WHAT US PARENTS DON'T KNOW ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN'S TELEVISION USE

Abstract

Sixty‐eight US children (ages 7–9 and 11–13) and their parents were surveyed on the children's television viewing the preceding day, as well as their television habits in general. Both parents and children reported that the children watched about 3.5 hours of television on the preceding day. However, when reporting about the amount, content, and context of the television exposure, there were big discrepancies between parents' and children's reports. In general, children reported being less aware of television rules and watching more age inappropriate programs. In general, parents reported more frequent use of restrictive mediation compared to active mediation. Lower socioeconomic status (SES) parents reported less effort to actively mediate their children's television exposure compared to higher SES parents. Lower SES parents were also less likely than higher SES parents to acknowledge that their children were influenced by the television content. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords:

• children
• parental mediation
• parent–child communication
• parent involvement
• socioeconomic differences
• television influence
• television viewing

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Chelsea Cornelius and Elissa Lefort for assistance with participant recruitment, data collection, and data entry.