Manuscript awarded the 2018 Best Published Article Award

Relation between active mediation, exposure to Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and US preschoolers' social and emotional development

Children who watch "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," may be better equipped to develop emotional skills like empathy, following directions, and the ability to ask for help.

Researchers at Texas Tech University published the manuscript, "Relation between active mediation, exposure to Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and US preschoolers' social and emotional development," in the Journal of Children and Media, relaying their findings to the notion that the children's show "Daniel's Tiger's Neighborhood" may aid children in their social and emotional development.

Researchers on this study were led by Eric Rasmussen, followed by colleagues Autumn Shafer, Shawna White, Narissra Punyanunt-Carter, and Rebecca L. Densley in the College of Media and Communication; working in conjunction with College of Human Sciences' Malinda J. Colwell and Holly Wright from the Human Development and Family Studies program.

"Our findings suggest that preschoolers who watched Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood showed more empathy, higher self-efficacy, and better emotion recognition when parents talked with their children while watching TV in general," Dr. Colwell said. "These findings were stronger for low income and younger preschoolers. This suggests that children seem to learn more from TV programming when parents watch TV with their children and engage them in conversations about what they are watching."

The manuscript was awarded the 2018 Best Published Article Award from the Children, Adolescents, and Media Division of the International Communication Association (ICA).

This award recognizes any sole or jointly-authored research article published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal which reflects a significant contribution to the field of children, adolescents, and the media.