Parental Mediation of Children's Video Game Playing: Active Mediation and Co-Playing Produce Positive Outcomes

Abstract

Current studies show that video game playing results in negative impacts to children. These negative impacts include game addiction, online risks, and exposure to child-inappropriate content. Studies also show that parents play a significant role in mitigating these negative impacts by applying strategies such as monitoring and supervision of children in their use of video games. This case study aimed to determine specific strategies adopted by parents to mediate their children's video game playing and find out what their outcomes are. In-depth interviews with parents of children aged 7–14 revealed that they generally had negative perceptions of video games. These negative perceptions resulted to either restrictive or active mediation or a combination of both. Parents' time with their children and the place where their children played have been found as significant predictors of mediation. Moreover, the strategies informants used to manage their children's video game playing resulted in more positive than negative outcomes. Those who engaged in active mediation and co-playing established good parentchild relationship and led to children's obedience to rules. Restrictive mediation either had positive or negative outcomes. The most common negative outcomes were parent-child conflict and children's disobedience to the rules their parents laid out to limit their video game playing.