PARENTAL MONITORING, MEDIA LITERACY, AND MEDIA VIOLENCE: A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF THE FOURTH R PARENT MEDIA VIOLENCE WORKSHOP

Abstract

As youth's lives have become increasingly infused with all types of media, debates regarding the effect of violent media on youth have emerged. Within this debate, parental monitoring has been identified as an important protective factor against some negative outcomes. Accordingly, the Fourth R Parent Media Violence Workshop was developed to educate parents about the importance of setting rules around media use and to encourage parents to monitor their children's media consumption. Two waves of data were collected six months apart (nTime 1=226, nTime 2=52) with parents who attended the workshop, and results indicate that parents engaged in enhanced, appropriately restrictive and active monitoring practices following the workshop. A significant decrease in children's media consumption was also reported between Time 1 and Time 2. The results provide preliminary evidence to suggest that even short, one-time intensive workshops for parents can move parents' behaviours in the intended direction and positively impact their monitoring strategies.

Keywords

• media consumption
• parent education
• parental monitoring
• media literacy
• rule setting
• healthy youth relationships