Anne Bartsch

On the relevance of parents and TV as socializers of 6–19 year-olds’ expressions of emotion: representative data from Germany

Abstract This study examines joint influences of parental socialization and socialization via mass media on children’s expression of emotions. The effect of parental approval of their child’s expression of emotions, on the child’s approval of TV characters expressing the emotion, and the influence of both on the child’s expression of emotions within the past seven days is tested for the emotions fear, sadness, anger, and happiness with a representative survey of children (N = 1458) aged 6–19 in Germany. Moderating age and gender effects were also considered. Consistent across the four emotions, results showed that socialization of emotions via mass media is driven by internalized parental socialization but has a comparably strong effect of its own on the child’s expression of emotion that adds to the variance explained, especially with regard to anger and happiness. Implications for the conceptualization of parental emotion socialization and emotional socialization via media are discussed.

Vorurteile als soziale Phänomene

Zunachst soll ein kurzer Uberblick uber den Vorurteils-Begriff und seine inhaltlichen Dimensionen gegeben werden.

Ergebnisse einer explorativen Feldstudie

Da die Rezeption von Medienbotschaften uber Outgroups in der Ingroup bisher kaum erforscht ist, sollen abschliesend die Ergebnisse einer explorativen Feldstudie zu diesem Thema vorgestellt werden. Dazu wurde eine Kombination aus qualitativer Gruppendiskussion und Beobachtung von naturlichen Kleingruppen bei der gemeinsamen Nutzung und Verarbeitung einer Medienbotschaft uber eine Outgroup durchgefuhrt.

Medienrezeption in Gruppen

Als Nachstes steht die Medienrezeption in Gruppen im Mittelpunkt. Dabei wird zunachst ihre Bedeutung eingeordnet und ein kurzer Uberblick uber bisherige Untersuchungen zum Zusammenspiel von Medienrezeption in Gruppen und Vorurteilen gegeben.

Parents, Television, and Children’s Emotional Expressions: A Cross-Cultural Multilevel Model

Parents and media both play an important role in the socialization of children’s emotions, yet it remains unclear whether these socializing influences vary by culture. We studied the joint influences of parents and television on children’s expression of four basic emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, and fear) using self-report survey data from 3570 six- to 15-year-olds from 13 Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and South American countries. Perceived parental approval positively predicted self-reported expression of all four emotions. In addition, children’s approval of TV characters’ expression of happiness and anger (but not sadness and fear) positively predicted self-reported expressions of these emotions. A multilevel model combining cultural indicators (individualism, indulgence, assertiveness, humane orientation) and sociopolitical variables (Human Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, Grade Point Average) at the country level with individual-level variables (age, gender, media use) suggested that parental socialization of sadness, and media socialization of anger, varied as a function of some cultural indicators (assertiveness and humane orientation). Overall, though, despite theorizing about cultural differences, parental approval and (to a lesser extent) children’s approval of media models tended to predict children’s emotion displays rather consistently across a wide array of countries.