Adolescent and Parental Strategies Against Media Use During Homework

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine which strategies adolescents and parents use to manage adolescents’ media use during homework and how these are related to the amount of media used by adolescents during homework. A questionnaire was filled out by 364 Dutch secondary school students measuring adolescent strategy use (stimulus control strategies, cognitive control strategies and environmental control strategies), parental media mediation strategy use (monitoring, active, restrictive and technical restrictive mediation) and media use during homework. Although media plays an important role in adolescents’ life, results showed that adolescents use an abundance of strategies to manage their media use during homework. According to adolescents, parents hardly use strategies to help their children with managing their media use during homework. Adolescents who make more use of strategies that block external cues from media (stimulus control), use less media during homework. Parental media mediation strategies were not related to the amount of media use during homework. These findings seem to indicate that adolescents take sufficient action to manage their media use during homework. For adolescents who struggle with managing their media use during homework, it seems fruitful to suggest strategies that limit the exposure to media cues.