Differences in Parental Involvement and Perception of Video Games: A Pilot Study on American-Born and Immigrant Parents

Abstract

As more and more students from diverse families populate 21st century classrooms, the need for more culturally sensitive pedagogical approaches intensifies. Although literature suggests that differences of parenting styles between immigrant and native-born American parents will influence children’s learning, classroom teaching, and policy making, little is known about whether there is any difference in parental involvement in the video game process and parental perceptions of integrating video games into the regular classroom. In this aspect, an online survey was conducted. Consistent with our hypotheses, although the sampled native parents were more likely to hold an overall negative attitude toward violence in games, they were less worried about the integration of video games in the classroom than immigrant parents were. Results also suggested that the sampled immigrant parents were less involved in the game playing process than their counterpart native-born parents were. Additional correlation analyses revealed that if parents held more negative attitudes toward social effects brought on by the violence in video games, they would most likely use stricter mediation techniques toward their children’s video game playing. On the other hand, the more negative the attitude was, the more involved parents were in their children’s gameplay. Implications, limitations and future research opportunities were discussed.