Projects
(Mis-)Informed by Social Media Influencers? Benefits and Risks of Following Political Social Media Influencers and the Moderating Role of Media Literacy KU Leuven
Social media influencers who were initially known for marketing and advertising increasingly use their popularity on platforms like TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat to communicate their opinions on political and societal topics to a large network of followers. This increasing political engagement of social media influencers can be seen in a positive light as it may raise political interest and participation among young people who are often not ...
The Child Effect in Media Use: Investigating Family Dynamics Concerning Media Behavior in Parent-Child Dyads. KU Leuven
Most studies on the uses and effects of media and communication by parents and children have focused on how parents influence and guide the media use of their children. Much less is known about how children influence and guide the media use of their parents. Yet children are often the driving force behind the introduction of new media and new media contents within families. In 2005, Van den Bulck and Van den Bergh published a review in the ...
The effects of exposure to sexualizing media on adolescents sexual maturation. KU Leuven
Developing media effects as a research programme: Reconsidering the meta-theoretical, conceptual, and methodological foundations of a paradigm in crisis KU Leuven
To what extent do media messages shape people’s opinions and behaviors? Despite decades of scientific research we still have no clear answer: we know that studies only report very small effects but the meaning of those findings is heavily debated. Some scholars argue that the lack of convincing results means that the effects model fails to account for reality and should be abandoned. Others have arrived at the opposite conclusion. To them, ...
Modern technologies in the assessment and treatment of pelvic organ prolapse - experimental and clinical studies KU Leuven
In this project, we aim to use modern assessment techniques to study certain risk factors related to the development of pelvic floor prolapse in a clinical setting as well as in an experimental model. Pelvic floor prolapse is a bothersome condition when the vaginal wall or the uterus protrudes through the vaginal opening. It affects mainly women who were at least once pregnant and delivered vaginally. The project includes clinical part during ...
Right ventricular mechanical support for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The low flow concept. KU Leuven
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is caused by a pathological increase in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and ultimately leads to right ventricular (RV) failure. On modern therapy, there is still 15% mortality within 1 year and median survival remains limited to 5-6 years, with insufficient functional improvement in many survivors. Bilateral lung transplantation (bLTx) remains the only curative option. Unfortunately, most patients are ...
Explaining adolescents' media use and differential susceptibility to the association between media use and risk behavior: a reinforcement sensitivity perspective. KU Leuven
In general consensus exists regarding the hypothesis that different people select different types of media and that the exposure to different media contents influences different people in different ways. Therefore, many studies have been conducted throughout the years that looked into the link between personality and media use on the one hand and the role of personality in explaining media effects on the other hand. Most of these studies ...
Unraveling the role of entertainment fiction as a positive socialization agent for adolescents’ sexuality and body image KU Leuven
Adolescents’ sexual well-being is a frequently explored topic in media effects studies (Strasburger, Jordan, & Donnerstein, 2010) given adolescents’ pervasive use of entertainment media (Common Sense Media, 2015) and unique developmental context, e.g., elevated levels of sexual hormones and growth spurts (Christie & Viner, 2005). Within adolescent media use research, a risk-perspective is consistently adopted which addresses the ...