Positive parents taking action!

Digital gaming is a mainstream activity for the children and adolescents of today. Its pros and contras are heavily discussed in politics and media. Similarly parents take an interest in the game behaviour of their children and parental mediation thereof is a complex phenomenon. Similar to the domain of television mediation, it seems to be a construct consisting of: (i) restrictive mediation – setting explicit limits, (ii) active mediation – discussing or instructing, and (iii) co-play – playing together. Research in the TV domain related the application of mediation strategies to both general parenting styles and parents’ attitudes. However, it remains unknown whether these relations are transferable to the domain of digital gaming, as previous qualitative research additionally provided evidence for fundamental differences between the two fields. Therefore a web survey of parents (n=142) examined these possible relationships quantitatively. A Dutch version of the Parental Authority Questionnaire was interpreted in terms of the Family Communication Patterns model in order to measure parenting styles. A behaviour-based scale was developed using the Rasch model to measure parents’ attitudes. Scores were subsequently correlated to mediation strategy measures. Results show that parents with a higher tendency to impose norms and values on their children set more limits but also play more digital games with their children. Similarly parents discuss games more when they have a higher tendency to communicate. The study additionally uncovered a counter-intuitive positive relation between parents’ attitudes and mediation strategies, suggesting that media illiteracy might play a role when “low-attitude-parents” mediate children’s digital game-play.