Parental Media Mediation Styles

Shari Barkin, MD, Edward Ip, PhD, Stacia Finch, MA, Eric Slora, PhD and Richard Wasserman, MD. ¹ Pediatrics, WFUSM, W-S, NC, United States, 27157; ² Department of Public Health Sciences, WFUSM, W-S, NC, United States, 27157; ³ PROS, CCHR; AAP, Elk Grove Village, IL, United States, 60007; ⁴ Primary Care Research, CCHR; AAP, Elk Grove Village, IL, United States, 60007 and ⁵ Pediatrics, University of Vermont;CCHR; AAP, Burlington, VT, United States, 05401.

 

Background: Studies indicate that children use media (TV, video, computer) more than 2 hours/day, but little is known about parent?s role in mediating their children?s media use.

 

Objective: To examine parental media mediation styles for children ages 2-11 years.

 

Design/Methods: Parents seen in PROS practices from 27 states, Canada and Puerto Rico participated in an office-based survey during well child exams of children 2-11 years of age (N=1,544). Data were collected on demographics, reported media behaviors, parental knowledge about media effects, and parental concern. Three survey items assessing parental strategies for media use were used to derive a media mediation scale (MMS), which served as the outcome of interest. These questions asked how often the parent restricted use, explained content, or allowed unlimited media use. The MMS ranged from 4-12 with higher numbers indicating more active mediation. We examined descriptive statistics and then conducted a multiple linear regression model to examine potential predictors of mediation styles.

 

Results: More than 75% of parents reported a single mediation style: 30% restrictive, 17% explanatory, and 30% allowing unlimited media use. Only 23% reported using multiple styles. The MMS had a mean of 8.8 with a standard deviation of 1.7. Active parental mediation was associated with younger children (ages 2-5, p<0.01), increased parental concern about media exposure (p<0.001), and increased knowledge that media exposure can influence children?s behavior (p<0.0001). More passive mediation occurred with parents who had less than a college education (p<0.03), had a poorer relationship with their child (p<0.001) and were Latino or African-American (p<0.001). Mother as primary decision maker, number of children and adults in the home were not statistically significant.

 

Conclusions: Parents play a key role in shaping how their children utilize the media. Our data suggest that families with lower maternal education and who have a Latino or African-American ethnicity might need more support to develop active media mediation strategies. Moreover, pediatric providers should consider identifying parental media concerns to discuss media use.