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Abstract
We conducted a random telephone survey of 182 parents to assess their reactions as well as their children's reactions to child kidnapping stories in the news. Children below age 13 experienced more fright-related feelings and more concern for their personal safety than adolescents did. Children who were heavy viewers of TV news also were more frightened. Parents rated themselves as more upset by the stories than their children were. Parents' fright responses and coping strategies were more prevalent among those who paid close attention to the high-profile news stories and those who regularly viewed TV series about missing persons. The findings are discussed in terms of cultivation theory and developmental differences in how children process information.
Notes
Barbara J. Wilson (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Professor and Head of the Department of Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Nicole Martins (M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a doctoral student in the same department. Amy L. Marske (M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a public school teacher in Libertyville, IL. We thank Jessica Akey and Erika Meadows for their help in questionnaire design and telephone interviewing. We also thank Allyson Bibart, Megan Connelly, Erika Iwanski, Samantha Kim, Laura Miller, Steven Pedigo, and Gina Tassio for their help in data collection. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the International Communication Association meeting in New Orleans, where it received a Top Paper Award in the Instructional and Developmental Division. Correspondence to: Barbara J. Wilson, Department of Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 244 Lincoln Hall, 702 S. Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801 USA. Tel: 217 333 2683;. Email: [email protected]
[1] In reality, our response rate is probably higher because many of the 411 people who refused to participate terminated the call before the study was fully introduced. Public opinion polling firms have reported that this is a pervasive problem at the national level because people often do not answer the phone or abruptly hang up if the call is from an unknown person, assuming it is a telemarketing pitch (El Boghdady, Citation2002). We cannot determine how many of these 411 households did not actually have children, so we are forced to include them as “active” numbers even though many of them presumably were not.
[2] All analyses were run using questionnaire version as a separate factor and no significant differences emerged in parental responses as a function of the ordering of questions. Therefore, results are reported without questionnaire version in the analyses.
[3] Parents spontaneously responded “yes” or “no” to this question and the subsequent question regarding whether their child had experienced any negative reactions to these stories. None of the parents said they were unsure or didn't know the answer to either question.
[4] For all log-linear analyses, estimates of variance accounted for are based on the log-linear analog to Cramer's (V*) measure of association (Marascuilo & Levin, Citation1983).
[5] The 34 children who were not aware of the child kidnapping stories were excluded from all further analyses.
[6] Three parents (2%) said they “didn't know” in response to this forced-choice question.
[7] Two random orderings of these response options were counterbalanced across interviews.