A Rutgers researcher said initial findings from a study offer “various compelling insights” into the process of socializing children to what they see on their screens
Grandparents can play a critical role in helping mediate their grandchildren’s media use and serve as an ally for their families, according to a Rutgers study.
Researchers found that grandparents often monitor media use by using strategies or instructions provided by another caregiver, most commonly the child's parents. The researchers coined this process "secondary mediation.”
"Our initial findings offer various compelling insights into this critical process of socializing children to media use," wrote the authors of the study, Dafna Lemish, a Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, and Galit Nimrod and Nelly Elias, both professors at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Are grandparents also engaged in mediating media use? Do they follow some rules set by the parents? Do they tend to ‘spoil’ their grandchildren by taking a more lenient approach to their media use?
Dafna Lemish
Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies, Rutgers School of Communication and Information
Based on the study, published in the Journal of Aging Studies, the authors suggested that mediation theory should be modified to include secondary mediation of other caregivers.
“Moreover, our findings are also highly relevant to the understanding of intergenerational relationships,” the authors wrote.
Their research is part of a larger study that may be the first to offer an in-depth investigation into the involvement of grandparents in mediating children's media use.
“There is a lot of research on how parents mediate the use of their children’s media by applying a variety of strategies, such as restricting the amount of screen time, supervising the content children are engaged with, actively discussing media use, and co-viewing and co-playing with them,” Lemish said. “But little attention has been paid to the role of grandparents who regularly care for their grandchildren. Are grandparents also engaged in mediating media use? Do they follow some rules set by the parents? Do they tend to ‘spoil’ their grandchildren by taking a more lenient approach to their media use? As a grandmother myself, I felt particularly drawn to these questions.”
Understanding the role grandparents play in mediating children’s media use is important, Lemish said, "because there is substantial evidence about the potential impact of media on children.”
Lemish added grandparents can help minimize the negative potential (violence, alienation, bullying, misinformation, commercial exploitation and gender and racial stereotypes) and maximize the positive potential (enrichment, learning, cognitive-social-emotional development and enjoyment).
It is also important that parents and grandparents share similar approaches to media use, reinforce each other, and avoid creating internal conflicts, Lemish said.
The authors said the degree to which grandmothers follow the requests from mothers or whether mothers listen to the advice provided by grandmothers "depends on a host of characteristics and circumstances and is not a straightforward application of rules transmitted from one caregiver to another."
Agree on what rules related to media consumption you would like to apply, and also on the circumstances when there could be some deviation from them.
Dafna Lemish
The researchers found it depends on the nature of the relationship between the mother and the grandmother, their experience and comfort with the media, their level of education and the time the grandmother spends caregiving for the grandchildren.
The researchers distinguished between noninteractive uses (watching films, YouTube videos and television programs on any screen) and interactive (playing digital games and online activities other than watching) and found that grandparents were more likely to mediate their grandchildren's exposure to noninteractive media.
To conduct the study, the researchers surveyed 267 pairs of grandmothers and mothers of 4- to 8-year-old children who agreed to participate in the study. The grandmothers were interviewed by phone and the mothers received an online link to the same survey.
“I recommend talking with each other about your views on the role of media in your children’s lives and create shared understanding and values about media consumption that takes into consideration the characteristics of the child, the circumstances; and the content of the media,” Lemish said. “Agree on what rules related to media consumption you would like to apply, and also on the circumstances when there could be some deviation from them.”
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