Television's role in affect socialization, in the context of other family and child influences, will be investigated in the proposed research. Multi-factor causal models, employing latent variables, have been developed to represent three current theoretical explanations of television's effects. The Direct Socialization Model assumes outcomes are directly influenced by family tutelage and vicarious learning processes. The Cognitive Mediation Model assumes that all television and family influences operate only through the child's own cognitive processes, motivations, and evaluations. The Cognitive-Socialization Model incorporates both the other two models. Each model will be used with data from 7-, 11-, and 15-year-olds and their families to predict (1) children's judements about useful television messages about emotions and (2) children's knowledge of socially prescribed norms for emotional expression. The work will focus on programming featuring family units with 7-15 year old children. Over a period of four years, using content analysis, questionnaires and interviews, multiple indicators of 2 outcome, 4 television, 10 child, and 4 family constructs will be developed, the measurement models will be established, and the causal models tested. The findings will enhance understanding of the processes involved in the socialization of affect, which has been tied to children's emotional well being. Socialization influences can modify or transform emotional expression and, through self-communication or internalization of display rules, may modify experiences of emotion as well. The proposed research should inform other affect socialization work being done by developmental psychologists by broadening the range of socialization influences and sources of social knowledge considered. It will contribute to the methodological sophistication of future television effects research and inform further work on television's present and potential role in socializing or re-socializing the affect of American youth.
