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The Protective Role of Parental Media Monitoring Style from Early to Late Adolescence

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Abstract

The goal of the current study was to examine the protective role that maternal media monitoring might have for adolescents. This was done by considering whether styles of media monitoring either directly reduced media use, or whether they buffered the associations between aggressive media use and adolescents’ prosocial behavior, aggression, and delinquency. Participants were 681 adolescents from two cities in the United States (51% female; 73% white), and their mothers, who provided data at two different time points, 2 years apart (when adolescents were roughly ages 13 and 15). Mixture modeling results revealed that mothers used four different styles of media monitoring made up of combinations of active and restrictive monitoring as well as forms of co-use. Styles that included active monitoring and connective co-use (i.e., engaging in media with the intent to connect with children) were directly associated with less media use, and moderated links between adolescents’ media use and behavioral outcomes concurrently but not longitudinally. The discussion was focused on the strength of considering multiple strategies of media monitoring together, and how this approach can inform future research in the area of parental media monitoring.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Family Studies Center at BYU, the School of Family Life, and the College of Family Home and Social Science at BYU, and we recognize the generous support of the many private donors who provided support for this project. We also thank those families who were willing to spend valuable hours with our team in interviews, and the many students who assisted in conducting the interviews.

Authors’ Contributions

L.P.W. conceived of the study, organized its design and coordination, performed the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript. S.C. participated in the design of the study and helped to draft the manuscript. S.K. and M.M.E. helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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  1. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602, USA

    Laura M. Padilla-Walker, Sarah M. Coyne, Savannah L. Kroff & Madison K. Memmott-Elison

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  1. Laura M. Padilla-Walker
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  2. Sarah M. Coyne
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  3. Savannah L. Kroff
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  4. Madison K. Memmott-Elison
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Correspondence to Laura M. Padilla-Walker.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Padilla-Walker, L.M., Coyne, S.M., Kroff, S.L. et al. The Protective Role of Parental Media Monitoring Style from Early to Late Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 47, 445–459 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0722-4

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