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Home > ResearchHodge Receives Award for Research on Media Influences
Camilla Hodge, a first year Ph.D. student has been awarded first place in the graduate category for her research related to media influences on family recreation. The award was presented to her at the 2011 Strengthening the Family Symposium (UT).
The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between media-based family leisure and family functioning. The sample (n = 500 families) included responses from parents and children (ages 11 -16) from each family, therefore mixed models were used to account for family-level and individual-level variance. Findings indicated a negative relationship between media use and family functioning from a youth perspective; media connection and parental media monitoring, however, were positively related to family functioning. These relationships were stable over time and significant even when accounting for variance explained by depression, anxiety, conflict, and other demographic variables.
This research filled gaps in both in media effects and family leisure literature--both of which have overlooked family-level analysis, and media as a leisure behavior in general. The use of mixed linear model analysis and longitudinal data are also important elements of the current study which add to existing research. Current findings suggest the way in which a family uses media is important to understanding the relationship between media in the home and family functioning. Finally, given current findings, parental involvement in adolescent media use is the most important variable in explaining variance in family functioning in context of media-based family leisure.
Hodge earned her B.A. in Communications, and then an M.S. in Youth and Family Recreation, from Brigham Young University. She worked with Dr. Ramon Zabriskie, CTRS, Ph.D. at BYU on this research.