title: Does parental mediation of media influence child outcomes? A meta-analysis on media time, aggression, substance use, and sexual behavior.
abstract: The current study examined how parental mediation of media (restrictive mediation, active mediation, and coviewing) influenced child outcomes. Three meta-analyses, 1 for each type of mediation, were conducted on a total of 57 studies. Each analysis assessed the effectiveness of parental mediation on 4 pertinent child outcomes: media use, aggression, substance use, and sexual behavior. The overall results indicated small, but significant relationships between child outcomes and restrictive mediation (r+ = -.06), and coviewing (r+ = .09). Overall active mediation was nonsignificant, though active mediation was individually related to lower levels of aggression (r+ = -.08), sexual behavior (r+ = -.06), and substance use (r+ = -.11). This analysis revealed that parents may have the ability to mitigate some of the adverse effects of the media by using certain mediation strategies. Overall, a cooperative effort from the communication and parenting fields is necessary for a comprehensive analysis of parental mediation as well as a disentanglement of the various parental mediation measures. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.
authors.forename: Kevin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Collier
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.
authors.forename: Sarah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Coyne
authors.affiliation: College of Media & Communication, Texas Tech University.
authors.forename: Eric E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.
authors.forename: Laura M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Padilla-Walker
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.
authors.forename: Sage E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Erickson
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.
authors.forename: Madison K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Memmott-Elison
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D002648:Child; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D017008:Negotiating / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders