This project is designed to assess the contribution entertainment television programming featuring families makes to children's affect socialization. The approach is to refine and test multi-factor structural equation models representing three theoretical conceptualizations of how television impacts 7-, 11-, and 15-year-olds. One model represents direct socialization processes; another, cognitive mediational processes; the third combines both types of process and represents the most nearly inclusive model. the three models include various combinations of television, family and child constructs, all with multiple indicators. Together, the constructs are used to predict 1) children's judgments of the usefulness of ideas about emotion found in family formatted programming, 2) children's knowledge of culturally prescriptive emotion norms, and 3) children's behavioral adherence to these norms. Data already have been obtained from 1642 children and one parent in 76% of their families and from the content analysis of six episodes each of 40 family-formatted television series. No new data will be gathered. The two major tasks for the year will be to 1) use data from about one-third of the families, evenly divided by grade and sex of the child, to explore the relationships among constructs in the full models, and 2) use data from the remaining two-thirds of families to perform final tests of the models. Model parameters will be estimated separately and in combination for three ages, two sexes, three outcomes, and different operationalizations of the television constructs. Model testing will confirm constructs operative at each age and for each sex, processes by which television impacts children's affective ideas and behavior, and the relative influences of television, parents, and children's mediating cognitions. Across-age and across-sex comparisons will reveal any age and sex differences in affect socialization processes. Additional analyses involving portions of the models will address substantive issues related to television and families. The proposed research should inform other affect socialization studies by broadening the range of socialization influences and sources of social knowledge considered. It will also contribute to the methodological sophistication of future television effects research and inform further work on the present and potential role of television in socializing or re-socializing the affect of American youth.
