Romer, Daniel

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  • Publication
    Afterword to the Issue “Adolescents in the Digital Age: Effects on Health and Development”
    (2016-01-01) Romer, Daniel; Rich, Michael
    The articles in this thematic issue suggest both opportunities and hazards for the health and development of adolescents in the digital age. We place these concerns in the context of improving health for young people in the US and elsewhere, and suggest that based on evidence uncovered to date, increasing digital connection may be having no less favorable than adverse effect on adolescents.
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  • Publication
    Social Ecology of Supervised Communal Facilities for Mentally Disabled Adults: III. Predictors of Social Choice
    (1980-11-01) Romer, Daniel; Berkson, Gershon
    This paper is the third in a series in which the social behavior of mentally disabled clients in community facilities was examined. In this report, social choice for various cognitive and physical characteristics and for exposure to others was investigated in five settings. Preferences were inferred from observed affiliation, self reports, and staff judgments. Clients tended to prefer peers whom they had more exposure to, same-sex peers, and peers of similar attractiveness. Opposite-sex relationships were also common and were stronger for women. Neither similarity nor complementarity choice was obtained for age or the desire for affiliation; however, retarded clients tended to be segregated from mentally ill clients. Although clients tended to name friends of similar intellect, a form of "limited complementarity" appeared to govern observed affiliation preferences in that clients preferred to affiliate with peers who were somewhat different in IQ. This result suggests that clients of relatively moderate intelligence are critical to the social integration of a setting, since they are most likely to form relationships with clients of both higher and lower intelligence. The implications of these results for the sociability of a setting were discussed.
  • Publication
    Emotional Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels Reduce the Electrophysiological Brain Response to Smoking Cues
    (2015-03-01) Wang, An-Li; Romer, Daniel; Turetsky, Bruce I; Gur, Ruben; Langleben, Daniel D; Elman, Igor
    There is an ongoing public debate about the new graphic warning labels (GWLs) that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposes to place on cigarette packs. Tobacco companies argued that the strongly emotional images FDA proposed to include in the GWLs encroached on their constitutional rights. The court ruled that FDA did not provide sufficient scientific evidence of compelling public interest in such encroachment. This study's objectives were to examine the effects of the GWLs on the electrophysiological and behavioral correlates of smoking addiction and to determine whether labels rated higher on the emotional reaction (ER) scale are associated with greater effects. We studied 25 non-treatment-seeking smokers. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants viewed a random sequence of paired images, in which visual smoking (Cues) or non-smoking (non-Cues) images were preceded by GWLs or neutral images. Participants reported their cigarette craving after viewing each pair. Dependent variables were magnitude of P300 ERPs and self-reported cigarette craving in response to Cues. We found that subjective craving response to Cues was significantly reduced by preceding GWLs, whereas the P300 amplitude response to Cues was reduced only by preceding GWLs rated high on the ER scale. In conclusion, our study provides experimental neuroscience evidence that weighs in on the ongoing public and legal debate about how to balance the constitutional and public health aspects of the FDA-proposed GWLs. The high toll of smoking-related illness and death adds urgency to the debate and prompts consideration of our findings while longitudinal studies of GWLs are underway.
  • Publication
    The Role of Parents in Problematic Internet Use Among US Adolescents
    (2016-01-01) Bleakley, Amy; Ellithorpe, Morgan; Romer, Daniel
    The internet has transformed the way youth communicate, learn, and network, with implications for their broader social, psychological, and physical health and well-being. With the technological capability of accessing the internet from anywhere, at any time, paired with the enormous variety of internet activities in which youth engage—from social networking to chatting to streaming videos to playing games to watching television content—instances of problematic internet behavior have emerged. We conducted an online national survey of 629 US adolescents ages 12–17 years old and a matching survey of one of their parents. We investigated the relationship between problematic internet behavior and parental monitoring, parental mediation of internet use, and parental estimates of their adolescent’s time spent using computers. Analyses showed that problematic internet use was associated with less parental monitoring and parental mediation and poorer parental relationships. Adolescents that spent a lot of time on the computer were also more likely to engage in problematic internet use. Although we cannot determine the direction of the relationships, results support the important role of parents in adolescents’ problematic internet use.
  • Publication
    Using Drama to Persuade
    (1989-12-01) Deighton, John; Romer, Daniel; McQueen, Josh
    Television ads can be classified as either arguments or dramas or hybrids of these forms. We claim that form dimension influences how ads are processed. An argument backs its claims with appeals to objectivity and is processed evaluatively. A drama appeals more to subjective criteria and is processed empathically. A study is reported in which 40 television commercials were classified on a dramatization scale. They were shown to 1,215 people, and measures of evaluative and empathic processing were taken. The measures were found to be weighted differently for arguments and dramas, supporting the contention that form influences processing.
  • Publication
    Social Ecology of Supervised Communal Facilities for Mentally Disabled Adults: II. Predictors of Affiliation
    (1980-11-01) Romer, Daniel; Berkson, Gershon
    The behavior of 304 mentally disabled adults was observed in five settings (one residence, four sheltered workshops) during periods when they were free to affiliate with peers. Regression analyses using settings, personal traits (age, sex, IQ, and diagnosis), and mediating variables (e.g., physical attractiveness, desire for affiliation, and length of institutionalization) were conducted to predict various aspects of affiliative behavior. Settings accounted 16 to 63 percent of the predictable variation independent of personal and mediating variables. Although older and mentally ill clients affiliated less extensively, neither degree of retardation, length of previous institutionalization, use of medication, or other physical disabilities appeared to affect affiliation independent of other variables. In general, clients who were physically attractive desired affiliation, and had intelligent peers in their programs affiliated more extensively and intensively with peers. In total, the findings indicate that the variables most predictive of affiliation in the present community settings were also the ones most amenable to personal or environmental change.
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    A Call to Action on Adolescent Mental Health
    (2005-01-01) Jamieson, Kathleen Hall; Romer, Daniel
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    Identifying Best Practices in Civic Education: Lessons From the Student Voices Program
    (2007-11-01) Feldman, Lauren; Romer, Daniel; Pasek, Josh; Jamieson, Kathleen Hall
    School‐based civic education is increasingly recognized as an effective means for increasing political awareness and participation in American youth. This study examines the Student Voices curriculum, implemented in 22 Philadelphia high schools, to assess program activities that mediate gains in outcomes linked to future political participation (following of politics, political knowledge, and political efficacy). The results indicate that class deliberative discussions, community projects, and informational use of the Internet produce favorable outcomes that build over the course of two semesters. Effects were comparable for both white and nonwhite students.
  • Publication
    Beyond Stereotypes of Adolescent Risk Taking: Placing the Adolescent Brain in Developmental Context
    (2017-10-01) Romer, Daniel; Reyna, Valerie F; Satterthwaite, Theodore D
    Recent neuroscience models of adolescent brain development attribute the morbidity and mortality of this period to structural and functional imbalances between more fully developed limbic regions that subserve reward and emotion as opposed to those that enable cognitive control. We challenge this interpretation of adolescent development by distinguishing risk-taking that peaks during adolescence (sensation seeking and impulsive action) from risk taking that declines monotonically from childhood to adulthood (impulsive choice and other decisions under known risk). Sensation seeking is primarily motivated by exploration of the environment under ambiguous risk contexts, while impulsive action, which is likely to be maladaptive, is more characteristic of a subset of youth with weak control over limbic motivation. Risk taking that declines monotonically from childhood to adulthood occurs primarily under conditions of known risks and reflects increases in executive function as well as aversion to risk based on increases in gist-based reasoning. We propose an alternative Lifespan Wisdom Model that highlights the importance of experience gained through exploration during adolescence. We propose, therefore, that brain models that recognize the adaptive roles that cognition and experience play during adolescence provide a more complete and helpful picture of this period of development.