Television Viewing Experiences and Representation of Parental Attachment in the College Years: Did Zach Morris Even Have Parents?
Haley L. Miller, Samantha E. Cummins, & Lance C. Garmon
Salisbury University, Maryland
October, 2009
Poster Presented at the 4th Emerging Adulthood Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
ABSTRACT
Although little research has examined the influence of television viewing for emerging adults, previous studies research has examined this influence with adolescents (Rivadeneyra & Lebo, 2008; Chandra et al, 2008; Van Den Bulck et al, 2008). Undergraduates completed online questionnaires assessing parental attachment, television viewing behaviors, and familiarity with 21 television shows. Significant findings involving representations of parental attachment include correlations with mother communication and familiarity with different shows exhibiting different degrees of mother presence, suggesting that although mother communication is related to television viewing behavior, this influence may not be a result of the type of mother presence in the shows.
INTRODUCTION
This presentation looks to examine the interpersonal relationship between emerging adult’s relationships with their parents and the television shows with which they are familiar. A number of previous studies have attempted to show a link between what adolescents view on television and other aspects of their real life, including issues such as gender role attitudes towards dating (Rivadeneyra and Lebo, 2008), adolescent pregnancy (Chandra et al, 2008), and attitudes towards alcohol (Van Den Bulck et al, 2008). Social learning theory suggests that behavior and beliefs can be acquired and modified through observing characters on television (Van Den Bulck et al, 2008).
It does not appear though that the specific connection between the quality of parental interpersonal relationships portrayed in television shows and individual representations of the attachment to parents in real life have yet been studied. In a somewhat related field, parasocial research by Giles and Maltby (2003) suggest that adolescents detach from their parents and show more idealization, and therefore increasing attachments, to peers and television celebrities. Parental communication and television viewing habits have been studied in relation to adolescent sexual activity (Bersamin et al, 2008) but parental communication and television viewing habits have not been studied in conjunction with the fictional parental relationships within the television shows that emerging adults watch. Finally while there does not appear to be previous research specific to the issue of television portrayals of parental relationships in the programs watched by emerging adults, as opposed to the research with adolescents, it must also be assumed that these same emerging adults did watch television during their adolescence.
It does not appear that the specific connection between the quality of parental interpersonal relationships in television shows and representations of the attachment to parents in real life have yet been studied. It is predicted that those emerging adults who report having more experience watching television programs which present a significant amount of interpersonal interactions between parents and adolescents will be more likely to report more positive attachment representation with their parents in their own life.
METHODS
Participants:
Online questionnaires were completed by 278 undergraduates at a Mid-Atlantic, medium-sized university for course credit. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 25 years (m= 18.85), mostly 18 or 19 years of age (118; 84.2%). A majority of the participants were female 169 (60.8%), and Caucasian 235 (84.5%). Less than a quarter of the participants, 62 (22.3%), still live with their parents.
More than half of the participants (151; 54.3%) watch 5 hours or less of television per week, whereas only 15 (5.4%) of the participants watched 21 hours or more television a week (see Figure 1). 127 (72.57%), Most of the participants (206; 74.1%) biological mother and father were still married to one another. The remaining 48 (27.4%) participants biological parents were either never married, divorced but not remarried, divorced with only one parent remarried, divorced and both parents remarried or none of the above (an example would be adoption) (see Figure 2).
Measures:
Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden and Greenberg, 1987): The IPPA has three 25-item sections, one for each parent and a third for peers. Mother and father questions are substantially identical and the only ones included in the current study. Three (1.08%) of the participants did not complete the IPPA items related to their mother and 12 (4.32%) did not complete items related to their father. Attachment to parents and peers in the IPPA is based on three dimensions:
Trust (My mother/father respects my feelings)
Communication (My mother/father can tell when I’m upset about something)
Alienation (I get upset a lot more than my mother/father knows about)
General demographics include:
· Age
· Gender
· Living arrangement
· Parents marital status
· Time spent watching television
Knowledge of the 21 television shows: Participants rated these on a 9-point scale (see Table 1). The 21 shows were chosen based on popularity (i.e., likelihood current emerging adults had seen them during their lifetime; see Table 2) and were categorized as high, moderate, or low mother and father presence.
· High = Mother/Father in Almost every episode
· Medium = Mother/Father in about half of the episodes
· Low = Mother/Father rarely appeared in the episodes or the parent was non existent
Table 1: Familiarity Scale Utilized in this Study
1- I have never even heard of this show
2- I have heard of this show before, but I have not seen an episode
3- I have seen part of an episode, but not an entire episode
4- I have seen one or two episodes of this show
5- I have seen several episodes of this show
6- I have seen an entire season of this show but not every episode
7- I have seen more than an entire season of this show, but not every episode
8- I have seen every episode of the series at least once
9- I have seen every episode of the series more than once
Table 2: The 21 Television Programs Utilized in this StudyHigh
Involvement / Moderate Involvement / Low
Involvement
Mother / Father / Mother / Father / Mother / Father
The Big Bang Theory / ê / ê
The Secret Life of an American Teenager / ê / ê
Blossom / ê / ê
GREEK / ê / ê
Grounded for Life / ê / ê
Gilmore Girls / ê / ê
7th Heaven / ê / ê
Still Standing / ê / ê
What I Like About You / ê / ê
Buffy the Vampire Slayer / ê / ê
Boy Meets World / ê / ê
Saved by the Bell / ê / ê
The Hills / ê / ê
The Wonder Years / ê / ê
Laguna Beach / ê / ê
Gossip Girl / ê / ê
That 70’s Show / ê / ê
The OC / ê / ê
One Tree Hill / ê / ê
Dawson’s Creek / ê / ê
The New 90210 / ê / ê
RESULTS
Although participants viewed less television each week than expected, both correlational analyses and ANOVAs were conducted to examine possible relationships. No significant correlation was found for age and nor for separate ANOVAs comparing participants with biological parents married vs unmarried and participants who live with parents or not. An ANOVA did reveal a significant gender difference though such that males reported higher levels of weekly television viewing than did females, F(1, 276) = 13.827, p < .000, M = 2.96 (SD = 1.22) and M = 2.51 (SD = .79), respectively. A final ANOVA revealed only two significant gender differences in paternal attachment variables such that females reported higher scores for Mother Communication and Father Alienation than did males, F(1, 273) = 17.134, p < .000, M = 35.68 (SD = 7.79) & M = 31.68 (SD = 7.89) and F(1, 264) = 5.423, p = .021, M = 14.609 (SD = 5.24) and M = 13.16 (SD = 4.48), respectively.
A series of ANOVAs were also conducted involving participant’s familiarity with each program as the dependent variables. Analyses involving gender revealed significant differences for almost every program such that females were more likely to report higher levels of previous familiarity with the programs (see Table 3 & Figure 3). The only programs not to exhibit a gender difference were The Big Bang Theory, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Saved by The Bell, and The Wonder Years.
In contrast, additional ANOVAs involving variables identified a priori as being of potential interest revealed few differences. A series of ANOVAs examining parental marital status found significant differences for participant familiarity with only one program such that those with biological parents still married were more likely to watch Gossip Girls, F(1, 274) = 5.194, p = .023, M = 3.52 (SD = 2.32) and M = 2.82 (SD = 2.07) respectively. A final series of ANOVAs examining participant current living status found significant differences for participant familiarity with three programs such that those who currently live with their parents are more likely to have watched What I Like About You and less likely to have watched GREEK and The OC (see Table 3).
Correlational analyses compared how familiar participants were with each of the 21 television shows to several variables (see Table 4). As expected age of participants was positively correlated with some of the “older” programs and negatively correlated with some of the “newer” programs. The amount of television participants watched each week was positively correlated to their familiarity with two situation comedies, Boy Meets World and That 70s Show.
Additional correlational analyses found a number of significant correlations between parental attachment scores for trust, communication, and alienation and how familiar participants were with each of the 21 television shows (see Table 4), but no obvious pattern in these relationships emerged. Mother Communication was positively correlated with 10 different programs, including ones with both high and low presence of maternal characters. Mother Trust was only correlated with 2 programs; one was a comedy with low maternal presence and one was a drama with high maternal presence. Mother Alienation evidenced a relationship to only one program, and that was a negative correlation with a “reality show” containing low maternal presence. While no shows were significantly correlated to either Father Communication or Father Alienation, Father Trust was negatively correlated to 3 different programs, including the only two programs assessed in this project with mixed parental presence: Blossom, a comedy with high father and low mother presence and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a drama with low father and moderate mother presence.
Table 3: Significant ANOVA’s for Program FamiliarityProgram / Gender / Live with Parents?
Female / Male / F (1, 274) / Yes / No / F (1, 274)
M / SD / M / SD / M / SD / M / SD
The Big Bang Theory┬ / 2.28 / 1.570 / 2.45 / 1.607 / 2.34 / 1.629 / 2.35 / 1.575
The Secret Life of an American Teenager┴ / 4.11 / 2.173 / 2.03 / 1.343 / 79.88** / 3.44 / 2.170 / 3.24 / 2.140
Blossom├ / 1.47 / 1.288 / 1.15 / .541 / 6.03* / 1.42 / 1.080 / 1.32 / 1.067
GREEK┬ / 2.83 / 1.962 / 1.96 / 1.079 / 17.83** / 2.11 / 1.368 / 2.60 / 1.799 / 3.86*
Grounded For Life┴ / 3.80 / 2.103 / 2.63 / 1.879 / 22.15** / 3.24 / 2.117 / 3.37 / 2.092
Gilmore Girls┤ / 5.38 / 2.059 / 2.70 / 1.302 / 147.07** / 4.40 / 2.138 / 4.30 / 2.255
7th Heaven┴ / 5.65 / 1.650 / 3.70 / 1.692 / 90.82** / 5.02 / 1.788 / 4.84 / 1.958
Still Standing┴ / 3.10 / 2.210 / 2.27 / 1.730 / 10.97** / 2.92 / 2.002 / 2.72 / 2.093
What I Like About You┬ / 4.60 / 2.239 / 2.14 / 1.287 / 108.27** / 4.18 / 2.229 / 3.47 / 2.255 / 4.79*
Buffy the Vampire Slayer┼ / 3.20 / 1.802 / 3.17 / 1.391 / 3.34 / 1.819 / 3.14 / 1.599
Boy Meets World┴ / 6.36 / 1.788 / 5.11 / 1.969 / 29.71** / 5.81 / 1.966 / 5.88 / 1.957
Saved by The Bell┬ / 5.45 / 1.975 / 5.02 / 1.948 / 5.47 / 2.046 / 5.22 / 1.952
The Hills┬ / 5.29 / 2.558 / 3.18 / 1.673 / 57.92** / 4.63 / 2.556 / 4.41 / 2.453
The Wonder Years┴ / 3.49 / 2.065 / 3.33 / 2.148 / 3.31 / 2.170 / 3.46 / 2.077
Laguna Beach┬ / 5.14 / 2.657 / 3.25 / 1.821 / 42.19** / 4.56 / 2.640 / 4.34 / 2.506
Gossip Girls┴ / 4.14 / 2.435 / 2.11 / 1.235 / 65.03** / 3.11 / 2.166 / 3.41 / 2.305
That 70's Show┴ / 5.09 / 1.836 / 5.73 / 1.864 / 8.019** / 4.77 / 1.954 / 5.51 / 1.817 / 7.603**
The OC┴ / 4.35 / 2.247 / 3.23 / 1.625 / 20.11** / 3.53 / 2.014 / 4.01 / 2.109
One Tree Hill┴ / 4.35 / 2.365 / 2.61 / 1.503 / 47.09** / 3.53 / 2.156 / 3.70 / 2.261
Dawson's Creek┴ / 3.85 / 2.090 / 2.41 / .993 / 44.90** / 3.58 / 1.980 / 3.20 / 1.841
The New 90210┴ / 2.87 / 1.899 / 1.95 / .896 / 22.33** / 2.73 / 1.901 / 2.45 / 1.558
*p < .05
* *p < .01 / ┴High Mother & High Father Presence
┬Low Mother & Low Father Presence / ┤High Mother & Low Father Presence
├Low Mother & High
┼ Moderate Mother & Low Father Presence
Program / Age / Hours of TV Viewing / Mother (N = 275) / Father (N = 266)
Trust / Communication / Alienation / Trust / Communication / Alienation
Hours of TV Viewing
The Big Bang Theory┬ / -.152*
The Secret Life of an American Teenager┴ / -.154*
Blossom├ / -.125*
GREEK┬
Grounded For Life┴ / -.184**
Gilmore Girls┤ / -.200** / .204**
7th Heaven┴ / .208**
Still Standing┴
What I Like About You┬ / -.216** / .165**
Buffy the Vampire Slayer┼ / -.127*
Boy Meets World┴ / -.122* / .129* / .155*
Saved by The Bell┬ / .185** / .152*
The Hills┬ / .161**
The Wonder Years┴ / .135*
Laguna Beach┬ / .166** / -.132*
Gossip Girls┴ / -.148* / .185**
That 70's Show┴ / .156**
The OC┴ / .152*
One Tree Hill┴ / -.119*
Dawson's Creek┴ / .119* / .197**
The New 90210┴
*p < .05
* *p < .01 / ┴High Mother & High Father Presence
┬Low Mother & Low Father Presence / ┤High Mother & Low Father Presence
├Low Mother & High Father Presence
┼Moderate Mother & Low Father Presence
DISCUSSION