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Article Excerpt
Children and adolescents have televisions in their bedrooms at the discretion of their parents. Parents often hand down an old set when they purchase a new one. Handing down televisions is not only expedient and frugal, it could also bring about perceived benefits: Conflict over program choices could be reduced, the noise and activity associated with children's programs, movies, and video games could be lessened, and parents' discretionary use of family living space could improve as children spend more time in bedrooms. Although reasons for placing televisions in children's bedrooms no doubt vary across households, research indicates that the practice is now commonplace: Seventy-five percent of U.S. households have three or more televisions (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005); at least one-third of children younger than age 11 (Christakis, Ebee, Rivara, & Zimmerman, 2004; Dennison, Erb, & Jenkins, 2002), and at least two-thirds of children ages 11 to 14 have a bedroom television (Roberts et al., 2005). Indeed, Rideout, Vandewater, & Wartella (2003) reported that 26% of children under 2 years old had bedroom televisions.
Contemporary media offer adolescents an increasingly varied array of media choices, yet television still accounts for the majority of adolescents' media use. Roberts et al. (2005) found that the average amount of time young people spend viewing television programs remained constant between 1999 and 2004, at just more than 4 hours per day. Rather than reducing their television use as new media have become available, adolescents have increased their total daily media use (Roberts et al.). Television is also a required vehicle for viewing other primary screen media, including recorded movies and videos. The average amount of time 8- to 18-year-olds spend watching these television-dependent media (1 hr., 11 min. daily) plus their average daily consumption of television programs (3 hr., 4 min.) sum to 4.25 hours daily. Thus, 65% of adolescents' total daily media use is attributable to television (Roberts et al.). The remaining 35% comprises primarily use of video games (another medium that often requires a television-linked game system), and also use of audio and print media.
In this study, there were three goals. First, to describe the media use practices of adolescents with and without a television in their bedrooms; second, to examine prospective associations between bedroom television status and adolescent risk behaviors; and third, to test parental engagement as a moderator of this expected association.
Background
Previous studies indicate that adolescents who have a bedroom television watch more television than peers without one (Christakis et al., 2004; Dennison et al., 2002; Roberts et al., 2005; Wiecha, Sobol, Peterson, & Gortmaker, 2001), are more likely to report isolated television viewing (Larson, 1995; Roberts et al.), and are more likely than peers without one to live in what Roberts et al. call "high TV orientation" homes, where at least one television is on constantly, where a television is usually on during meals, and where there are no family rules about watching television. Research has also shown that parents, in general, provide less oversight of television viewing as children get older (Roberts et al.; Schmitt, 2000) and that parents living in high TV orientation homes provide less oversight than other parents (Roberts et al.).
The first goal of the present study was to contribute to current descriptive knowledge of the media use practices of adolescents with and without bedroom televisions. To achieve this goal, adolescents with and without bedroom televisions were asked to report at baseline on their perceived uses of watching television, personal identification with teenaged actors, parental oversight of their media use, and exposure to programs or recorded movies with mature content. This component of the study was not hypothesis driven, but exploratory; the purpose was to expand what is known about the ways in which adolescents' media use practices covary with bedroom television status.
The second goal of this study was to test whether bedroom television status is related with how young adolescents are socialized. Socialization is the process through which people learn specific normative beliefs, values, and behaviors (Hartup, 1983; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). There is compelling evidence that media exposure plays an important role in socialization (Brown & Cantor, 2000; Roberts & Christenson, 2000; Strasburger & Donnerstein, 1999; Strasburger & Wilson, 2002; Villani, 2001). Roberts and Christianson (2000) state that hundreds of experimental studies
leave little doubt that exposure to media content causally contributes to knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors related to the content portrayed. Arguably, most scholars engaged in research on the influence of media on children and adolescents concur that mass media are among the most important socialization agents influencing today's youth. (p. 3)
In a report from a consensus conference on media and youth, Brown and Cantor (2000) noted that there is evidence of profound media influences in many areas of adolescents' health and welfare, including aggression, sexual behavior, substance use, body image, and civic engagement.
Although a number of theories have been used to explain the role of media in socialization, social learning theory and its derivative social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986; 2002) have been most widely applied. The general premise of social learning theory is that virtually all cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning from direct experience can also be achieved vicariously, through observation of modeled attitudes and behaviors, such as those appearing in television programs. According to social learning theory, neither people nor media are inherently more informative, credible, or persuasive, as people attend to whatever sources of information might be useful. In applying the principles of social learning theory to explain media effects specifically, Bandura (2002) argued that frequent media users are more likely than less frequent users to perceive the "social construction of reality" depicted by media as authentic; that by demonstration or description, media can instruct people about new ways of thinking and behaving, and that media-based models can exemplify, legitimate, and motivate adoption of new behaviors.
Social learning theory emphasizes the importance of contextual variables that influence the extent to which media portrayals will be attended to and incorporated in a viewer's own behavior. Imitation of behavior is more likely when appealing characters are shown engaging in behavior that is perceived as relevant and rewarding. For young people, status conferral (e.g., the young cigarette smoker is depicted as cool and admired by peers) is an important reward cue (Austin, 1995). Depicted behavior that is punished or not rewarded is less likely to be learned and/or imitated. Social learning theory would predict, for example, that if adolescents who engage in smoking or sexual behavior are depicted on television as ostracized by peers or as suffering negative health consequences, young viewers would be less likely to engage in such behavior themselves. Content analyses, however, have established that adolescents on television rarely suffer negative outcomes from risky health behaviors (Kunkel et al., 2007; Wilson et al., 2002). Bandura (1986) argued that the lack of negative consequence may in itself serve as a type of "reward" that thus encourages imitation.
Social learning theory also predicts, and studies have found, that imitation of modeled behavior is more likely if viewers identify with specific characters and/or perceive their behavior as realistic (Wilson et al., 1998). Recent research on the effects of violent video games, for example, has found that first-person shooter games in which the player "is" the shooter, increase aggression through identification with the gaming character compared to a third-person perspective (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). Ward (2002) found that older adolescent viewers of sex on shows featuring adolescents were more likely to endorse the depicted sexual behavior if they perceived it as realistic.
Consistent with social learning theory, a recent study has shown a strong association between having a bedroom television and initiating smoking during early adolescence (Jackson, Brown, & L'Engle, 2007). Specifically, 12-to 14-year-old adolescents with bedroom televisions were, after 2 years, twice as likely to initiate cigarette smoking as peers without bedroom televisions (Jackson et al., 2007). Building on this study, the present study...
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