Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 May 28:12:70.
doi: 10.1186/s12966-015-0232-2.

The association of parent's outcome expectations for child TV viewing with parenting practices and child TV viewing: an examination using path analysis

Lauren Johnson  1   2 , Tzu-An Chen  3 , Sheryl O Hughes  4 , Teresia M O'Connor  5   6
Affiliations

The association of parent's outcome expectations for child TV viewing with parenting practices and child TV viewing: an examination using path analysis

Lauren Johnson et al. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. .

Abstract

Background: Television (TV) viewing has been associated with many undesirable outcomes for children, such as increased risk of obesity, but TV viewing can also have benefits. Although restrictive parenting practices are effective in reducing children's TV viewing, not all parents use them and it is currently unclear why. The current study examined parenting practices related to TV viewing in the context of social- cognitive theory. Specifically, we hypothesized that positive and negative Parental Outcome Expectations for child's TV Viewing (POETV) would be associated with social co-viewing and restrictive parenting practices, and that POETV and parenting practices influence the amount of TV viewed by child.

Method: Data were collected from an internet survey of 287 multi-ethnic parents and their 6-12 year old children on participants' sociodemographic information, parenting practices related to TV use, POETV, and parent and child TV viewing. Path analysis was used to examine the relationship amongst variables in separate models for weekday and weekend TV viewing. controlling for child age, household education, and parental TV viewing.

Results: The results provided partial support for the hypotheses, with notable differences between weekday and weekend viewing. The models explained 13.6% and 23.4% of the variance in children's TV viewing on weekdays and weekends respectively. Neither positive nor negative POETV were associated with restrictive TV parenting in either model. One subscale each from positive and negative POETV were associated with social co-viewing parenting on both weekends and weekdays in the expected direction. Restrictive parenting practices were directly negatively associated with children's TV viewing on weekdays, but not weekends. Social co-viewing parenting was directly positively associated with children's TV viewing on weekends, but not weekdays. The strongest influence on children's TV viewing was having a TV in the child's bedroom. Negative POETV was weakly associated with having a TV in the child's room.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that POETV and parenting may have a greater impact on weekend TV viewing, when children tend to watch more TV, than weekday. The models suggest that POETV, parenting and especially removing the TV from children's rooms may be promising targets for interventions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hypothesized model
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Path model of the association of parent’s outcome expectations and parenting practices on children’s television viewing on “weekdays”
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Path model of the association of parent’s outcome expectations and parenting practices on children’s television viewing on “weekends”
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bernard-Bonnin AC, Gilbert S, Rousseau E, Masson P, Maheux B. Television and the 3- to 10-year-old child. Pediatrics. 1991;88(1):48–54. - PubMed
    1. Dietz W. Physical activity and childhood obesity. Nutrition. 1991;7(4):295–6. - PubMed
    1. Hall ER, Etsy ET, Fisch SM. Television and children’s problem-solving behavior: a synopsis of an evaluation of the effects of square one TV. J Math Behav. 1990;9(2):161–74.
    1. Rice ML, Huston AC, Truglio R, Wright JC. Words from “Sesame Street”: learning vocabulary while viewing. Dev Psychol. 1990;26(3):421–8. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.26.3.421. - DOI
    1. Linebarger DL, Kosanic AZ, Greenwood CR, Doku NS. Effects of viewing the television program Between the Lions on the emergent literacy skills of young children. J Educ Psychol. 2004;96(2):297–308. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.96.2.297. - DOI

Publication types