Minding Children’s Media Morals: Parents’ Moral Foundation Salience Differentially Relates to Attitudes and Motivations Toward Children’s Educational Media

Abstract

ABSTRACT Guided by Moral Foundations Theory and the Model of Intuitive Morality and Exemplars (MIME), we examined the relationships between parents’ moral foundation salience and their attitudes and motivations toward using educational media with their young children (N = 449; child ages 4–7 years). Although research has shown that individuals’ moral foundation salience predicts their own liking and selection of media, research has not considered these processes across parents and their children. Results showed distinct patterns of relationships between parents’ different moral foundation saliences and their attitudes and motivations toward using educational media with their young children. Specifically, care and fairness were positively related to attitudes toward children’s educational media. Additionally, care, fairness, and authority were each positively related to parents’ motivations to use media with their children for educational benefits. Finally, care was related to more positive attitudes toward educational media, relative to entertainment media, whereas loyalty and authority were related to more positive attitudes toward entertainment media, relative to educational media. In this way, we extend the MIME by showing that parents’ moral saliences can relate to how parents think about the media use of their children, with practical implications for the media ecology of the home.