Natascha Notten

Home media and science performance: A cross-national study

This study examines the effects of media resources in the parental home on the science performance of 15-year-old students. It employs data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) containing information on 345,967 respondents from 53 countries. Results show that media assets in the family home are indeed meaningful for childrens science performance, as a beneficial resource but also as a disadvantage. A positive reading climate in the parental home and the availability of computers benefits science performance. However, a television-rich home seems to hinder childrens school success. Furthermore, results indicate that, compared to less developed countries, in more modernized societies parental reading investments are even more beneficial to their childrens science performance, whereas a television-rich parental home is even more disadvantageous.

Boys and girls taking risks online: A gendered perspective on social context and adolescents’ risky online behavior

This study explores gender differences in the relationship between adolescents’ risky online behavior and their social context, as in family factors and the prevalence of Internet use in a country. Using the EU Kids Online dataset, including information on 8554, 14- to 16-year-old adolescents in 25 countries, and applying multilevel modeling, this study shows that social context is additionally and differentially related to adolescent boys’ and girls’ risky online behavior. When taking individual characteristics such as sensation seeking and digital skills into account, particularly for male adolescents, growing up in a single-parent household and lacking parental co-use increases the chance of online risk behavior. Adolescents, especially males, however, are less likely to participate in risky online behavior in societies where Internet use is widespread. Overall, this study shows that it is important to take account of individual and social factors when explaining adolescents’ online risk taking and gender differences herein.

Adolescent problem behaviour: The gender gap in European perspective

This study scrutinizes gender differences in adolescent problem behaviour and its potential determinants, simultaneously taking into account the individual and contextual level, including personality, family and country characteristics. Using the 2010 EU Kids Online Survey, we estimate multilevel models on 18,027 individuals from 24 European countries. In line with earlier research, we find that boys engage more in adolescent problem behaviour than girls. The gender gap is largely explained by personality traits, such as self-control. Whereas the influence of self-control does not differ between boys and girls, the association between conduct problems and problem behaviour is stronger for boys than for girls. Family factors are relevant but not gender specific in their impact on problem behaviour. European countries differ with respect to the gender gap in adolescent problem behaviour, which is partly explained by the societal level of gender inequality.

Social policies and families in stress : gender and educational differences in work–family conflict from a European perspective

In modern welfare states, family policies may resolve the tension between employment and care-focused demands. However these policies sometimes have adverse consequences for distinct social groups. This study examined gender and educational differences in working parents’ perceived work–family conflict and used a comparative approach to test whether family policies, in particular support for child care and leave from paid work, are capable of reducing work–family conflict as well as the gender and educational gaps in work–family conflict. We use data from the European Social Survey 2010 for 20 countries and 5296 respondents (parents), extended with information on national policies for maternity and parental leave and child care support from the OECD Family Database. Employing multilevel analysis, we find that mothers and the higher educated report most work–family conflict. Policies supporting child care reduce the level of experienced work–family conflict; family leave policy appears to have no alleviating impact on working parents’ work–family conflict. Our findings indicate that family policies appear to be unable to reduce the gender gap in conflict perception and even widen the educational gap in work–family conflict.

Taking Risks on the World Wide Web: The Impact of Families and Societies on Adolescents’ Risky Online Behavior

Children’s engagement in risky online behavior—such as providing personal information or agreeing to meet with a stranger—is an important predictor of whether they will encounter harmful content on the World Wide Web or be confronted with situations such as sexual harassment and privacy violations. However, and in line with research on risk taking in general, most children are not heavily engaged in risky online activities. Nevertheless, the potential consequences of adolescents’ risky online behavior are a major concern among parents and policymakers. This chapter explores the effect of contextual factors on adolescents’ engagement in risky online behavior from a cross-national and comparative perspective. To do so, it uses EU Kids Online survey data and employs a hierarchical multilevel design. The general research question underlying the study is twofold: (1) Do differences in adolescents’ risky online behavior stem from differences in family characteristics, parental Internet mediation, and the prevalence of Internet use in a country? (2) Is the relation between parental mediation and children’s risky online behavior dependent on how widespread Internet use is in a country? In today’s globalized societies, Internet usage plays an increasingly important role within the home and in society as a whole. Answers to these questions will therefore be of great interest to parents, educators, and policymakers.

Parents, television and children's weight status: On lasting effects of parental television socialization in the Netherlands

This study scrutinizes the long-term effects of parental television socialization activities on their childrens weight status measured through body mass index (BMI-score). We address the question how parental television habits and parental television mediation in childhood relate to a persons weight status in adulthood. To analyze this issue we employed data from the 2009 Family Survey of the Dutch Population with extensive retrospective information on 1,377 Dutch respondents and their parents. Structural equation models were estimated and showed long-term effects of parental television role modeling and mediation on their childrens weight status in adulthood. A parental example of frequent television viewing and social coviewing lastingly increases childrens weight status through two distinct pathways: via weight status in young adulthood and via educational attainment and adult television habits. Parental instructional television mediation, however, is related to a lower-weight status of their children later in life.

Mediaoverdracht in het ouderlijk gezin: de gevolgen van ouderlijke mediasocialisatie voor huidige lees- en televisievoorkeuren

This study analyses the intergenerational transmission of book reading and television viewing preferences. Central are the long-term effects of the parental media example and parental media guidance activities during one’s childhood on adult highbrow and lowbrow media preferences. We used information from the Family Survey of the Dutch Population (FSDP 2003, 2009) on 2,539 Dutch respondents born between 1955 and 1984. Estimating structural equation models provided insights into the lasting effects of parental reading and television socialization. Disentangling direct and indirect effects of parental media socialization showed that both imitation and guidance are important in the intergenerational transmission of media preferences. Our results suggest that imitation is the main mechanism underlying the media socialization process. Yet, parental media guidance and a child’s school success partly mediate the imitation process. Foremost, this study demonstrates that parental media socialization activities during childhood have lasting effects on a person’s current media preferences.

Highbrow cultural participation of Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands: Testing an identification and social network explanation

Little is known about ethnic differences in highbrow cultural interests, because research on social differentiation in cultural participation has traditionally focused on educational or income inequalities. Employing data from the Netherlands’ Longitudinal Lifecourse Study 2010 we explored the extent to which educational attainment, national identification and social integration explain inequality in cultural participation among Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, and to what extent the effect of education was moderated by aspects of social identification and integration. Our results indicate that Turks and Moroccans, who identify more with the Netherlands and have a social network that includes larger numbers of Dutch and higher educated friends, are more active in the cultural realm. Most interestingly, we found that strong identification with Dutch society actually moderates the relationship between an immigrants’ educational attainment and their cultural participation: that is, highly educated people of Turkish and Moroccan descent, who strongly identify with the Netherlands, participated more in highbrow culture than their highly educated counterparts who identified less with the Netherlands.

Cultuurparticipatie van Turken en Marokkanen in Nederland: Toetsing van een identificatie- en sociale netwerkverklaring

Research on social differentiation in cultural participation traditionally focuses on educational or income inequalities. With respect to ethnic differences in highbrow culture relatively little is known. Employing recent data from the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (2010) we explore to what extent educational differentiation in cultural participation among Turkish and Moroccan minorities is mediated and moderated by aspects of identification and integration. Our study shows that ethnic minority members, who identify themselves more with the Netherlands and participate in a social network with Dutch friend and higher educated friends, are more active in the highbrow cultural realm. A most interesting result is that identification with Dutch society actually moderates the relationship between an individual’s education and cultural participation; higher educated from Turkish and Moroccan decent who identify more with the Netherlands participate more in elitist culture than higher educated low in their identification with the Netherlands.