title: Parental mediation of media messages does matter: more interaction about objectionable content is associated with emerging adults' sexual attitudes and behaviors.
abstract: An online survey of undergraduates explored the effects of recalled parent-child interaction regarding media on their critical thinking skills, beliefs about alcohol and sex, and current reports of attitudes and risky sexual behaviors. Students from a northwestern university completed the questionnaire three times during the fall of 2011. Effective parental mediation was found to be a protective factor against the negative effects of objectionable content on sexual attitudes and behaviors through its effect on critical thinking toward media content and expectancies. Participants whose parents critiqued media portrayals reported a higher level of critical thinking. More critical orientation toward media decreased the effects of objectionable content on expectancies and sexual behaviors. On the other hand, participants whose parents endorsed media portrayals reported lower levels of critical thinking. Developing critical thinking toward media is an effective approach to helping young people make good decisions about their health. Although viewers' understanding of media content may be biased by the emotional aspect of decision making, critical thinking was shown to decrease the appeal of mediated messages on behaviors. Parents play an important role in developing children's critical thinking skills, and those who mediate their children's media use can establish behaviors that will prove beneficial to their children later in life.
authors.affiliation: a Ecole des Sciences de la Gestion , Université du Quebec à Montréal.
authors.forename: Marie Louise
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Radanielina-Hita
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D003146:Communications Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015205:Northwestern United States; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult