Abstract

This exploratory study examines what Latter-day Saint young single adults remember about their parents mediating the television and its use, and how those recollections contribute to their current attitudes and values toward the media, as well as their media choices. A stratified random sample of 267 LDS young single adults across the United States and outside the state of Utah responded to a cross sectional mail or online survey. The three mediation styles established by Valkenburg, Krcmar, Peeters, and Marseille (1999)—Restrictive, Instructive, and Coviewing—were used as the independent variables while scales assessing television offensiveness levels, attitudes, orientation, and usage were used as dependent variables.

According to this study, individuals who recall high levels of Restrictive mediation tend to restrict their personal media choices when exposed to personally offensive material more than those that recall low Restrictive mediation (p < .01). High levels of Restrictive mediation also indicate (a) negative attitudes towards television (p < .001), (b) more media sensitivity (p < .05), and (c) a Traditionals approach to media choices (p < .001). Individuals who come from highly Instructive based homes watch more informational/educational programs and more situational comedies than individuals from low Instructive homes (p < .05). Individuals who recall high levels of Coviewing have a neutral orientation towards the media, finding it neither positive nor negative (p > .05) and tend to watch more informational/educational programming (p < .05). This study, while exploratory adds to the research on parental mediation and mediation theory, and offers support to the effectiveness of mediation. It suggests a possible benefit from teaching parents how to mediate the television and encourages religious groups to educate church members on using methods of television mediation.

Degree

College and Department

Fine Arts and Communications; Communications

Rights

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