A Rutgers study examining the role grandparents play in mediating their grandchildren's media use found they often do so by using strategies or instructions provided by another caregiver, most commonly the child's parents. The researchers have coined this complex process "secondary mediation.”

"Our initial findings offer various compelling insights into this critical process of socializing children to media use," wrote the study's authors, Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies and former Interim Dean Dafna Lemish at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, and her colleagues Galit Nimrod and Nelly Elias, who are Professors at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. They also suggest that mediation theory, thus far limited to parental practices, should be modified to include secondary mediation of other caregivers. “Moreover, our findings are also highly relevant to the understanding of intergenerational relationships."

The study, "Secondary mediation of children's media use: An exploration of mothers-grandmothers' mediation dynamic," published in the Journal of Aging Studies,

is part of a larger study, which is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to offer an in-depth investigation into the involvement of grandparents in mediating children's media use.

Understanding the role grandparents play in mediating children’s media use is important, Lemish said, "because there is substantial evidence about the potential impact of media on children. Grandparents can help minimize the negative potential (e.g., on violence, alienation, bullying, misinformation, commercial exploitation, gender and racial stereotypes) and to maximize the positive potential (e.g., on enrichment, learning, cognitive-social-emotional development, and enjoyment)."

"There is a lot of research on how parents mediate the use of their children’s media, by applying a variety of strategies, such as restricting the amount of screen time, supervising the content children are engaged with, actively discussing media use, and co-viewing/co-playing with them," Lemish said. "But little attention has been paid to the role of grandparents who regularly care for their grandchildren. My colleagues Galit Nimrod, Nelly Elias and I were very curious about their role in these socialization processes. Are grandparents also engaged in mediating media use? Do they follow some rules set by the parents? Do they tend to 'spoil' their grandchildren by taking a more lenient approach to their media use? As a grandmother myself, I felt particularly drawn to these questions."

Understanding the role grandparents play in mediating children’s media use is important, Lemish said, "because there is substantial evidence about the potential impact of media on children. Grandparents can help minimize the negative potential (e.g., on violence, alienation, bullying, misinformation, commercial exploitation, gender and racial stereotypes) and to maximize the positive potential (e.g., on enrichment, learning, cognitive-social-emotional development, and enjoyment)."

It is also important that parents and grandparents share similar approaches to media use, reinforce each other, and avoid creating internal conflicts, Lemish added.

Examples of "secondary mediation," Lemish said, include scenarios such as when a child's mother tells the grandmother not to allow the child to play video games before bedtime or asks the grandmother to restrict screen time to no more than an hour while she is caring for the child. Similarly, grandmothers may observe behavior that they want to advise the mothers about. For example, a grandmother may tell the child's mother that the child is accessing violent content on the older sibling’s mobile phone. 

The authors stated that the degree to which grandmothers follow the requests from the mothers, or whether mothers listen to the advice provided by the grandmothers, "depends on a host of characteristics and circumstances and is not a straightforward application of rules transmitted from one caregiver to another."

Examples of "secondary mediation," Lemish said, include scenarios such as when a child's mother tells the grandmother not to allow the child to play video games before bedtime or asks the grandmother to restrict screen time to no more than an hour while she is caring for the child.

For example, they found it depends on the nature of the relationship between the mother and the grandmother (e.g., if they are collaborative in various other areas of child-rearing, like eating and sleeping habits); their experience and comfort with the media (e.g., if the grandmother feels comfortable with the device and with applications); by the level of education (i.e., the more educated grandmothers are, the more aware of the importance of mediating media use they tend to be); and the time the grandmother spends caregiving for the grandchildren (i.e., more time spent caregiving is associated with more awareness of the impact of media on children’s lives and thus the importance of mediating media use).

The researchers distinguished between "non-interactive" uses (i.e., watching films, YouTube videos, and TV programs on any screen) and "interactive" (i.e., playing digital games and online activities other than watching) and found that grandparents were more likely to mediate their grandchildren's exposure to non-interactive media.

To conduct the study, the researchers surveyed 267 pairs of grandmothers and mothers of 4-8-year-old children who agreed to participate in the study. The grandmothers were interviewed by phone (to incorporate those who do not use the internet), and the mothers received an online link to the same survey.

Offering advice for mothers and grandmothers seeking to address the media consumption of the children in their families, Lemish said, "I recommend talking with each other about your views on the role of media in your children’s lives and create shared understanding and values about media consumption that takes into consideration the characteristics of the child (e.g., age, gender, personality, interests); the circumstances (e.g., weather, availability of alternative activities, health of the child and the caregiver); and the content of the media (e.g., agree on what content is acceptable and even desirable, versus content that is age inappropriate and/or goes against your family’s values and worldview that you do not wish your child to be exposed to). Agree on what rules related to media consumption you would like to apply, and also on the circumstances when there could be some deviation from them (e.g., a sick or hurt child may be allowed to watch more TV than in regular days; a very busy grandmother may need the help of media to separate quarreling siblings)."

Learn more about the Journalism and Media Studies Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.

Photos: Courtesy of Dafna Lemish