Inconclusive Findings in Studies of the Link Between Media Coverage of Mass Trauma and Depression in Children
Open accessAbstract
Purpose of review This paper reports a review of the empirical research examining the association between mass trauma media contact and depression in children, the factors that may influence the association, and the difficulties encountered in the study of media effects on depression.Recent findings All of the included studies assessed general population samples. Pre-COVID-19 research focused primarily on television coverage alone or on multiple media forms including television, while COVID-19 media studies examined various media forms including social media. Most studies used cross-sectional design and non-probability sampling. The review revealed inconclusive findings across studies. The study of mass trauma media effects on depression in children is complicated by a number of potential confounding factors and by the relatively high prevalence of depression in the general population. Media contact was a relatively minor consideration among other interests in the extant studies which failed to explore numerous issues that warrant attention in future research.
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In addition to PTSD, anxiety and depression show significant linkages with indirect (media-transmitted) contact with disasters and large-scale violence.
“In addition to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression also showed significant linkages with indirect (media-transmitted) contact with disasters and large-scale violence [20,21].”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [20]
The Introduction reports a small positive association between mass-trauma media contact and depression in adults, but not children. The ‘Associations Between Media Contact and Depression’ section describes mixed findings in children, and the cited passages do not establish a significant media-contact linkage for anxiety. The claim therefore overgeneralizes the depression finding and adds an unsupported anxiety finding; page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective.
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- Authors
- Pfefferbaum, B., Tucker, P., Nitiéma, P., Van Horn, R. L., Varma, V., Varma, Y., Slaughter, A., & Newman, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (US)
- University of Oklahoma (US)
- Intel (United States) (US)
- University of Tulsa (US)
- Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pfefferbaum, Betty
- ORCID
- Venue
- Current Psychiatry Reports
- Published
- 2022-02-24
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 181-193
- ISSN
- 1523-3812 (ISSN-L)
- 1535-1645
- PMC
- PMC8866038
- OpenAlex
- W4213438580
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 0.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Psychiatry Reports (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- mass trauma, media coverage, depression, children, television news, social media, COVID-19 pandemic, media influence, confounding factors, depression prevalence
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Child, Communication, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Humans, Mass Media
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