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NEWS RELEASE 8-JUL-2019
Cartoons are appropriate for developing children's narrative skills and values
A study by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has analysed children's media consumption and the use of cartoons to cultivate narrative skills and values
Peer-Reviewed Publication
UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY
Media consumption by schoolchildren in the 3rd year (8-9 year-olds) and 6th year (11-12 year-olds) of Primary Education, their narrative skills and the perceptions they have about the values/counter-values of the cartoons was explored by the Department of Evolutionary Psychology and Education of the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Education, Philosophy and Anthropology. The research was conducted in various phases divided into two subcategories.
Firstly, the use that schoolchildren make of various devices, the Internet in particular, as well as the support and control strategies used by their parents, the positive and negative conceptions parents have about the use, difficulties and challenges they face when mediating in their use were identified. The aim of this section was to adapt the mediation programmes on the basis of the actual situation of families, schools and society.
Secondly, various tests were conducted to delve further into the interpretation and decoding that the schoolchildren carry out on the messages transmitted by the fictional content of the cartoons. These tests revealed that the type of narrative or non-narrative structure that characterises the cartoons affects the reception, processing, comprehension, memory and what the messages conjure up, in terms of narrative skills and perception of values/counter-values, of 8-12-year-old children.
"The narrative cartoons we analysed have the same structure as classical stories (introduction, core and denouement). The thread can be easily followed. In the non-narrative cartoons we analysed, the events do not take place in the same context, the characters jump continually from an everyday atmosphere to another virtual one, and the individual watching has difficulty understanding the reasons and outcomes of the events. What is more, in the latter, clinchers are used continually," explained the UPV/EHU researcher Eider Oregui.
Didactic proposals
To conduct the study two types of cartoons were selected on the basis of high audience rates in the age groups being targeted by the study: Doraemon, with a narrative structure, and Code Lyoko, with a non-narrative structure. After displaying the cartoons, "we asked the schoolchildren to tell us what they remembered from what they had seen, and that way we analysed their narrative skills as well as the values and counter-values they had perceived," added Oregui, who was responsible for the research. The accounts by the schoolchildren who had watched the cartoons with a narrative structure were much longer and more detailed and the values and counter-values were perceived effortlessly. In the case of the non-narrative ones, however, the accounts were very short, they had been altered, and focus was placed almost exclusively on the sequences of the action; the children also experienced greater difficulty perceiving the values and counter-values of the subject matter".
The researchers also measured the schoolchildren's attention capacity while they were watching the cartoons, and they noticed that the cartoons with a narrative structure provided the children with attention breaks. By contrast, during the non-narrative cartoons the schoolchildren maintained continuous eye contact with the screen. In the narrative cartoons, "each one chooses, as a viewer, what to pay attention to or not, in other words, it involves voluntary attention, whereas in the non-narrative ones attention is not voluntary because of the ongoing effect of the clinchers," she explained. The viewers do not control their attention, which may mean that they do not properly understand the events when processing the information".
In any case, the researcher regards both types of cartoons as valid. "The same values/counter-values always appear in the narrative cartoons analysed but in different situations, and this aids the children's comprehension and processing; yet it is possible to find more types of values and counter-values in non-narrative cartoons and which could be perceived with the right mediation or various pedagogical activities; and that way, the effect exerted by the type of structure on the age groups included in the study would be prevented," pointed out Oregui. So this study has given rise to some didactic proposals targeting schoolchildren, family members and professionals in the sphere of psycho-education and communication, and which are designed to encourage the development of children's narrative skills and education in values and counter-values through their favourite fictional content.
The researcher also referred to the importance of furthering the classification of cartoons; she proposes that they be classified not only on the basis of their content, but also on the basis of their narrative level or their structure and the values they deal with. Oregui said that in the end "cartoons may be used both at school and at home to train children in values and counter-values, to deal with moral reasoning and to develop narrative skills as long as suitable resources are used and are adapted on the basis of age".
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NEWS RELEASE 18-NOV-2021
Revealing link between child maltreatment, bonding hormone and brain development
Scientists uncover how child maltreatment alters the oxytocin gene, leading to atypical brain structure and function
Peer-Reviewed Publication
UNIVERSITY OF FUKUI
Child maltreatment, which spans child abuse and neglect, can adversely affect healthy development of the brain. Adults who were abused as children tend to develop atypical brain structures, which can lead to various psychiatric disorders and even suicide. Fortunately, during and shortly after adolescence, the neocortical regions of the brain (brain regions concerned with thought, perception, and episodic memory) undergo a major re-organisation, which provides an opportunity to treat some of the disorders caused by child maltreatment. Is there a biological mechanism that could be effectively targeted during this re-organisation to improve the lives of victims of childhood abuse?
The answer seems to be a resounding yes, as demonstrated in a recent study
published in Translational Psychiatry, in which researchers focused on a particular hormone and a specific mechanism by which its production might be altered as a result of child maltreatment. Led by Dr Shota Nishitani and Prof Akemi Tomoda from University of Fukui, Japan, and Dr Alicia K. Smith from Emory University, USA, this is the result of joint research between the University of Fukui and the Emory University.
The hormone in question is oxytocin, which plays a key role in our capacity to feel empathy and love, and learn prosocial behaviors like bonding. The biological mechanism that the study focused on is a process called “DNA methylation” that regulates the secretion of oxytocin.
Based on insights from previous studies, which showed that methylation of the oxytocin gene was associated with both brain structure and social behaviour, the researchers hypothesized that child maltreatment could be related to the oxytocin gene methylation levels and, in turn, altered brain structures and brain development during childhood and adolescence. They put this hypothesis to the test through various experiments involving DNA sampling and multi-mode brain imaging of children who had been maltreated and compared their outcomes against of children who did not suffer from maltreatment.
The DNA tests showed that a specific region of the oxytocin gene was consistently more methylated in maltreated children. The researchers then linked this “hypermethylation” with changes in brain structure and activity. “
We found a higher DNA methylation rate to be associated with a smaller volume of the left superior parietal lobe in the dorsal attention network, which is important for the coordination of one’s eye movement with the recognition of other’s gaze,” explains Prof Tomoda. “
We also noted low brain activity in the right putamen, which is a part of the reward system network,” she adds.
Additionally, the researchers determined through statistical analyses that children who were maltreated showed higher levels of DNA methylation, a chemical modification of some oxytocin genes, than children of the same age in the general population. When DNA methylation was high, there was a decrease in volume in the brain attention network and a decrease in activity in the reward system network. The DNA methylation was also associated with a specific period (5-8 years old) and higher levels of maltreatment such as physical abuse, especially among children who had received maltreatment.
This is the first study to examine the relationship between methylation in the oxytocin gene and child maltreatment, and the insights could have groundbreaking clinical applications. “
The reversible nature of the DNA methylation implies that it may be possible to develop methods to de-methylate the oxytocin gene region. If we can demonstrate that such methods could reverse brain function alterations and trauma symptoms in maltreated children, we could create entirely new therapies to improve their quality of life,” says Dr Smith.
Let us hope further research on this front will provide the unfortunate victims of childhood abuse with better lives in their adulthood.
– Source for both articles: EurekAlert