Parental Influence on Youth Media Use

Children and adolescents are frequent media users and research regularly examines the consequences of such use. This research, however, often does not examine parental factors relating to youth media use. Framed by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study examines the role of media in the child’s ecological system by describing how parent attitudes, behaviors, and own personal media use are related to child media use. This study used data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents of 8- to 18-year-olds (N = 1819). This study documented that parents’ attitudes toward technology are mixed, suggesting that while parents are worried about certain aspects of technology use, they also see the positive outcomes of use for both their children and their own lives as parents. Further, the data indicated that parents of children and adolescents were heavy and regular media users themselves and that parent media use and media attitudes were strongly related to youth media use, even during adolescent years. These findings shed light on youth media use and suggest that, to fully understand media use among young people, researchers must also consider how parent factors influence the media ecology of the child’s home environment.