Poster #236 - Parental Media Monitoring Style’s Role in Adolescents' Media Disclosure, Secrecy, and Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

Background. For adolescents, media use is a full-time job (Rideout, 2016) that has been associated with both prosocial and aggressive behavior (Krahé, Busching, & Möller, 2012). Parents use a variety of media monitoring methods during adolescence, and these efforts tend to be related to positive behavioral outcomes and decreased negative effects of media on adolescent behavior (Collier et al., 2016; Padilla-Walker, Coyne, Kroff, & Memmott-Elison, 2018). Significant changes in children’s need for autonomy during adolescence explain the central role that adolescent disclosure plays in parental knowledge or monitoring.
The current study explores the links between active and restrictive parental media monitoring and adolescent behaviors via adolescents’ levels of media disclosure and secrecy. Given research suggesting that restrictive media monitoring is less effective as adolescents get older (e.g., Nathanson & Cantor, 2000), we explored age (early, middle, and late adolescence) as a moderator of these associations and expected that autonomy-controlling approaches to parental media monitoring might have even stronger negative effects as adolescents get older.

Method. Participants were taken from a national sample of teenagers who participated in an on-line Project MEDIA survey. Adolescents were recruited from a larger study of media use in children ages 10-20 (N = 1,072). The current sample consisted of 945 adolescents ages 10-18 (49% female), with equal participants at each age (n = 105), allowing us to conduct analyses for early (ages 10-12), middle (ages 13-15) and late (16-18) adolescents. Participants were recruited via Qualtrics (a U.S. research firm that collects data for researcher corporations). Participants were given a brief online survey.

Results. A structural equation model using AMOS software was constructed to examine the relations between the styles of media monitoring as they related to adolescents’ media disclosure, secrecy, prosocial behavior, and relational aggression. The final model fit was good Χ2(71) = 120.88, p > .05, CFI = .96, RMSEA = .03. Results suggested that autonomy supportive active (p < .001) and restrictive monitoring (p < .001) were associated with higher levels of media disclosure and lower levels of media secrecy (active only) (p = .01). Controlling active (p < .001) and restrictive monitoring (p < .001) were associated with higher levels of media secrecy. Media disclosure was associated with more prosocial behavior toward family (p < .001) and media secrecy was associated with less prosocial behavior toward family (p = .002) and more relational aggression (p < .001).

Discussion. Adolescents consume media daily, but research has found parental media monitoring to effectively mitigate some negative effects (and enhance positive effects) of media on adolescent behaviors. Results from the current study suggest that the media monitoring strategies employed by parents may influence the amount of voluntary media disclosure adolescents engage in with their parents and the amount of media related secrets they keep from their parents. Additionally, the patterns of findings in the current study did not vary as a function of adolescent age, suggesting that autonomy supportive approaches to parental media monitoring are more effective than controlling approaches from early to late adolescence.

Authors

• Sara Catherine Stinnett, Brigham Young University
  Presenting Author

• Laura M Padilla-Walker, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Stockdale, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daye Son, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Coyne, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author