A house divided: Parental disparity and conflict over media rules predict children's outcomes

Abstract

Research on restrictive mediation seldom considers whether parents work together to regulate their child's media use. As an initial investigation, one parent per family (an MTurk sample of 1201 US parents of 2- to 17-year-olds) completed an online survey reporting on consistency and conflict between themselves and their partner with regard to their child's media restrictions. When one parent was more restrictive than the other, participants reported more inter-parent conflict about media rules and more child exposure to media violence. These two variables in turn predicted the child's physical and relational aggression, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. When both parents were highly restrictive, there was less conflict and exposure to media violence, which predicted lower levels of all four negative outcomes. Rule disparities and media-related conflict did not vary by child's age.