Do You See What I See? Parent and Child Reports of Parental Monitoring of Media

TLDR

Parental monitoring of children’s media use can mitigate negative effects, yet studies on elementary-aged children are scarce and it remains unclear whether parents or children provide more accurate reports. The study surveyed 1,323 children, their parents, and teachers, collecting parent and child reports on four monitoring dimensions—co‑use, time limits, content limits, and active mediation—for TV and video games. Parents consistently reported higher monitoring than children, and monitoring varied with child age, sex, and parental socioeconomic factors; despite low correlation, both parent and child reports similarly predicted children’s screen time, media violence exposure, and teacher‑rated school performance, with child reports slightly outperforming parents when discrepancies existed.

Abstract

Research on parental monitoring of children's media use suggests parents can reduce the negative effects of media exposure on children, although this research is rarely conducted with elementary school children and leaves open questions about whether parents or children are better reporters. Participants were 1,323 children, their parents, and teachers. Parents and children reported on four aspects of monitoring for TV and video games: co‐using, limit setting on amount, limit setting on content, and active mediation. Parents gave much higher estimates than did children. Monitoring was moderated by child age, child sex, parent marital status, parent education, and parent income. Although parent‐ and child‐reported monitoring correlated rather poorly, both types were almost equally good predictors of children's screen time, media violence exposure, and teacher reports of school performance. When there were differences, the child reports tended to be slightly better predictors, demonstrating the validity of child reports of parental monitoring.