Parental Media Mediation in Adolescence: A Comparative Study of Parent and Adolescent Reports

Abstract

Whether studies should rely on parent or child reports of parental mediation remains a much-debated question. We investigated the agreement between parent and adolescent reports of the frequency and style (autonomy-supportive, controlling, inconsistent) of restrictive and active mediation, and their relative validity. Results revealed perceptual differences, with parents reporting more autonomy-supportive mediation. With some exceptions, both parent and adolescent reports correlated with relevant criterion measures. Results suggest that parent and adolescent reports are equally valid to assess the frequency and style of mediation, and that both reports should be considered to obtain a complete understanding of parents’ mediation efforts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This article is supported by a grant from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement AdG09 249488-ENTCHILD awarded to P.M.V, and by the Consortium on Individual Development. The Consortium on Individual Development is funded through the Gravitation program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO Grant 024.001.003).