.e., political) interest and efficacy. Findings suggest that females, more politically and scientifically interested and more scientifically efficacious adolescents were more motivated to learn from the project. Science efficacy was also positively related to external reward motivation (i.e., winning an award). Both learning and external reward motivation increased the likelihood of participation. Pre- and post-measurement further indicated that participation in the project slightly increased science interest, but not science efficacy. However, it did increase both political interest and efficacy. Furthermore, our data revealed a decrease in science efficacy and interest in those who did not participate in the project, indicating an increasing gap in adolescents' scientific involvement.

During early adolescence children are increasingly using their smartphones not only throughout the day, but also before or even during the nighttime. Prior research has revealed that children's school performance might suffer because of late-night smartphone use. To gain a further understanding of the consequences of nighttime smartphone use on school performance, this study set out to examine whether children's nighttime smartphone use is associated with children's attentional problems over time and with their achieved and subjective school performance. We tested these associations using a two-wave panel study among children aged 10–14 years and one of their parents (parent-child pairs, N Time2 = 384). The findings revealed that children's nighttime smartphone use was positively related to parent-reported perceptions of children's attentional problems over time which were negatively related to both subjective and achieved school performance. We discuss the implications of these results for the regulation of children's smartphone use at night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hostile media phenomenon (HMP) refers to a process in which supporters and opponents of an issue perceive the identical coverage to be biased against their own views. Despite the relevance of visual communication in our field, scholars have treated hostile media perceptions as a text-based phenomenon ignoring the unique role of visuals. This paper makes the case for a visual hostile media phenomenon (VHMP). The VHMP posits that completely balanced pictures are perceived as biased both by opponents and supporters of an issue. Two experimental studies on the Israel–Palestine conflict provide clear evidence for this reasoning. Study 1 shows that Palestine (Israel) supporters perceived a balanced photo series as biased toward Israel (Palestine) irrespective of the series' reach. This effect was also visible for clearly slanted pro-Israel and pro-Palestine pictures (i.e., relative VHMP). Study 2 replicates these findings and sheds some first light on the underlying mechanism. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online hate speech is very common. This is problematic as degrading social groups can traumatize targets, evoke stress, and depression. Since no reaction of others could suggest the acceptability of hate speech, bystander intervention is essential. However, it is unclear when and how minorities react to hate speech. Drawing from social identity theory and research on in-group intervention, we inquire how Islamophobic online hate speech and counter speech by majority or minority members shape Muslims' willingness to intervene. Thus, in an online experiment (N = 362), we varied the presence of Islamophobic online hate speech and counter speech by a (non-) Muslim. Results showed that Islamophobic online hate speech led to a perceived religious identity threat which, in turn, increased the personal responsibility to intervene and resulted in higher intentions to utter factual counter speech. In addition, counter speech by both majority and minority members directly reduced Muslims' intentions to counterargue hatefully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explain the longitudinal associations of taking the smartphone to bed on adolescents' daytime tiredness and physical well-being. We examined whether parents': (a) active mediation; and (b) restrictive mediation determines whether children and adolescents have their phones within reach in bed or not. We used longitudinal data from a two-wave panel survey (NTime2 = 384) of early adolescents (10–14 years, MTime2 =12.37, SD = 1.48, 46.4% girls) and one of their parents (=parent–child dyads) in Germany. A polling company collected the data in a four-month interval in 2018 and 2019, using a quota-sample procedure based on parents' age and gender. Structural equation modelling revealed that active but not restrictive parental mediation at Time 1 (baseline) negatively predicted adolescents having their smartphones in bed at Time 2 (follow-up). We found that having a smartphone in bed increased adolescents' daytime tiredness. Daytime tiredness was associated with decreased physical well-being over time. The findings indicate that parents should use active mediation to reduce their children's use of their smartphones at nighttime to protect their physical well-being from tiredness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing a mobile experience sampling design, we investigated in the present study how different types of mobile social media use relate to young individuals' momentary affective well-being and momentary loneliness. We differentiated between three types of social media use: Messaging, posting, and browsing. Moreover, we studied fear of missing out (FoMO) as a moderating variable. We collected data from 79 middle and late adolescents (M age = 17.55 years, SD = 1.29; 59% girls) yielding 956 momentary assessments. The results showed that messaging and posting were positively related to affective well-being, while browsing was associated with higher levels of loneliness. Furthermore, some of the relations between social media use, affective well-being, and loneliness were also moderated by FoMO. Our results highlight the need to differentiate between different types of social media use, to include individual predispositions, and to apply methods that account for daily fluctuations in psychological well-being when studying the complex relationship between youth's mobile social media use and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamist terrorist attacks have become a salient threat to Western countries, and news coverage about such crimes is a key predictor of public emotional reactions and policy support. We examine the effects of two key characteristics of terrorism news coverage: (1) the victim's religion and (2) first-person narratives that facilitate perspective taking. A quota-based experiment (N = 354) revealed that irrespective of the narrative type, news reports that mention the victims' Muslim religion induce less anger and compassion, but more joy among non-Muslim news consumers. However, fear was equally induced by all news articles. As a consequence, fear, anger, and joy predicted support for more restrictive terrorism policies, while anger and compassion were related to more support for victim compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a consequence of children's nearly ubiquitous smartphone use, many parents experience resignation or frustration due to a perceived loss of control over their child's excessive smartphone activities. This perceived lack of control may not only increase children's risk of exposure to online harassment but also affect the relationship between parents and children—both crucial influence factors for children's self-esteem. We tested these relationships using a two-wave panel study of children between 10 and 14 years (N T2 = 384) and one of their parents. Findings revealed that parental lack of control over their child's smartphone use increased the risk of children becoming victims of online harassment and decreased children's perceived parental support over time. However, while lower perceived parental control decreased children's self-esteem over time, exposure to online harassment did not. We discuss implications of these findings for intervention and prevention of parental lack of control over children's smartphone use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the predictors of adolescents' political cynicism in the social media environment. Given that social media are one of the main sources of information for many young people today, it is crucial to investigate how and in which ways social media use is associated with political cynicism. To that aim, we use data from computer-assisted personal interviews of N = 1,061 adolescents between 14 and 19 years in Germany. Our findings reveal that relative information-oriented social media use is related to lower political cynicism, while exposure to extremist political content on social media predicts higher levels of political cynicism. Furthermore, although self-perceived online media literacy is negatively associated with political cynicism, it does not moderate the relationship between political cynicism and relative information-oriented social media use or exposure to extremist content. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings. Prior State of Knowledge: Nowadays adolescents often express high levels of political cynicism, which gives reason for concern. Existing research suggests that the media as political socialization agent may both dampen or increase youth's political cynicism depending on the content. Novel Contributions: We identify a lack of research on the role of social media use to explain youth's political cynicism. To address this, we focus on two key predictors: the degree of information-orientation of social media use and exposure to extremist content. Practical Implications: This study has practical implications for educational interventions that aim at training adolescents' understanding of political processes. The findings are also crucial for policymakers and platform operators who tackle extremism on social media platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined how Muslims are depicted in connection with Islamist terrorism and to what extent journalists use undifferentiated coverage – that actively links Muslims to terrorism – and differentiated coverage that actively differentiates Muslims from terrorism. Drawing from research in journalism studies and from terror management theory, we examined media-specific and event-specific predictors using a quantitative content analysis (12 quality/tabloid newspapers from three countries, N = 1071 articles). Results reveal that undifferentiated coverage occurs in almost every other article. Differentiation occurs much less. Tabloids use undifferentiated and differentiated coverage in fact-oriented and opinion-oriented articles. Quality news only do so in opinion-oriented articles. Proximity of a terror event resulted in more undifferentiated and less differentiated coverage. Results have important implications for journalism practice, terrorism research and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]