Reciprocal Relationships Between Friends’ and Parental Mediation of Adolescents’ Media Use and Their Sexual Attitudes and Behavior

Research has argued that adolescents are at risk for harmful effects of sexual media, but little is known about the role of parents and friends on adolescents’ media use in regard of these effects. The present two-wave study investigated whether prior parental and friends’ influences on adolescents’ use of sexual media shape their sexual attitudes and behaviors, and vice versa if prior sexual attitudes and behaviors predict parental and friends’ media mediation. At two measurement points 18 months apart, 528 adolescents (12–17 years; 51.3 % girls) reported on permissive sexual attitudes, sexual experience, perceived parental and friends’ mediation of sexual media use, and communication with parents and friends about sex. Structural Equation Modeling shows that parents’ mediation activities on adolescents’ media use were not followed by less sexual experience and less permissive attitudes. On the contrary, parental restrictive mediation of girls’ media use unexpectedly was followed by somewhat more sexual experience. Friends’ interventions with media use did not predict adolescents’ sexual experience and attitudes neither. Inverse relationships showed that prior sexual experience was followed by less restrictive parental mediation among boys, and both among boys and girls that permissive sexual attitudes were followed by less restrictive and less active parental mediation. At the same time, sexually more experienced and more permissive boys and girls did report more media pressure from and sexual communication with their friends later on. Our study thus indicates that the opposite agent roles of parents and friends for adolescents also applies to their usage of sexual media.     

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

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.     

Buffer or Brake? The Role of Sexuality-Specific Parenting in Adolescents’ Sexualized Media Consumption and Sexual Development

One main source of sexual socialization lies within family interactions. Especially sexuality-specific parenting may determine adolescents’ sexual development—adolescents’ sexual behavior and sexual risk behavior, sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes—to a significant extent, but different ideas exist about how this works. In this longitudinal study, we examined two hypotheses on how sexuality-specific parenting—parenting aimed specifically at children’s sexual attitudes and behaviors—relates to adolescents’ sexual development. A first buffer hypothesis states that parents’ instructive media discussions with their children—called instructive mediation—buffers the effect of sexualized media consumption on adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behavior and, vice versa, the effect of adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behavior on sexualized media consumption. A second brake hypothesis states that parents, by communicating love-and-respect oriented sexual norms, slow down adolescents’ development toward increased sexualized media use, permissive sexual attitudes, and sexual behavior and sexual risk behavior. Using four-wave longitudinal data from 514 Dutch adolescents aged 13–16 years (49.8% female), we found evidence to support a brake effect. More frequent parental communication of love-and-respect oriented sexual norms was associated with less permissive sexual attitudes and, for boys, with less advanced sexual behavior and a less rapid increase in sexual risk behavior. Parents’ instructive mediation regarding adolescents’ sexualized media consumption was associated with less permissive sexual attitudes at baseline, but only for girls. No systematic evidence emerged for a buffer effect of parents’ instructive mediation. In conclusion, although our data seem to suggest that parent–child communication about sex is oftentimes “after the fact”, we also find that more directive parental communication that conveys love-and-respect oriented sexual norms brake adolescents’ move toward sexual maturity.     

Adolescents' uses of media for self-socialization

The emphasis of this paper is on the role of media in the socialization of adolescents. First, a typology of adolescent media uses is presented, including entertainment, identity formation, high sensation, coping, and youth culture identification. Then, these five uses are discussed in relation to adolescent socialization. The central point of this discussion is that media differ from socializing agents such as family, school, community, and the legal system in that adolescents have greater control over their media choices than they do over their socialization from these other sources. The result is a substantial degree of self-socialization, in the sense that adolescents may choose from a diverse range of media materials the ones that best suit their individual preferences and personalities. Another result is that there is often a lack of integration in the socialization of adolescents, in the sense that they may receive different socialization messages from media (and peers) than they do from the adult socializes in their immediate environment.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the fifth biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, Califormia, February 10–13, 1994.Received Ph.D. from University of Virginia. Research interests include adolescent reckless behavior, adolescents' uses of media, and the transition to adulthood.     

Secrets in the bedroom: Adolescents' private use of media

This essay discusses the functions of solitary media use within the ongoing daily emotional lives of adolescents. I review evidence suggesting that adolescents find in solitary TV watching and especially music listening, the opportunity, first, to cultivate a newly discovered private self: teens use media to explore numerous possible selves including those that are desired and feared. Second, I propose that solitary media experiences provide adolescents an important context for dealing with stress and negative emotion. Popular music listening allows adolescents to internalize strong emotional images around which a temporary sense of self can cohere.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the fifth biennial meetings of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, California, February 10–13, 1994. Much of the research upon which this paper is based was funded by NIMH grant No. 1 R01 MH38324 awarded to Reed Larson and Maryse Richards.Received his Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. Research focuses on the temporal and emotional organization of daily life, especially in adolescence and within adolescents' families.     

Adolescent Social Media Use: Pitfalls and Promises in Relation to Cybervictimization,Friend Support,and Depressive Symptoms

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The saturation of social media use in adolescents’ lives has raised questions about both the risks and positive outcomes that may be associated with use....     

Parenting Behaviors and Family Conflict as Predictors of Adolescent Sleep and Bedtime Media Use

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Inadequate sleep in adolescents has been linked to an increase in screen-based media use, especially at bedtime. Parents can play a critical role in regulating...     

Adolescents' use of socially disvalued media: Towards a theory of media delinquency

This article essentially addresses one specific question: Why do some adolescents actively and sometimes flauntingly use socially disvalued media contents? Using the empirical examples of use of heavy metal rock and video violence, particular emphasis is first placed on the role of the school as a generating context for both delinquency and (popular) cultural dispositions. Second, by combining these parallel fields of inquiry, a theory of “media delinquency” is proposed that places the use of socially disvalued media within a wider theoretical context of adolescent development.     

The Effects of Media Violence on Anxiety in Late Adolescence

Exposure to media violence is related to anxiety in youth, but the causality of the effect has not been established. This experimental study examined the effects of media violence on anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate in late adolescents. We also examined whether these responses varied by previous exposure to media and real-life violence. College students (N = 209; M age = 18.74; 75 % female; 50 % Caucasian, 34 % African American, 9 % Asian, 3 % Hispanic, and 3 % other racial minorities) were randomized to view either violent or nonviolent high-action movie clips. Participants reported on their anxiety before and after watching the clips, as well as their previous exposure to violence. Measures of blood pressure and heart rate were taken at baseline and during movie viewing. Participants watching violent movie clips showed a greater anxiety increase than those watching nonviolent clips. Both groups experienced increased blood pressure and reduced heart rate during movie watching compared to baseline. Prior exposure to media violence was associated with diminished heart rate response. Additionally, students previously exposed to high levels of real-life violence showed lower blood pressure increases when watching violent clips compared to nonviolent clips. Thus, relatively brief exposure to violent movie clips increased anxiety among late adolescents. Prior exposure to media and real-life violence were associated with lower physiological reactivity to high-action and violent movies, respectively, possibly indicating desensitization. Future studies should investigate long-term anxiety and physiological consequences of regular exposure to media violence in adolescence.     

Examining Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem Among Biracial and Monoracial Adolescents

The psychological well-being and ethnic identity of biracial adolescents are largely underrepresented topics in current scholarly literature, despite the growing population of biracial and multiracial individuals in the United States. This study examined self-esteem, ethnic identity, and the relationship between these constructs among biracial and monoracial adolescents (n = 3282). Using analysis of covariance, significant differences emerged between biracial and monoracial adolescents on both a measure of self-esteem and a measure of ethnic identity. Specifically, biracial adolescents showed significantly higher levels of self-esteem than their Asian counterparts, but significantly lower self-esteem than Black adolescents. Furthermore, biracial adolescents scored significantly higher than Whites on a measure of ethnic identity, but scored lower than their Black, Asian, and Latino peers on the same measure. Finally, correlational analyses revealed a significant and positive relationship between ethnic identity and self-esteem for all groups.     

Inner City Youth and Drug Dealing: A Review of the Problem

Reviewed existing literature on drug dealing and inner city adolescents that underscores a serious and worsening problem. Around one in six urban adolescents have had some involvement in drug dealing, with rates even higher for African-American males over 16. For inner city teenagers, there are a range of problems associated with drug dealing, including juvenile arrest, involvement in violence (as victims and perpetrators), substance abuse, behavioral and emotional difficulties, academic failure and dropout. In terms of etiology, three influences have received the most attention: family dysfunction, economic factors, and perceptions of drug dealing that promote involvement in it. In general, there is limited recognition of the severity of the problem of drug dealing and inner city adolescents, corresponding to an almost total lack of efforts to prevent or address it. Efforts are needed at individual, family, group, school, community, and mass media levels to address this serious and escalating problem.     

Beyond effects: Adolescents as active media users

This is an overview of the special Issue, Adolescents Uses of Media. The articles in the special issue are described as taking the uses and gratifications approach, which emphasizes that people make choices about the media they consume and that people differ in their interpretations of media content. The common goal of the articles is to integrate this approach with developmental perspectives on adolescence. Common themes include adolescents as active media users, the developmental context of adolescence, the cultural context of media use, and integrative and innovative methodological approaches.Received Ph.D. from University of Virginia. Research interests include adolescent reckless behavior, adolescents' uses of media, and the transition to adulthood.Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago.     

A Cross-National Study Examining the Role of Executive Function and Emotion Regulation in the Relationship between Children’s Television Exposure and Consumer Behavior

Across industrialized nations, children and teens are a highly prized target for the advertising industry because young people have a tremendous influence on family purchases; however, media scholars have long suggested that young people are a fundamentally vulnerable audience because they lack the necessary developmental competencies to adequately process and protect themselves from advertising communications. Yet, the precise developmental mechanisms have not been clearly articulated nor is there a clear understanding of how these competencies extend across childhood contexts (e.g., developmental phase, cultures). The current study seeks to lend clarity to this matter by looking at the potential influence that children’s executive function and emotion regulation have on the relationship between television exposure (as a proxy of exposure to advertising messages and other consumption-oriented media content) and consumer behavior across a broad range of ages from two wealthy industrialized countries. Mothers of young elementary school children (5–8 years) and early adolescents (9–12 years) in the Netherlands (N?=?333, 51.7% female child) and the United States of America (N?=?810, 49.6% female child) took part in an online survey to report on their child’s cognitive/affective development, media use, and consumer behavior (i.e., purchase requests, purchase related conflict). The results showed that across ages, executive function via attentional shifting moderated the link between purchase requests and purchase conflict, whereas positively valenced emotion regulation moderated the same relationship but only for older children. Lastly, the findings revealed that while there are differences in reported behavior among children in these two countries, the developmental processes tend to work in the same manner. The discussion focuses on what these findings mean for children’s consumer development as they approach adolescence and how researchers and child advocates should take these developmental factors into account when considering children’s potential vulnerability as consumers.

     

How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

Although media exposure has been related to cognitive preoccupation with appearance, research rarely investigated adolescents’ behavioral self-sexualization. To address this gap, the present study among 12- to 16-year-olds (N?=?1527; 50.2% girls) in Austria, Belgium, Spain, and South-Korea (1) investigates whether different types of media use relate to self-sexualization, (2) explores the explanatory value of rewarded appearance ideals, and (3) considers culture and gender as moderating factors. Despite cultural variation, a general trend of increasing self-sexualization with social media use and magazine reading appeared across the countries. Moreover, women’s magazine reading and rewards were related to self-sexualization among all the girls across the countries, which suggests that girls may be more vulnerable to the examined effects. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of the unique contribution of specific media genres to youth’s self-sexualization and points at the importance of social media use in girls’ and boys’ engagement in sexualizing appearance behaviors across four countries.     

Changing channels: Early adolescent media choices and shifting investments in family and friends

The decline in TV viewing and increase in music listening associated with the onset of adolescence is examined in terms of the changing social ecology of adolescents' daily lives. Fifth to 9th graders provided self-reports on random moments in their experience over one week. These data suggest that less frequent TV watching by adolescents, as compared to preadolescents, is attributable to a decrease in TV watching done with the family, particularly on weekend mornings and evenings. Adolescents who do watch more TV are those who spend more time with the family overall. In contrast, adolescents who frequently listen to music are those who spend more time with friends. It is argued that the partial shift from television to music during adolescence represents a shift from a medium that reinforces parental values to one that reinforces peer values and speaks to adolescent developmental tasks.This research was carried out at Michael Reese Hospital with a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (No. MH38324).Received Ph.D. from the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago. Research focuses on daily experience across the life span.Received his doctorate from the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago. Research focuses on how and why mass media industries shape media content as they do, and how, in turn, mass media content is used and experienced in everyday life.Research interests are in the areas of depression and the processes of death and dying. Currently developing a method of investigation utilizing the hermeneutic and human sciences paradigm.     

Achievement of autonomy by nonhandicapped and mildly learning handicapped adolescents

This study examines the achievement of autonomy by a sample of 30 midly learning handicapped and 30 nonhandicapped adolescents. From participant observation over the course of a school year, a detailed account was obtained about the life of each subject, both in the home and among friends outside the home. Findings suggest that autonomy is achieved through a gradual process of negotiation during the high school years. The mildly handicapped adolescents generally lag behind their regular education counterparts in breaking away from the family. While almost three-fourths of the nonhandicapped sample had made significant gains toward increased freedom, less than half of the mildly handicapped sample had shed close supervision by parents. However, most of the handicapped adolescents were satisfied with the limited freedom they had. The data suggest that autonomy should be understood as relative to the needs and abilities of each individual. Not all adolescents develop at the same pace; not all feel the same desire to assert their independence from their parents when they reach a particular age.This research was supported by Grant HD23097 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.Received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. Current interest is the adjustment problems of mildly learning handicapped adolescents.Received her Ed.D. from Columbia University. Current interest is social competence of mildly learning handicapped populations and family adjustment.     

The Association Between Parental Rearing Dimensions and Adolescent Psychopathology: A Cross-Cultural Study

Research on parental rearing dimensions faced ethnocentric criticism for mainly focusing on adolescents in Western industrialized countries. Over the past decade, the phenomenon of anxious parenting, so called “helicopter parenting”, gained attention in popular media as well as scholarly publications in addition to support and psychological control. Whether these parenting dimensions, which were associated with different health outcomes in adolescents, were only occurring in the Western world or are visible cross-culturally, has not been sufficiently studied. Therefore, it is unclear whether these links exist also for adolescents from other parts of the world. Additionally, the involvement of fathers in child rearing continues to be neglected in adolescent psychopathology research. The current cross-cultural study tested the association of maternal and paternal rearing dimensions with youth internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in a sample of 2415 adolescents (56% female, 15.33 years, SD?=?0.61) from eight countries (Argentina, France, Germany, Greece, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, and Turkey). Hierarchical regression models showed that internalizing symptomatology was associated with mothers’ support, psychological control, and anxious rearing as well as fathers’ psychological control up and above predictors like country and mother’s level of education. For predicting externalizing symptomatology, mother’s anxious rearing, mother’s psychological control, and father’s support as well as father’s psychological control were significant up and above adolescents’ gender, standard of living, and country. To conclude, across countries, anxious rearing and psychological control experienced from both parents were substantially linked with adolescent mental health.

     

Depression as a Moderator of Sociocultural Influences on Eating Disorder Symptoms in Adolescent Females and Males

This study aimed to explore the role of depression as a moderator of sociocultural influences on eating disorder symptoms. A sample of 509 adolescents (56% female) completed self-report questionnaires assessing depression, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms and sociocultural influences on appearance from family, peers and the media. Both girls and boys displaying high levels of depressive symptoms perceived stronger media and peer influences on appearance. Among girls, eating disorder symptoms were directly affected by sociocultural influences, in particular media influences, as well as by depression. However, depression played only a limited role as a moderator of these relationships. Among boys, sociocultural influences and depression revealed fewer direct effects on eating disorder symptoms. However, depression had a greater moderating effect on these relationships. Future research into the role of depression may increase the understanding of gender differences in body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness and bulimic symptoms.     

“The mosque and the satellite”: Media and adolescence in a Moroccan town

The exposure of young people in a semirural Moroccan town to a variety of Western, Middle Eastern, and locally produced media increased rapidly during the 1980s, a period of rapid social change. Media images included economic affluence, relatively free sexual behavior, and nontraditional social roles for females. Data collected mainly in 1982 reveal relationships between media exposure and adolescents' use of media images in their social behavior, choice of mate, and career aspirations. Male adolescents were exposed to more Western media and were able to develop a more individual taste, but both sexes appeared eager to reconcile traditional Islamic and contemporary media-relayed values.This research was carried out with support from the National Institutes of Health and The William T. Grant Foundation to Harvard University, and with a Fulbright grant to Susan S. Davis.Received Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of Michigan. Research interests include gender role development, and Moroccan society.Received, Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Michigan. Research interests include personality development and Moroccan society.     

The Role of Perceived Stress and Self-Efficacy in Young People’s Life Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study

Life satisfaction is an important indicator of successful development. However, adolescents’ life satisfaction tends to be relatively unsteady, and environmental influences play a critical role in shaping life satisfaction among adolescents in the transition to young adulthood. Given the paramount importance that education plays in adolescents’ lives, adolescents’ life satisfaction may vary as a function of school-related stress experience. At the same time, coping resources may help reduce adverse effects of stress on life satisfaction. With this in mind, we examined whether, and to what extent, perceived stress in education and general self-efficacy (a resource that facilitates coping) affect the life satisfaction of adolescents in transition to young adulthood. We distinguished between baseline levels of stress and self-efficacy and within-person change in stress and self-efficacy to determine whether life satisfaction is sensitive to fluctuations in stress and self-efficacy when person-specific levels of stress and self-efficacy are taken into account. Estimating growth curve models on data from a panel study on the life trajectories of compulsory-school leavers (n?=?5126, 55.3?% female), we found that baseline levels of stress and self-efficacy, as well as within-person change in stress and self-efficacy, affected adolescents’ life satisfaction. Moreover, our results showed that baseline self-efficacy mitigated the negative effect of baseline stress on life satisfaction. These findings improve our understanding of two major psychological determinants of adolescents’ life satisfaction and extend our knowledge of life satisfaction trajectories during the transition to young adulthood.