Media Multitasking in Medical Students: A Theory-Based Approach to Understanding this Behavior.

Phenomenon: While technology is useful and encouraged in medical school, the effect of media multitasking on academic performance remains concerning. Past research has investigated performance and cognitions associated with college students' in-class media multitasking behavior, but the extent and correlates among medical students is relatively unknown.

Approach: We surveyed medical students at our institution to quantify media multitasking behaviors and related beliefs, and we collected corresponding course grades.

Experimental Effects of Tweets Encouraging Social Distancing: Effects of Source, Emotional Appeal, and Political Ideology on Emotion, Threat, and Efficacy.

Context: Public health officials and celebrities use social media to provide guidance to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Messages apply different promotional strategies to motivate behavior change, likely yielding divergent reactions from partisan audiences. The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) suggests that perceived threat for a negative outcome should impact perceived need for the advocated health behavior, which should be more appealing to an audience if perceived it to be efficacious and feasible.

Child-Oriented Marketing on Cereal Packaging: Associations With Sugar Content and Manufacturer Pledge.

Objective: To assess sugar content and child-oriented promotional features on packaging among cereals manufactured by companies with varying Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) participation.

Design: Ready-to-eat dry cereals (n = 159) were purchased from southeastern US grocery stores in September 2018. Content analysis of 159 ready-to-eat dry cereal boxes, coded for sugar content and presence of 8 child-oriented features.