Aspects of the Family and Children's Television Viewing Content Preferences

Abstract

TANGNEY, JUNE PRICE. Aspects of the Family and Children's Television Viewing Content Preferences. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 1070-1079. Previous research indicates that parent-child conflict and dysfunctional parenting attitudes are related to heavy television viewing among offspring. More specific aspects of viewing behavior, however, remain unaddressed. In 2 samples of upperelementary school-aged white children, the relations of children's television content preferences to children's perceptions of parent-child conflict and parents' child-rearing attitudes were examined. Results indicated that parental empathy, sensitivity, and adaptive role expectations were inversely related to children's preference for fantasy-oriented content and children's programming, particularly among males. Parental supervision of children's television viewing behavior did not appear to mediate the relation between dysfunctional parenting attitudes and children's viewing patterns, but a number of alternative interpretations of these results are entertained. Regardless of the causal nature of the observed relations, these results raise concerns regarding potential developmental effects of such viewing patterns for children already disadvantaged by virtue of dysfunctional parent-child relationships.