Frederick J. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Fred W and Pamela K. Wasserman Chair in Health Services Department of Health Services School of Public Health Box 951772, 41-295D CHS Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772 Phone: (310) 825-1971 fax: (310) 825-3317 E-mail: fredzimmerman@ucla.edu CV

Biographical Information

Frederick J. Zimmerman is Chair and Professor in the Department of Health Services. His research studies economic influences on population health, with a particular focus on media use and child health.  His recent projects include the use of secondary data to identify the distinct effects of different content types of media exposure (commercial vs. non-commercial; violent vs. non-violent) on developmental outcomes such as obesity, cognitive development, and executive function.  He has also completed a successful randomized trial of an intervention to promote a healthy media diet among preschoolers.  His ongoing work interests include examinations of the effects of advertising and economic structure on child obesity; further refinement of interventions to limit young children's exposure to commercial and violent television; and studies of how child obesity is framed and what effect that framing has on attempts to find solutions to the problems of poor diet and inadequate physical activity among children.

Professor Zimmerman teaches advanced quantitative methods in the Department's doctoral training program.

Dr. Zimmerman holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty he held positions at Stanford University and the University of Washington in Seattle. He has also been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley. The component of his research that revolves around the effects of early media exposure on child health and development has caught the attention of the popular press, and has been covered by NPR, the BBC, Good Morning America, the Today Show, The New York Times, and many other media outlets.

Selected Publications

Frederick J. Zimmerman, Janice F. Bell. Associations of Television Content Type and Obesity in Children. American Journal of Public Health 100(2):334-3240. February, 2010.

Frederick J. Zimmerman. Using Behavioral Economics to Promote Physical Activity. Preventive Medicine Oct; 49(4):289-91 (2009).

Frederick J. Zimmerman, Jill L. Gilkerson, Jeffrey Richards, Dimitri A. Christakis, DongXin Hu, Sharmistha Gray, Umit Yapanel. Teaching By Listening: The Importance of Adult-Child Conversations to Language Development. Pediatrics, 124(1) (2009).

Zimmerman FJ and Christakis DA. Associations between content types of early media exposure and subsequent attentional problems. Pediatrics 2007 Nov;120(5):986-92.

Zimmerman FJ, Christakis DA, Meltzoff AN. Associations Between Media Viewing and Language Development Among Children Under 2 Years Old Journal of Pediatrics 2007 Oct;151(4):364-8.

Zimmerman FJ, Christakis DA, Meltzoff AN. Media Viewing by Children Under 2 Years Old. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 2007 May; 161(5):473-479.

Zimmerman FJ. Agreeing on More than Chicken Soup: Intra-household Decision-Making and Treatment for Child Psychopathology. Review of Economics of the Household 4(3): 229-252. September, 2006.

Zimmerman FJ and Katon W. Socioeconomic Status, Depression Disparities, and Financial Hardship: What Lies Behind the Income – Depression Relationship? Health Economics 14(12): 2005.

Zimmerman FJ and Christakis DA. Children's Television Viewing and Cognitive Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis of National Data. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 159(7):619-625. July, 2005.

Zimmerman FJ, Glew GM, Christakis DA, Katon W. Early Cognitive Stimulation, Television Watching, and Subsequent Bullying Among Grade-School Children. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2005 159(4):354-388. (April)

Christakis DA, Zimmerman FJ, DiGiuseppe DL, McCarty CA. Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children. Pediatrics 2004 113(4).

Zimmerman FJ, Carter MR. Asset Smoothing, Consumption Smoothing and the Reproduction of Inequality under Risk and Subsistence Constraints. Journal of Development Economics 2003 (August) 71(2): 233-260.