Rapping about Rap: The Occurrence, Efficacy, and Predictors of Parental Mediation of

Mainstream Hip-Hop Music Videos

Jessica Ann Harvey

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

University of Washington

2009

Program Authorized to Offer Degree:

Department of Communication
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 University of Washington

Abstract

Rapping about Rap: The Occurrence, Efficacy, and Predictors of Parental Mediation of
Mainstream Hip-Hop Music Videos

Jessica Ann Harvey

Chair of Supervisory Committee:

Professor Valerie Manusov
Department of Communication

For over a decade, hip-hop music videos have been criticized for sexist and stereotyped

portrayals of women and men. Empirical evidence supports these criticisms, indicating a

relationship between viewing hip-hop music videos and adolescents' gender stereotyped

attitudes. This dissertation investigates the relationship between adolescents' reports of

viewing hip-hop music videos and their attitudes about gender stereotypes and hip-hop

music videos. The main objective of this study, however, was to assess the occurrence,

efficacy, and predictors of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. Survey data were

gathered from adolescents (N = 324) between the ages of 12-18 and parents (N = 49).

Analysis of parental mediation frequencies reported by both adolescents and parents

revealed low levels of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos occurring across

families. Adolescent reported time spent viewing hip-hop music videos positively

predicted adolescents' gender stereotyped attitudes about women and men. This

relationship was stronger for adolescent sexualized gender stereotyped attitudes than for

traditional gender stereotyped attitudes. Adolescents' reports of parental mediation of

hip-hop music videos revealed that negative mediation of hip-hop music videos

positively predicted adolescents' negative and critical attitudes about hip-hop music

videos and the portrayals of women and men in these videos. Positive mediation of hip-
hop music videos positively predicted adolescent agreement with sexualized gender

stereotyped statements about women and men. Analyses of parent survey data indicated

several variables predictive of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. Parents'

reported concern that viewing hip-hop music videos would negatively affect their child

positively predicted negative and restrictive mediation. In addition, parent reports of

positive attitudes about hip-hop music videos negatively predicted both negative and

restrictive mediation. Family communication patterns were also assessed as a predictor of

parental mediation. Adolescent reports of family communication patterns revealed that

concept-orientation positively predicted the occurrence of negative mediation and

coviewing hip-hop music videos. Socio-orientation positively predicted negative,

positive, and restrictive mediation. As a whole, the results of this study have important

implications for future research as well as media literacy and media education programs.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

List of Tables ii

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

Chapter 2: Background and Literature Review 5

Chapter 3: Research Methods 47

Chapter 4: Results 79

Chapter 5: Discussion 113

References 149

Appendix A: Adolescent Survey 162

Appendix B: Parent Survey 172

I
 LIST OF TABLES

Table Number Page

1. Descriptive Statistics for Study Variables 81

2. Associations between Adolescents' Age, Parent Education, and Study

Variables 83

3. Associations between Child's Gender and Variables of Interest 85

4. Associations between Black/Non-Black Adolescents and Study Variables 86

5. Associations between Parents' Education, Annual Household Income,

and Study Variables 89
6. Predicting Adolescents Gender Stereotyped Beliefs by Hip-hop Video

Viewing and Involvement in Hip-hop Culture 93

7. Frequencies of Parental Mediation from Parent and Adolescent Reports 94

8. Predicting Adolescents' Gender Stereotyped Beliefs and Attitudes about

Hip-hop Music Videos by Adolescents' Reports of Parental Mediation 98
9. Predicting Negative and Restrictive Mediation by Parental Attitudes about
Hip-hop Music Videos 100

10. Predicting Negative and Restrictive Mediation by Parent Attitudes about

the Effects of Hip-hop Music Videos on Child 101

11. Difference in Parental Mediation Types According to Parent Sex 102

12. Predicting Parental Mediation by Parent Attitudes about the Effects of

Hip-hop Music Videos on other Children 104

13. Predicting Parental Mediation by Concept-orientation 107

14. Predicting Parental Mediation by Socio-orientation 109

15. Predicting Hip-hop Video Viewing and Television Viewing by Family
Communication Patterns Ill

n
 Acknowledgements

The completion of my doctoral dissertation has taken some time and consequently I owe
thanks to a great many people. The love and support I received from family, mentors, and
friends have been invaluable. Valerie Manusov, my advisor at University of Washington,
has been my mentor, support and friend. For that I am forever grateful. You not only
taught me a great deal about professorship, Valerie, but exemplify the type of scholar I
would like to become. Thank you for everything, Valerie.

I am indebted to Patricia Moy and Crispin Thurlow for their support and wisdom. Thank
you, Patricia, for being a wonderful mentor and offering me continual support, guidance
and friendship. Thank you, Crispin, for your encouragement, wisdom, and humor. Diane
Carlson, I appreciate all that you have taught me about adolescence and the media. Thank
you for sharing your wisdom and for your support. Randy Beam, thank you so much for
agreeing to be a committee member so late in the game. I appreciate your willingness to
do this and your insightful feedback on my dissertation.

Another very important person who made this dissertation possible is Peter Clarke. Peter,
without your kindness and generosity, I would never have achieved the breadth and depth
of this research project. Thank you so much for funding this project. Getting to know you
has been a pleasure and your work in the community continually inspires me.

Most importantly I would like to thank my mother, who tried her hardest to mediate my
hip-hop music by managing to destroy two 2-Live Crew tapes in high school (fortunately,
she never knew about my third purchase!). I am so lucky to have such a strong,
intelligent, witty, caring, and supportive mother and friend. Thank you Mom, for always
believing in me, listening to me, and continually inspiring me. I also want to thank the
incredible family members who supported me throughout this process, made me laugh,
and continually showed me love: Gram, Danny, Bern, Uncle Dale, Aunt Bonnie, Aunt
Bonnie, Dad, and Aunt Lynne. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family.

I also want to thank all of the wonderful teachers who gave me access to their classes and
were so helpful throughout the process of gathering data. I especially want to thank Cora
Mackoff, who introduced me to every teacher and dedicated so much time to helping me
recruit and survey students. Thanks to all the young people who provided feedback on
my surveys and project, completed surveys, and made me laugh. An additional thank you
is necessary for all of the parents who allowed their children to participate in focus group
sessions and take my survey, as well as those parents who agreed to take my survey.

I want to thank Linda Kennedy for introducing me to media literacy and being a
wonderful mentor and friend. I also owe a big thank you to Marilyn Cohen and Barbara
Johnson for their support, knowledge, guidance, and kindness. I feel blessed to work with
all three of you.

Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank my wonderful friends Sarah, Tara,
Nicole, Sharon, Sara, Tony, Andrea, Brady, Joe, Danny, and Steve. You have all in your

111
own way, and at important times, showed me support, relieved my stress, took my mind
off of school, and, most importantly, made me laugh during the times when I needed to
most. I love you all!

IV
 Dedication

To Hip-Hop

Sometimes I wouldn'ta made it if it wasn't for you Hip-Hop,

you the love of my life and that's true
- The Roots
 1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Youth is an important time during which individuals come to know about

themselves and about relationships. Not surprisingly, then, the effects of mass media on

the ways that young people think about their social world and their relationships with

others have been a concern of academics and the general public for quite some time (see,

for example, Desmond, Singer, Singer, Calam, & Colimore, 1985; U.S. Surgeon

General's Scientific Advisory Committee, 1972). Within this particular focus, studies

have suggested that television viewing influences, among other things, the way that

young people think about gender roles and stereotypes (Morgan, 1987; Nathanson,

Wilson, McGee, & Sebastian, 2002; Signorielli & Lears, 1992; Ward, Hansbrough, &

Walker, 2005), body image (Bell, Lawton, & Dittmar, 2007), violence (Hawkins &

Pingree, 1980), marriage (Signorielli, 1991), and sexual behaviors (Buerkel-Rothfuss &

Strouse, 1993). Overall, this research shows that visual media play an important role in

shaping the ways that young people view themselves and the social world around them.

Among the many issues related to relationships, a particularly salient one is the

ways in which young people come to understand and evaluate what it means to be male

or female. Television programs are one socialization agent that shapes the ways children

and adolescents view gender. Criticism has been directed towards the ways that television

programs present stereotypical portrayals of males and females, and empirical evidence

indicates that these representations affect young viewers' conceptions and judgments of

gender (Morgan, 1982, 1987). Further, this effect increases as the amount of media use

increases. For example, African-American teenagers who watch more "female-oriented"

 2

television programs (e.g., soap operas and situation comedies) over time report greater

acceptance of male-dominance stereotypes than those who watch less of these programs

or watch "male-oriented" (e.g., sports and action-adventure) programs (Walsh-Childers &

Brown, 1993). Adolescents who spend more time watching television are also more

likely to express sex-role stereotypic attitudes (Morgan, 1987)

Mainstream hip-hop music videos, specifically, have been scrutinized for

portraying gender in traditional and stereotypical ways and for containing overly

sexualized images of women (e.g., Chung, 2007; Hurt, Gordon, & Nelson, 2006).

Research supports these criticisms, suggesting an association between viewing hip-hop

music videos and young people's conceptions of gender (Ward al., 2005). According to

Chung (2007), "the messages in hip-hop music videos, in particular, perpetuate gender

stereotypes and discrimination and attempt to normalize unequal social behavior under

the label of art" (p. 33). Investigating the types of communication that can mitigate the

negative effects that viewing hip-hop music videos viewing have on young peoples'

views of women and men is therefore warranted.

One method for countering the potential negative effects of viewing traditional

gender stereotypic portrayals, like those found in mainstream hip-hop music videos, is

parental involvement in young people's television viewing behavior. Indeed, scholars and

media literacy advocates have stressed the important role of parents in mitigating the

effects of television on children (e.g., Austin, Bolls, Fujioka, & Engelbertson, 1999;

Chaffee, McLeod, & Atkin, 1971, Nathanson, 1999; Schooler, Kim, & Sorsoli, 2006).

For example, parents are able to influence how children interpret the media, leading

children to engage in more criticism of stereotypical portrayals and overly sexualized

 3

images. Additionally, children who receive more restrictions on viewing violent media by

parents and those whose parents talk with them more often about violent programs are

less likely to have TV-induced aggressive tendencies (Nathanson, 1999). These findings

suggest that parent-child communication about hip-hop music videos may influence

adolescents attitudes about gender and gender portrayals in these videos.

A large body of research has examined the roles of parental mediation, or other

forms of family communication, on children and adolescents' television viewing;

however, much less attention has focused specifically on popular mainstream hip-hop

videos, despite this genre's link to negative or at least stereotypical gender displays. The

purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between adolescent viewing of

mainstream hip-hop music videos, parental mediation, family communication patterns,

and gender stereotyping. The underlying goal of this investigation is to gain a better

understanding of parental involvement in children's hip-hop music video viewing

behaviors and of the ways in which these interactions may influence adolescents' views

of women and men.

The following section discusses research that has examined the relationship

between television viewing behaviors and viewers' attitudes and beliefs about gender

stereotypes; it then summarizes research that specifically focuses on the genre of hip-hop

music and videos and the link between viewing these videos and particular attitudinal

outcomes in young viewers. The different types of parent-child communication about the

media (e.g., parental mediation) are then discussed, followed by the potential influence

that this communication has on mitigating the effects that hip-hop music videos have on

young viewers' attitudes about gender and these videos. The final section of the literature
 4

review introduces potential predictors of parental mediation (e.g., parent sex, parent

attitudes toward hip-hop music videos), focusing largely on the role of family

communication patterns as a potential predictor of the different types of parental

mediation of hip-hop music videos that occur within families.

 5

CHAPTER 2

BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Gender Stereotypes, the Media, and Adolescents

A hip-hop music video, whether viewed on television or the Internet, is an artistic

multimedia presentation produced not merely to intensify viewers' sense and

persuade them to make purchases or consume products, but also to communicate

feelings, emotions, and ideas that eventually influence their perceptions and

attitudes toward others and society. (Chung, 2007, p. 34)

Historically, adolescence has been defined chronologically: as a particular period

of time in life most often denoted by seemingly ubiquitous biological and social changes

(e.g., Brooks-Gunn, 1996). For example, the start of adolescence is generally marked at

the onset of puberty and continues until a young person is financially independent (Elliot

& Feldman, 1990). Definitions of the actual age range of adolescents vary across

research. Consistent with most research, however, the current study conceptualizes

adolescents as young people between the ages of 12-18.

The process of gender socialization begins at a young age. As early as three years

old, children are able to identify with a gender and adopt beliefs about each gender

(Basow, 1992; Maccoby, 1998). According to Maccoby, young children begin to develop

sex-typed ideas about clothing and household products. Throughout the preschool years,

these beliefs include an increasing amount of sex-typed objects (e.g., dolls, sporting

equipment), behaviors, and occupations. Children also develop gender consistency or an

understanding that sex is permanent during this time (Stangor & Ruble, 1987). By the

time children are 8 or 9-years-old, they have a relatively solid understanding of their
 6

culture's expectations of each gender (Maccoby, 1998). Scholars suggest that, throughout

adolescence, attitudes and beliefs about each gender become increasingly fixed,

especially for young males (Basow, 1992; Hollin, 1987). The adoption of these beliefs

about gender is, arguably, largely a result of a person's environment and interactions with

various socialization agents within that environment (Stangor & Ruble, 1987).

Gender stereotyped beliefs about men and women, or overgeneralizations about

each sex, are a product of an individual's culture and social environment. According to

Basow (1992), "two fundamental aspects of a gender belief system are the culture's

stereotypes of women and men and the roles assigned to women and men" (p. 3), and

most often these stereotypes are based on the "differential power relationship between

men and women" (p. 2). Males, for example, tend to be characterized by their status,

toughness, anti-femininity, sexual proficiency, power, and control, whereas female

stereotypic qualities include powerlessness and being controlled (Basow, 1992).

The development of beliefs and attitudes about gender is shaped throughout early

childhood and adolescence by a multitude of socialization agents, making it difficult to

determine where gender stereotyped attitudes originate (Signorielli & Lears, 1992).

Researchers believe that parents typically play a primary role, but children also learn

gender stereotyped behaviors and characteristics from other adults, peers, and the mass

media (Huston, 1983). Television programs, in particular, have been found to present

stereotypical portrayals of women and men (Signorielli, 1989; Smith & Cook, 2008).

Given these findings, the next section discusses research on gender portrayals on

television and the effects that these portrayals have on viewers, and it is followed by an
 7

overview of research on gender stereotypes in hip-hop music videos and the effects that

these portrayals have on viewers' conceptions of women and men.

Gender Stereotypes and Television

Television programs, as an aggregate, are an influential socialization agent in the

developmental process of youth and often reflect the omnipresent social norms present

within a particular culture. Gerbner and Gross (1976) underscored this way of viewing

television over three decades ago when they stated the following:

Television is the central cultural arm of American society... Its chief cultural

function is to spread and stabilize social patterns, to cultivate not change but

resistance to change. Television is a medium of the socialization of most people

into standardized roles and behavior. Its function is, in a word, enculturation. (p.

175)

This argument about television is still relevant, as stereotyped gender roles are reflected,

and even exaggerated, in more contemporary television programs (Conrad, Dixon, &

Zhang, 2007; Huston, 1983; Seidman, 1999; Signorielli, 1989, 1991; Signorielli &

McLeod, 1994).

Analyses across the content of television programs over the past several decades

have shown that women are seen less often than men in television programs, are

portrayed as younger, more attractive, and nurturing, and are more likely to be victimized

than are men (Signorielli, 1989). Women have additionally been portrayed more often in

the context of home and family, and as romantic interests, than male characters have.

Those female characters that are employed outside of the home most often work in

stereotypical female occupations and are rarely successful at combining marriage and
 8

employment. Men, however, are more often portrayed as older, more powerful, and

employed outside of the home in high prestige occupations than are women characters.

(Signorielli, 1989).

The analyses just referenced, although insightful, were conducted over a decade

ago; more recent studies of portrayals of women and men on television, however, suggest

a similar trend. In their assessment of 534 hours of children's television programs that

aired over 5 weeks in 2005, for instance, Smith and Cook (2008) examined the

prevalence and representation of women and men. Their research revealed that male

characters appeared almost twice as often as did female characters, and this increased

appearance occurred more frequently in animated programs. Female characters were also

four times more likely to be presented in "sexy attire" and were twice as likely to be

shown with a very small waist line compared to male characters. Smith and Cook found a

similar, and even more exaggerated, occurrence in children's and adult films, where 73%

of individual speaking characters were males. Their analysis of 400 characters across 400

films indicated two different types of female characters portrayed most often in films:

"the traditional" and "the hypersexual." Female characters were also five times more

likely than male characters to be portrayed in sexually revealing clothing in those films.

The stereotypical portrayals found on television (and in other media) play a role

in shaping young viewers' conceptualizations of and attitudes toward gender, and this

influence increases with amount of viewing. For example, adolescents who watch more

television have been found to be more likely to endorse gender stereotyped household

chores (Morgan, 1982). In addition, endorsement of gender-role stereotypes has been

found to increase for young girls who watch more television over time and engage in
 9

more gender-stereotypical behaviors, like washing dishes or cleaning the house (Morgan,

1987). Furthermore, young people who view hip-hop music videos have been found to

hold more negative evaluations of Black women, rather than White women, after viewing

these videos (Gan, Zillman, & Mitrook, 1997).

As noted, music videos, a specific medium criticized for content, commonly

present gender stereotypic portrayals and overly sexualized images (Seidman, 1992,

1999). This presentation appears to have been relatively stable over time. For example,

Seidman's (1999) follow-up analysis to a previous study he conducted in 1992 of sex-

role stereotyping in MTV music videos indicated little change over the six year period

between his studies. According to Seidman's (1992, 1999) results, males, compared to

females, in music videos continued to be depicted in a more positive light, and females

continued to be portrayed commonly as sex objects. Not surprisingly, studies have shown

that frequent viewing of popular music videos has been linked to holding more traditional

gender role attitudes (Ward et al., 2005), exhibiting more negative attitudes toward

women (Rubin, West, & Mitchell, 2001), premarital sexual permissiveness (Strouse,

Buerkel-Rothfuss, & Long, 1995), and greater feelings of body dissatisfaction among

young girls (Bell et al., 2007).

As discussed previously, hip-hop music videos have been criticized for

stereotypical portrayals of gender and for overly sexualized images, and the available

evidence supports this scrutiny (Conrad et al., 2007; Tapper, Thorson, & Black, 1994);

however, limited research has investigated the links between these videos and young

peoples' conceptions and judgments of gender. Their content alone, however, suggests

the importance of investigating this genre of music videos further. The following section
 10

discusses social criticism of hip-hop music videos and empirical evidence that has

investigated portrayals of gender in these videos. It then reviews studies that have linked

viewing hip-hop music videos to more gender stereotyped attitudes toward women and

men among viewers.

Gender Stereotypes and Mainstream Hip-Hop Music Videos

Hip-hop lyrics and music videos have been a target of criticism for quite some

time (Garland, 2003; Hanna, 2008). Over two decades ago, hip-hop music was criticized

primarily for the use of profanity and violence in lyrical content. In the 1990s, this

criticism was still being vocalized, coupled with disapproval of lyrics that were

purportedly homophobic, sexually explicit, and that degraded women (Garland, 2003).

Critics additionally raised concerns over the content of hip-hop music videos, claiming

they presented overtly violent behaviors, overly sexualized images, and negative

representations of women and men of color (Rose, 1990).

Concern over the content of mainstream hip-hop music videos and lyrics persists

(Hanna, 2008). In fact, the United States Congress held its first hearing in September

2007 that focused on the representation and degradation of women in hip-hop music

lyrics and videos. The hearing, "From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and

Degrading Images," included testimonies ranging from CEOs of major media

organizations like Viacom and Warner Music to academics and hip-hop artists

(Committee on Energy and Commerce, 2007). Although participants disagreed on who

was to blame for the degrading portrayals of women and offensive language in hip-hop

music and videos, many of statements given to the subcommittee acknowledged the
 11

problematic nature of these images and lyrics. The group as a whole, however, agreed

that government censorship was not the solution (Abrams, 2007).

Hip-hop fans and activists have also voiced concerns and created media that

address the negative portrayals of women and men of color in hip-hop music videos. For

example, Byron Hurt, a self-proclaimed hip-hop fan, filmmaker, and gender violence

prevention educator, along with the Media Education Foundation, recently released an

award-winning documentary examining homophobia, violence, misogyny, and

hypermasculinity in hip-hop culture and music videos (Hurt et al., 2006). In his film, Hurt

describes male and female characters in hip-hop music videos as monolithic: Men are

most often portrayed as strong, tough, wealthy, pimp-like, dominating others, surrounded

by women, and in control; women are most often dressed scantily, sexually objectified,

and willing to act provocatively in order to attract men.

Hurt stated that one of the reasons he created this film was that "too few men

from within the industry had the moral courage to speak out against and challenge the

dissemination of deplorable, unchecked misogyny and highly sexualized images of

women worldwide" (Hurt, n.d., p. 2). Over the past several years, Hurt's film has

generated community discussions and educational outreach programs that address the

negative portrayals of women and men of color in hip-hop music videos and work toward

solutions to rectify these portrayals (Hurt, n.d.).

Likewise, the organization Rap Sessions organized a touring panel of hip-hop

activists and intellectuals titled Does Hip-Hop Hate Women? to engage communities

around the United States in a dialogue about gender and hip-hop (D, 2007; Rap Sessions,

2007). Panel sessions focused on issues about hip-hop's contribution to misogyny and
 12

homophobia, the effects that the degrading images of women in hip-hop music videos

have on viewers, and alternative representations of gender that artists and activists are

presenting (Rap Sessions, 2007). According to H. Samy Alim, an Assistant Professor at

UCLA and attendee of Rap Sessions, the panel discussion at UCLA encouraged the

audience to think more critically about gender politics in hip-hop and "challenge pundits

to directly engage the communities under discussion" (Alim, 2007).

Overall, critics of hip-hop music and videos during the past several decades

include an eclectic group of individuals publicly vocalizing concerns about the negative

characteristics of this genre of music and videos. According to these critics, the

stereotypical portrayals found in mainstream hip-hop music videos reflect the following

characteristics of the traditional male gender stereotype discussed by Basow (1992):

status, toughness, antifemininity, sexual proficiency, power, and control; females in these

videos appear to portray female stereotypic qualities of the Playboy bunny or sex object

and are most often portrayed as powerless and being controlled.

Ayanna (n.d.), a contributor to the MySistahs project,1 a website created by and

for young women of color that provides information and support about sexual and

reproductive health issues, describes the portrayals of women and men of color in hip-

hop music videos as the following:

Much of the [hip-hop] music and many videos specifically transmit, promote, and

perpetuate negative images of black women. All women, but mostly black women

in particular are seen in popular hip-hop culture as sex objects. Almost every hip-

1
"MySistahs is a project of Advocates for Youth. Advocates for Youth is dedicated to creating programs and
advocating for policies that help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their
reproductive and sexual health. Advocates provides information, training, and strategic assistance to youth-
serving organizations, policy makers, youth activists, and the media in the United States and in developing
countries" (MySistahs Mission Statement).
 13

hop video that is regularly run today shows many dancing women (usually

surrounding one or two men) wearing not much more than bikinis, with the

cameras focusing on their body parts. These images are shown to go along with a

lot of the explicit lyrics that commonly contain name calling to suggest that

women are not worth anything more than money, if that. Women are described as

being only good for sexual relations by rappers who describe their life as being

that of a pimp. In many popular rap songs men glorify the life of pimps, refer to

all women as they think a pimp would to a prostitute, and promote violence

against women for "disobeying."

Empirical analyses of the content of music videos support critics' claims that

many mainstream hip-hop music videos contain stereotypical portrayals and sexualized

images of women (Conrad et al., 2007). Specifically, Conrad and colleagues found that

two prevailing themes across these videos were materialism and misogyny. Nearly 80%

of the main characters in these videos were male, whereas the majority of supporting

characters were females. Female characters were more likely to be dominated by men,

sexualized, dressed scantily, and to appear more Eurocentric (e.g., long, straight hair, thin

lips, light skin tone) than male characters in these videos. Although most hip-hop artists

are males, these themes were also found in videos where the main character is a female

rapper (Conrad et al., 2007). Together, these findings indicate that gender stereotyped

themes pervade the mainstream and popular hip-hop music videos that are being played

daily on cable television.

The critics of hip-hop music and videos discussed above are largely adults;

however, young people are also aware of the negative portrayals of women and men in
 14

hip-hop music videos. For example, Cohen's (2007) Black Youth Project surveyed over

1500 young people and found that over half of her sample of Black, White, and Hispanic

youth agreed with the following statement: "Rap music videos portray Black women in

bad and offensive ways." Cohen also found that the majority of young males agreed that

these videos portrayed Black men "in bad and offensive ways." Nearly half of young

Black boys (44%), however, disagreed with this statement. An even larger majority of

Black (72%), Hispanic (72%), and White (68%) youth agreed with a statement that there

are too many references to sex in rap music videos.

Whereas these data indicate that many young people are aware of the negative

depictions of gender and the overly sexualized images in these videos, such awareness

does not necessarily prevent young viewers from being susceptible to internalizing the

gender stereotyped portrayals seen in hip-hop music videos. For Chung (2007), one

reason that this may occur is that:

Hip-hop culture normalizes sexism as acceptable social behavior,

delivering a message to youth that women have to engage in highly

sexualized performances resembling those in hip-hop music videos if they

are to be socially accepted or popular in a male-dominate society, (p. 37)

As such, adolescents' gender stereotype attitudes, coupled with continual

exposure to mediated portrayals of sexualized and submissive women and powerful men

can have detrimental effects on young people's behaviors and sexual health. For example,

scholars suggest that gender stereotypes can increase adolescents' vulnerability to

relational violence, sexual exploitation, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted

diseases by inhibiting communication and endorsing risky behavior (e.g., Sheers, 2002).
 15

These reasons stress the value of investigating the effects of media that portray gender in

stereotypical ways, like hip-hop music videos, on young viewers.

The popularity of hip-hop music videos itself encourages additional research that

examines whether hip-hop music videos affect young people's perceptions of women and

men. Younger viewers may be especially at risk, because they are in the process of

gender-role identity development and lack a variety of real-world experiences

(Nathanson, Wilson, McGee, & Sebastian, 2002). Adolescents may also be particularly

vulnerable to the gender stereotypes portrayed in some mainstream hip-hop videos,

according to Barongan and Hall (1995), "because they are more likely to perceive rap

artists as role models, and consequently, they may be more likely to believe the artists'

messages concerning women" (p. 205). The existence of negative effects of hip-hop

music on young people are documented by studies that find associations between

exposure to hip-hip and various detrimental attitudes and behaviors. In terms of

aggression, researchers have indicated that young adults who listen to hip-hip music

exhibit greater aggressive tendencies (Rubin, West, & Mitchell, 2001), and youth who

watch hip-hop videos are more likely to engage in aggressive or violent behaviors

(Wingood, DiClemente, Bernhardt, et al., 2003).

Aggressive behaviors toward women and young girls' acceptance of dating

violence have also been associated with hip-hop music and videos. An experimental

study found that college males who listened to hip-hop music that contained misogynistic

(i.e., derogatory to women) lyrics were more likely to show a sexually aggressive film

vignette to a female confederate than were those participants who listened to a neutral

hip-hop song (Barongan & Hall, 1995), suggesting that "misogynous music facilitates
 16

sexually aggressive behavior in the laboratory" (p. 203). An additional study revealed

that adolescent girls who viewed nonviolent hip-hop music videos depicting women in

"sexually subordinate positions" were significantly more likely to be accepting of dating

violence than were girls who did not view these videos (Johnson, Adams, Ashburn, &

Reed, 1995).

Along with associations between aggression and hip-hop, some empirical

evidence suggests that viewing hip-hop videos influences young people's conceptions

and judgments of gender (Gan, Zillman, & Mitrook, 1997; Johnson et al., 1995; Ward,

Hansbrough, & Walker, 2005). For example, Gan, Zillman, and Mitrook (1997) found

that hip-hop videos designed to be "sexually titillating" influenced young White viewers'

attitudes toward Black women outside of these videos and that viewers associated more

negative traits to Black, but not to White, women.

An additional study, conducted by Ward et al. (2005), examined 14-16 year-old

African American students and found that heavy viewers of hip-hop music videos were

more likely to hold stereotypical gender role attitudes and assign greater importance to

physical appearance and sexiness in their gender ideals. Respondents who watched

"videos laden with stereotypical representations of masculinity and femininity" also

reported more traditional gender stereotyped views (Ward et al., 2005, p. 159). Further,

Arganbright and Lee (2007) found that in an experimental condition, young males who

watched highly sexual hip-hop music videos reported higher levels of objectification of

women, traditional gender attitudes, and rape acceptance following viewing, than those

who watched hip-hop videos with low levels of sexual themes.

 17

Overall, this body of literature suggests two key points that guide the current

study: (1) hip-hop music videos often present stereotypic portrayals of females and

males, and (2) these portrayals of gender stereotypes in hip-hop music videos may

influence young people's attitudes and judgments of gender. Scholars (e.g., Nathanson,

2002) have called for more research that focuses on studying the effects of viewing

specific types of media that are popular among youth. Specifically, if viewing hip-hop

music videos is associated with more gender stereotyped attitudes, as most researchers

suggest, then the amount of time spent viewing these videos and adolescents' investment

in hip-hop culture may influence attitudes toward gender.

Throughout the past decade, hip-hop music has become one of the most popular

genres of music for young people. A 2002 survey of youth and media found that 65% of

adolescent respondents reported listening to hip-hop music the previous day, followed by

alternative rock at 32% (Kaiser, 2004). An additional project assessed hip-hop music and

video use among adolescents of different races (Cohen, Celestine-Michener, Holmes et

al., 2007). These researchers found that 58% of Black youth report listening to rap music

every day. This finding was followed in frequency by 45% Hispanic youth and 23%

White youth. Music videos in general are popular among young people, who report

spending approximately three hours a day viewing these media (Bell et al., 2007; Ward et

al., 2005). Music videos of hip-hop artists, specifically, are popular among young people,

with 48% of Black youth, 35% of Hispanic, and 12% of White youth reportedly watching

these videos several times a week (Cohen et al., 2007).

Whereas studies that have examined the effects of television have indicated that

young people who are more heavy viewers of television report higher estimates of sexual
 18

behaviors in the real world (Buerkel-Rothfuss & Strouse, 1993) and hold more sexist

views (Morgan, 1982, 1987; Signorielli & Lears, 1992), there is currently limited

evidence linking the amount of viewing hip-hop music videos to increased gender

stereotyping. One experimental study found, however, that, after viewing a hip-hop

music video portraying gender stereotypes, youth who were more frequent hip-hop music

video viewers were significantly more likely to endorse gender stereotypes (Ward et al.,

2005). This link between frequency of viewing and stereotype endorsement may be

particularly problematic among African-American adolescents, according to Ward et al.

(2005), who argued that, "[i]f media images are expected to have the greatest impact on

those who view them most, then Black children and teens may be especially at risk" (p.

146).

Given the research looking at the likelihood of amount of viewing on conceptions

of gender in other genres, heavy hip-hop video viewing should be related to greater

endorsement of gender stereotypes. Therefore, the following hypothesis is posed:

Hi: As adolescents' time spent viewing mainstream hip-hop music videos

increases, they will be more likely to adhere to more gender stereotyped

beliefs about women and men.

Criticism of hip-hop reaches beyond the medium of music videos. Critics (e.g.,

Hurt et al., 2006) have argued that hip-hop culture in general celebrates or reinforces

hypermasculinity and misogyny. In addition to music videos, hip-hop culture includes

other behaviors and symbols such as break-dancing, graffiti, clothing, and language

(Hamilton, 2004; Reese, 1998). Adolescents' conceptions and judgments of gender may

therefore be influenced by their level of involvement in hip-hop culture across a variety

 19

of domains (e.g., listening to hip-hop music, talking to friends about hip-hop music,

looking at hip-hop artists' web pages, creating music). Although research has examined,

albeit in a limited way, the effects of listening to hip-hop music and viewing hip-hop

videos separately, no published data exist that incorporate some of the different elements

of hip-hop and whether these elements together influence the ways that young people

think about women and men. For these reasons, the following research question is posed:

RCh: As adolescents' involvement in hip-hop culture increases, do their

stereotyped attitudes about women and men increase?

Given the concerns about hip-hop music videos discussed previously, it is worth

exploring mechanisms that might reduce the negative impact of these videos on youth. As

mentioned above, hip-hop activists, artists, politicians, and media professionals agree that

censorship of these videos is not a productive solution (Committee on Energy and

Commerce, 2007). Ayanna, who, as noted earlier is a writer for My Sistahs, an Internet

website created for young women of color by the Advocates of Youth organization, also

disagrees with censorship and suggests educating youth and individuals to be more

critical of the representations of women and men of color in hip-hop videos and culture

(Ayanna, 2009). Specifically, education in the home of adolescents may be another

solution. Indeed, media scholars have suggested that parents use music videos as a tool to

talk to their children about their views and values (e.g., Christenson & Roberts, 1998)

The current study investigates a form of parent-child communication called

parental mediation as a communication mechanism that may work to reduce the negative

impact that viewing stereotyped images in hip-hop music videos has on youth. Parental

mediation, or parent-child communication about television, has been found to influence

 20

the negative effects that television has on young viewers (see Nathanson, 2001a, for

review). Parental mediation of hip-hop music videos, however, has received little

empirical attention, despite findings that have indicated parental mediation's significant

role in influencing children's interpretation of television outside of the home (Nathanson,

1999). Therefore, the current study investigates the presence and role of parental

mediation of adolescents' viewing of hip-hop music videos. The following is an overview

of studies that have explored the predictors and effects of parental mediation of television

programs.

Parental Mediation

Professionals should be aware of the negative and antisocial content found in

many music videos. They should encourage parents to monitor and limit their

children's exposure to music videos. When values they disapprove of are

presented in a video, parents should express and discuss their disapproval with

their children. (Strouse et al., 1995, p. 6)

Based on the considerable amount of negative publicity that hip-hop music has

received, parents2 may be more involved in their child's music video viewing behavior

than they would otherwise. This assumption is based on research that indicates that

parents who are more concerned about negative effects of television on their children are

more likely to engage in their child's media behaviors (Warren, 2003). Parental influence

on media effects in general has received a substantial amount of attention, and many

scholars and proponents of media literacy underscore the important role that parents play

in influencing the effects of media on children (e.g., Austin et al., 1999; Chaffee et al.,

2
The term "parent" throughout this study refers to any adult primary caregiver or guardian of a child, not
necessarily a birth parent.
 21

1971; Nathanson, 1999; Schooler et al., 2006). It is unclear, however, how often parental

mediation of hip-hop music videos occurs and whether these mediations have an effect

on young peoples' perceptions and judgments of gender. Parents may influence a child's

interpretation of media content by engaging in discussions, restricting their child's media

use, or simply watching television together. These types of behaviors, referred to

collectively as parental mediation (Austin et al., 1999; Nathanson, 1999, 2001a, 2002),

include intentional (e.g., making rules about media use) and unintentional (e.g., viewing

television with a child for enjoyment) communication between parent and child about

media.

Parents engage in mediation of television content for a variety of reasons. For

example, if a mother feels that mediated content may have negative effects on her child,

she might set rules about viewing that content (Abelman, 2001) or watch programs with

the child (Warren, 2003) to assess their content. A father might also view television

programs with a child for simple enjoyment (Austin et al., 1999) or may talk about a

program in order to broaden his child's knowledge about a particular topic presented on

television (Messaris & Kerr, 1983). These parental behaviors may enhance or counter the

effects of visual media on young people by reinforcing messages or information present

in program content. Scholars have underscored the value of parental involvement in a

child's interpretation of media content (Austin et al., 1999; Chaffee et al., 1971;

Nathanson, 1999; Schooler et al., 2006). According to Abelman (2001), however,

children who are most in need of parental mediationthose that watch large amounts of

TV and whose parents believe that the media has no effect on their childrenare not

receiving it at home.
 22

The previous review shows that several behaviors are associated with the general

term "parental mediation." In an effort to integrate the various conceptualizations of

mediation that exist across the literature, Nathanson (2001a) suggests that theorists refer

to mediation simply as "interactions with children about television" (p. 119). The current

study adopts Nathanson's definition, which includes parent-child overt discussions about

the content of television programs (positive, negative and neutral), parental rules about

TV viewing, and parents and children watching television together.

The terminology used to denote different forms of parental mediation also varies

across studies (see Nathanson, 2001a, for review). For example, parent-child talk about

television has been referred to as active mediation (Austin, 1993; Nathanson, 1999),

instructive mediation (Valkenburg, Krcmar, Peeters, & Marseille, 1999; Warren, 2005),

and evaluative guidance (Van den Bulck & Van den Brgh, 2000); however, each of these

constructs is conceptualized as parents talking to their children about television programs.

Regardless of the variations across terms used to denote similar mediation behaviors,

three conceptually different types of mediation have been delineated (Valkenburg et al.,

1999). For purpose of clarity, the following terms that identify these three communicative

patterns of mediation will be used in this study: restrictive, active, and coviewing

(Nathanson, 1999, 2001a, 2002). In the following section, I discuss each of these.

Restrictive Mediation

Restrictive mediation involves parents implementing rules about television

viewing. Warren (2005) describes this type of mediation as "parents' rules regarding the

amount and/or time of viewing, permissible or forbidden types of content, and the use of

viewing as a behavioral reward of punishment" (p. 848). Parents who are more concerned
 23

about the behavioral effects, rather than cognitive effects, of television (Ableman, 2001)

and parents who are concerned about the negative effects of television viewing

(Abelman, 1990; Valkenburg et al., 1999; Warren, 2001, 2005) are more likely to

implement rules about their child's television viewing than are other parents.

Additionally, parents of low-income status (Warren, 2005), those with younger children

(Atkin et al., 1991; Warren, 2003), and parents with higher levels of education

(Valkenburg et al., 1999) have been found to use restrictive mediation more often than

their counterparts.

Restrictive mediation involves limiting a child's television viewing behavior at

home; however, it may also communicate the perceived importance or value of restricted

television content to a child (Nathanson, 1999). According to Nathanson, "Parents who

restrict their children's access to violent TV may more clearly communicate to their

children that the content is undesirable and not worthy of much attention" (p. 137).

Subsequently, restrictive mediation can lead to children paying less attention to

questionable television content.

The effects of parents implementing restrictions and rules for a child's television

use vary. Several studies have found that restrictive mediation can lead to positive

outcomes in children. For example, Nathanson (1999) found that children whose parents

engaged in restrictive mediation of violent programming had less aggressive tendencies

and paid less attention to violent material when viewed. Additionally, restrictive

mediation has been linked to less sexual experience among children (Schooler et al.,

2006). On the other hand, restrictive mediation may have unintended effects on children,

possibly leading to more favorable attitudes toward television content (Nathanson, 2002).
 24

For example, Nathanson (1999) suggests that parents who are highly restrictive with their

child's access to violent television may affect a child's aggressive tendencies in ways that

they did not mean to do. Specifically, aggressive tendencies may, in some cases, be

attributed to resentment that a child has for strict parental rules. In support of this

contention, adolescents who experience more restrictions of televised violence and sex

have been found to have less favorable feelings toward their parents and to view the

restricted content more often with friends (Nathanson, 2002).

Overall, the body of research on restrictive mediation suggests that parents control

media content in their home for a variety of reasons, most notably because of negative

attitudes toward television. The efficacy of restrictive mediation, however, appears to be

based on the amount of restrictions that parents place on their child's television viewing,

with both little restrictions in the home and high amounts of restrictions leading to more

favorable attitudes toward media content (Nathanson, 2002; Nathanson et al., 2002).

Additionally, studies have indicated that coupling restrictions with talk about the media

(i.e., active mediation) is an effective form of parental mediation.

Active Mediation

Communicative behaviors that involve discussions between a parent and child

about media content have been referred to as active (Austin, 1993), instructive

(Valkenburg et al., 1999; Warren, 2003), or evaluative mediation (Abelman, 2001),

although "active" is the term used most commonly and will be employed in the remainder

of this paper. As Austin (1993) explains, "the premise of active mediation as a valuable

parental intervention is predicated on the assumption that adults have mastered the

medium to a greater extent than have their children" (p. 149). Mothers and parents with
 25

more education have been found to practice active mediation more often than fathers and

those with less schooling (Valkenburg et al., 1999). Reports on the amount of active

mediation that occur in families vary. Several studies indicate that active mediation

occurs less often than other forms of mediation (Valkenburg et al., 1999), whereas others

suggest that active mediation is practiced more often than other types of mediation in

families (Austin et al., 1999).

Theorists have suggested that active mediation is an especially effective

communicative method for influencing the ways in which young people interpret the

media (Austin, 1993; Austin, Roberts, & Nass, 1990). For example, adolescents who talk

more often with their parents about television tend to be more skeptical of visual media

(Austin, 1993). They also have higher self-esteem (Schooler et al., 2006), are more

satisfied with their bodies (Schooler et al., 2006), and are less aggressive (Nathanson,

1999). Additionally, active mediation that takes place at home has been found to

influence children's interpretation of television outside of the home (Nathanson, 1999).

Researchers dichotomize active mediation into two distinct forms: positive and

negative mediation (Austin et al., 1999; Fujioka & Austin, 2003). Positive mediation

involves parents talking to children about the favorable aspects of television content or

essentially endorsing media content. It has been found to occur most often due to

"happenstance," whereas negative mediation is more intentional and related to parents'

trying actively to protect their children from the effects of television content (Austin,

Knaus, & Meneguelli, 1997). Single parents and those with more children and higher

income levels have been found to engage in more positive mediation than do other

parents (Austin et al., 1997). In addition, parents who engage in high levels of positive
 26

mediation and low levels of negative mediation express the most positive opinions of

television, are least likely to be skeptical about advertisements, and consider television a

good babysitter for their children (Austin et al., 1999).

Negative mediation, on the other hand, refers to parent-child talk that criticizes or

opposes media content. According to Nathanson (1999):

When children consistently hear negative commentary regarding violent TV, or

when their access to it is consistently restricted, they learn that the material is of

little significance. Thus, even when they do watch violent programming, they are

less likely to take its messages seriously and imitate what they see. (p. 137)

Several studies have indicated that parents report using negative mediation more often

than other forms of mediation (Austin et al., 1999; Austin et al.,1997; Fortman, Clarke, &

Austin, 1998), and mothers have been found to use negative mediation more often than

fathers (Fortman et al., 1998). Further, parents who engage in higher levels of negative

mediation tend to be more skeptical about advertisements, watch less prime-time

television, and are more concerned about the negative effects of television on children

than are other parents (Austin et al., 1999).

Besides these valenced forms of mediation, active mediation may also include a

nonvalenced category, where a parent simply discusses the content of a program without

judgment (Austin et al., 1997; Fortman et al., 1998). This type of mediation has not been

linked to any behavioral or cognitive outcomes, yet researchers report that parents cite

nonvalenced mediation occurring "often" in families (Austin et al., 1997; Fortman et al.,

1998). Parents' education level, family income, and number of children, have been found

to be unrelated to parents' unvalenced mediation, however (Austin et al., 1997).

 27

In sum, parents may have active positive, negative, or non-valenced discussions

about television programs with their children. When parents' intention is to counter the

potential negative effects of television content, negative mediation has been suggested as

the most effective method (Nathanson, 2001a; Nathanson et al., 2002). Researchers have

also recommended that active mediation is more effective when parents talk to their

children during viewing rather than times when they are not viewing television (e.g.,

Nathanson, 2002). According to Nathanson, "although it is possible to teach young

children lessons about gender roles in the absence of stereotyped television, gender

schema theory implies that these lessons will be more effective when schemata have been

activated [e.g., when children are viewing television]" (p. 934). Watching television

together (i.e., coviewing), however, has been shown to positively predict positive

mediation but not negative mediation (Austin et al., 1999).

Coviewing

Coviewing occurs when a parent or caregiver engages in a media activity with

the child (e.g., watching television together), without discussion of that media content

(Nathanson, 2002; Valkenburg et al., 1999; Warren, 2003). Parental intent for this type of

mediation has been described as the parent and child sharing a "set of motivations for

viewing (e.g., out of common interest or fun)" (Warren, 2005). For example, a mother

may sit and watch a television program with her son without any type of instructive

communication, because she simply enjoys the program. Although some scholars have

argued that coviewing is not considered a type of mediation (see, for example,

Weintraub, 1999, p. 177), others have suggested that simply watching a television show
 28

with a child may convey parental endorsement of a program's content, which may

increase a child's positive attitude toward mediated content (e.g., Nathanson, 2002).

Coviewing has been found to occur frequently in adolescent homes. In a study of

847 adolescents, researchers found that 94% of their participants reported watching

television with their parents at some point in time and 73% reported that watching

television with their parents was a "normative occurrence" (Schooler et al., 2006). Data

on parent-child viewing behavior also indicate that coviewing occurs more often in

homes where children watch more television (Valkenburg et al., 1999), when families are

watching programs directed at general audiences (St. Peters, Fitch, Huston, Wright, &

Eakins, 1991), with parents who have more time to spend with children (Warren, 2003),

among younger children (Fortman et al., 1998), and for parents with less education

(Austin et al., 1997).

Studies have also shown that parent-child coviewing, combined with low levels of

parental control and no discussion about television, can leave adolescents more

susceptible to the negative effects of television (Rothschild & Morgan, 1987). As well,

parental coviewing has been related to increased levels of TV-induced aggressive

inclinations among children (Nathanson, 1999) and watching more "objectionable"

television programs with peers (Nathanson, 2002). In sum, parent-child coviewing of

television appears largely to be a result of sharing similar interests in a program and

occurs more often in families who tend to watch more television. These associations

make sense, as families who watch more television most likely will view television

together more often than do families who do not engage in as much television viewing
 29

behavior. Coviewing, however, may lead to unintentional endorsement of television

content if not coupled with negative parental mediation.

Summary

The body of research on parental mediation underscores, in most cases, the value

of parental involvement in influencing potentially damaging effects of television and

enhancing positive effects of media on young people. Reports of the amount of particular

types of mediation behaviors vary across studies, however. For example, some research

shows that parents tend to use negative mediation most often with children and

adolescents (Austin et al., 1999; Austin et al., 1997; Fortman et al., 1998), whereas other

studies report parents more often engaging in restrictive mediation (e.g., Warren, 2003).

The higher occurrence of negative mediation, however, may be a result of

surveying exclusively parents' perspectives of mediation behaviors. More specifically, a

number of researchers have analyzed mediation practices based on parental self-reports

of mediation behaviors (e.g., Austin et al., 1999; Austin et al., 1997; Fortman et al., 1998;

St. Peters et al., 1991; Warren, 2003, 2005). Parents' responses may be problematic

because they may, for example, overestimate their mediation behaviors as they perceive

that such actions are socially desirable (Desmond et al., 1985). Moreover, other scholars

emphasize the value of examining both parents' and children's perspectives, as they most

likely differ (e.g., Fortman, 1998). For these reasons, and as will be seen, the current

study examines self-reports by parents and their children.

Mediating Hip-Hop Music Videos

Although studies report variations in the types of mediation practiced in homes,

the body of literature investigating mediation suggests that many parents are involved, or
 30

at least report being involved, in their child's overall television behavior. Specific

parental mediation of adolescents' hip-hop music video viewing, however, is less clear.

Yet, scholars have suggested that parental coviewing and discussion about music and

music videos with children can be ideal "teachable moments" for parents. According to

Christenson and Roberts (1998),

Teachable moments can also emerge from the lyrics of a particular song, an image

in a music video, or simply the presence of a parental advisory label on a

teenager's latest album purchase. Teachable moments like these provide kids an

opportunity to articulate what they think and give parents an opportunity to

express (not expound) their own views, values, and standards, (p. 249)

As discussed previously, mainstream hip-hop music videos have been a target of

criticism for their stereotypical portrayals of women and men and for their overly

sexualized images (Committee on Energy and Commerce, 2007; Garland, 2003; Rap

Sessions, 2007). Like most genres of music, however, the content of mainstream hip-hop

videos varies, and not every video portrays negative images of men and women. Parents

may therefore not believe that mediation is needed for the genre of videos as a whole,

and, perhaps because of this, the frequency and type of mediation of hip-hop music

videos that occur in families is unclear. Additionally, published studies to date have not

yet examined the relationship between adolescents' attitudes about gender, their hip-hop

music video viewing behavior, and parental mediation.

The current study explores whether different types of parental mediation of hip-

hop music videos are related to adolescents' views and attitudes about gender

stereotypes. Therefore, the following research questions are posited:

 31

RQ2a: What types of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos do adolescents

and parents report and how often do they report different types of

mediation of hip-hop music videos occurring in homes of adolescents?

RQ2b: Are coviewing, active mediation, and restrictive mediation of hip-hop

music videos predictive of adolescents' gender stereotyped attitudes about

women and men?

Parental mediation, especially negative and restrictive mediation, of hip-hop

music videos may encourage adolescents to develop more critical attitudes toward these

videos. For example, restrictions that parents place on their child's viewing of hip-hop

music videos may communicate parents' criticism of these videos. Children from homes

where parents talk more often about the negative content of hip-hop music videos may

also become more skeptical of these videos. Consequently, these types of parental

mediation may predict adolescents' adoption of their parents' skeptical and critical

attitudes toward hip-hop music videos. Therefore, the following hypothesis is posed:

H2: As adolescents' reports of negative and restrictive parental mediation of hip-

hop music videos increase, their negative attitudes about hip-hop music videos

will also increase.

Precursor Variables and Mediation of Hip-Hop Music Videos

Studies have revealed several precursor variables predictive of the type and

amount of parental mediation that takes place in families. Generally speaking, parents

tend to practice television mediation more often with younger children than they do with

older children (Valkenburg et al., 1999). Researchers have suggested, however, that

higher occurrences of mediation among parents with younger children may be based
 32

largely on parental concern about the negative effects of television rather than on a

child's age (Warren, 2003). For example, Warren found that when age is controlled for,

television attitudes are stronger predictors of parental mediation, with more negative

attitudes toward television leading to more mediation (Warren, 2003). In other words,

parents' negative attitudes toward television, coupled with concerns that younger

adolescents and children are more susceptible to these negative effects, are more likely

the reason that younger people receive more mediation than do older children. According

to Abelman (1990), "[a]mong the most prominent factors that are likely to contribute to

the amount of parental control of the home-viewing situation are parents' perceptions of

television's impact on their children" (p. 313).

Due to the negative criticism directed at hip-hop music videos, the degree of

parental concern about the effects of their children viewing hip-hop music videos may

well predict their mediation behavior. Within this general concern, parents may be more

uneasy about younger adolescents viewing these videos due, perhaps, to the sexually

suggestive content and the gender stereotypical portrayals within some of these videos.

For these reasons, the following hypotheses are posited:

H3: As parents' negative views of hip-hop music videos increase, their reports of

engaging in restrictive and negative mediation of hip-hop music videos with

their child will increase.

H4: As parents' reports that hip-hop music videos negatively affect their child

increase, their reports of engaging in restrictive and negative mediation of

hip-hop music videos will increase.

 33

H5: As adolescents' age increases, their reports of parental mediation of hip-hop

music videos will decrease.

Parental mediation may also be predicted by parents' biological sex. Mothers

more often than fathers mediate children's television viewing (Valkenburg et al., 1999),

and mothers have been found to practice negative mediation more often than do fathers

(Fortman et al., 1998). Fortman and colleagues, however, did not find a difference

between mothers and fathers coviewing or non-valenced mediation behaviors. Therefore,

it is unclear whether sex of parent relates to mediation of hip-hop music videos. Given

this uncertainly, the following research question is proposed:

RO3: Is there a difference in parental mediation of adolescents' hip-hop music

videos based on sex of the parent?

As noted, given the range of content in hip-hop music, parents may believe that

their children are not affected by these videos and may therefore not engage in mediation

behaviors with their children. According to the third-person effect research (e.g., Hoffner

& Buchanan, 2002), parents believe that other children are more affected by television

content than their own and this belief may influence their mediation practices; however, it

is unclear whether parents who believe that other children are more affected by hip-hop

music videos than their own child will engage in more or less mediation of hip-hop music

videos. For these reasons, the following hypothesis and research question are posited:

He: Parents will believe that other children are more affected than are their own

by hip-hop music videos.

RQ4: As the discrepancy in parents' reports that other, rather than their own,

children are more affected by hip-hop music videos increase, will they
 34

engage in more or fewer mediation behaviors?

Family Communication Patterns

Parental mediation is only one mode of a larger set of communication behaviors

that may occur in the family. As such, researchers interested in interactions in the family

also recognize other important processes that may be related to television use. Most

notably, family communication patterns (FCP), the general and fairly stable patterns of

communication that exist in families (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004), have been

investigated as important interpersonal dynamics, ones that affect an array of other

variables.

Examining the family through the communicative patterns that constituteand

are influenced bya shared social reality among members is based on work by McLeod

and Chaffee (1972, 1973). According to Koerner and Fitzpatrick (2004), these

communication processes (discussed below), "determine the communication behavior

and practices in families and therefore are associated with a large number of important

outcomes for families that ostensibly have nothing to do with sharing social reality"

(p. 182). Much of the early work using FCP focused on the relationship between family

communication and media-related variables. For example, family communication

patterns have been associated with media use in the family (Chaffee, McLeod, & Atkin,

1971), children's interpretation of violence viewed on television (Krcmar, 1998), how

families choose television programs when there is conflict over programs (Dimmick,

1976), and mothers' comments about television to children (Messaris & Kerr, 1983).

Additionally, the patterns of communication and parental control within families

have been linked to parents' mediation practices (Fujioka & Austin, 2002; Messaris &
 35

Kerr, 1983) as well as to various psychosocial and behavioral outcomes in children (see

Fitzpatrick & Ritchie, 1994, for a review). For instance, parents who stress more open

communication and expressing one's opinion, regardless of whether others disagree

(socio-orientation), are more likely to practice both positive and negative active

mediation with adolescent children (Fujioka & Austin, 2002). Parents who emphasize

relational harmony and parental control within a family (concept-orientation), on the

other hand, are more likely to engage in positive mediation, coviewing, and use TV rating

systems when determining the types of programs appropriate for their children (Fujioka

& Austin, 2002). It is important to note, however, that whereas parents may sometimes

dictate the patterns of communication that occur in families, a child's behavior typically

influences these patterns as well (Saphir & Chaffee, 2002).

Some researchers consider FCP to be a form of parental mediation, albeit indirect,

but distinct from active, restrictive, and coviewing mediation behaviors (e.g., Fujioka &

Austin, 2002; Nathanson, 2001a). According to Nathanson, "family communication

patterns have been considered mediation in that parents are believed to provide children

with a frame of reference for selecting and interpreting television" (p. 118). At the same

time, she suggests that parental mediation and FCP be specified as distinct constructs,

with parental mediation referring to parent-child interactions about television and FCP

referring to the more broad patterns of communication that occur within families.

Examining family communication patterns is therefore pertinent to the current

investigation, as particular characteristics of communication in families may predict the

types of mediation of hip-hop music videos enacted by parents. Communication patterns

 36

may also explain adolescents' hip-hop music video viewing behaviors. For these reasons,

I turn next to the literature on family communication patterns.

Family Communication Patterns Theory

The family communication patterns theory and instrument were developed in an

effort to examine how general communication patterns at home influence media, such as

television, socialize young people. This theory is based on McLeod and Chaffee's (1972,

1973) work on social cognition in dyadic interactions, which centers on the concept of

coorientation. Coorientation relates to the evaluations of two persons on a particular

object, with both of those persons being aware of the other. This process includes

individuals' evaluations of the object as well as their assumptions of how the other is

evaluating that same object (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004). McLeod and Chaffee (1973)

proposed that these evaluations lead to mutuality (agreement of evaluations between

individuals), accuracy (correctness of one individual's perception of the other's

evaluation and the other's actual evaluation), and/or congruency (the similarity between

an individual's evaluation of the object and their perceptions of the other's evaluation).

These three factors determine whether a group has attained a shared social reality

(McLeod & Chaffee, 1972).

McLeod and Chaffee (1972) posited two distinct but interrelated ways that

families achieve a shared social reality or agreement. The first, concept-orientation,

involves family discussions about the object in question, where controversy is welcome,

and collectively forming a shared evaluation. The second approach, socio-orientation,

occurs when one family member's evaluation of the object, most often the parent's, is

recognized and then adopted. Socio-oriented norms traditionally have been linked to
 37

harmonious family relations. These interrelated constructs each differentiate how

adolescents are socialized by agents outside of the family, such as the media. For

example, children from more concept-oriented families report that a violent act viewed

on television that is motivated (e.g., a character, who is being beaten by another

character, hits the aggressor back) is more justified, than those from lower concept-

oriented families (Krcmar, 1998)

The two constructs have been used in a variety of studies that examine the role of

family in the socialization process of children; over time, researchers have revised the

concepts both conceptually and operationally by emphasizing the communicative

component of each dimension (Ritchie, 1991; Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990), a process that

resulted in a measure called the Revised Family Communication Patterns (RFCP) scale.

Specifically, the researchers' findings indicate that concept-orientation is related to open

communication in the family and the value that parents place on the child's opinions

(conversation orientation) and socio-orientation is related to parental power to gain

compliance and conformity from children (conformity orientation)3. Research on family

communication patterns most often measures variations across family members'

perceptions of concept-orientation and socio-orientation. Researchers have used family

members' reports to create a typology of family types based on both constructs.

The typology created using the FCP and RFCP instruments includes four distinct

family types based on the constructs of concept-orientation and socio-orientation in the

family. For example, consensual families are those that are high on both concept- and

' Studies that use the FCP instrument refer to both constructs as concept-orientation and socio-orientation,
whereas studies that use the RFCP refer to these constructs as conversation orientation and conformity
orientation. Although the studies that are discussed in the following section utilize either instrument, for
reasons of clarity the current study will refer to each construct as concept-orientation and socio-orientation
even when discussing research that utilized the RFCP instrument.
 38

socio-orientation. In terms of influences outside of the family, children from these

families tend to adopt the beliefs and values of their parents and are persuaded by

messages consistent with their parents' beliefs (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2002). Pluralistic

families are those that are high in concept-orientation and low in socio-orientation.

Children from these families are most often influenced by messages based on rational

arguments (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2002). Protective families, those that are low in

concept-orientation and high on socio-orientation, are more easily influenced by outside

authorities, regardless of the quality of an argument (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2002).

Finally, laissez-faire families are low on both constructs and children from these families

are more influenced by their peers and other sources outside the family (Koerner &

Fitzpatrick, 2002).

Concept-Orientation

As stated previously, concept-orientation involves the encouragement of open

communication (e.g., unrestrained interaction, sharing ideas and feelings) in the family

(Fitzpatrick & Ritchie, 1994; Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004, 2006). Families high in

concept-orientation view communication between parent and child as a means of

socializing children, encouraging the freedom of family members to openly engage in

discussions and children to speak their mind (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004, 2006). In

addition, parents from families with higher levels of concept-orientation have a greater

understanding of their child's self-concept (Sillars, Koerner, & Fitzpatrick, 2005), and

children from these families report being more satisfied with family life in general

(Dixson, 1995). During conflict episodes, children from families that are higher in

concept-orientation are less likely to avoid conflict and more likely to seek social support
 39

than are children from other family types (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 1997). Essentially,

concept-oriented families have what can be described as a more "democratic" view of

decision-making in their household.

Studies have associated parents of concept-oriented families with a variety of

television-related variables. For example, parents in concept-oriented families have been

found to use television to communicate ideas, such as transmitting family values and

regulating children's experiences, but they do not use this medium as a social tool (Lull,

1980). Additionally, concept-oriented mothers tend to provide nondirective critical

comments to children about television (e.g., explaining distinctions between good and

bad characters on television, discussing the morals of programs), point out unrealistic

elements of television programs, and offer neutral commentary that broadens a child's

understanding of television programs (Messaris & Kerr, 1983).

Given these patterns, adolescents from families higher in concept-orientation will

more likely discuss hip-hop music videos with their parents than adolescents from

families lower in concept-orientation. Indeed, research has indicated that parents from

families that are high in concept-orientation tend to practice more negative and positive

active mediation and in general discuss more issues with their children (Fujioka &

Austin, 2002). For these reasons, the following hypothesis is posed:

H7: As adolescents' reports of concept-orientation increase, their reports of active

mediation of hip-hop music videos will increase.

The relationship between concept-oriented families and the practice of restrictive

mediation is less clear; however, data from research on parental mediation and family

communication patterns suggest that particular characteristics of parents may lead to

 40

more restrictive mediation practices. For example, and as noted, parents who are more

concerned about the negative effects of television viewing (Abelman, 1990; Valkenburg

et al., 1999; Warren, 2001, 2005) are also more likely to implement rules about their

child's television viewing (i.e., restriction mediation). Parents who are high in concept-

orientation tend to read more hard news and discuss politics with their children; those

children are subsequently more knowledgeable about political matters (Chaffee, McLeod,

& Wackman, 1973). Saphir and Chaffee (2002), likewise, found that children from

families that were more concept-oriented were more likely to initiate discussions about

news and politics with parents than did those from families who were lower in concept-

orientation.

Given that mainstream hip-hop music and videos have been criticized often by the

news media, parents from concept-oriented families may be more knowledgeable about

the potential negative effects of this genre of music. This knowledge may lead to more

concern about children's video viewing and more parental restrictions of hip-hop music

video viewing. Additionally, adolescents from more concept-oriented families should be

likely to engage in more open discussion about music video content and negative

mediation. For these reasons, the following hypotheses are posed:

Hs: As adolescents' reports of concept-orientation increase, their reports of

restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos will also increase.

H9: As parents' reports of concept-orientation increase, their attention to news

will increase and therefore their reports of negative and restrictive mediation

of their child's hip-hop music video viewing behavior will also increase.
 41

Children from families who are high in concept-orientation have been found to

view television in ways that reflect the patterns of communication in their families. For

example, children from families who stress more open communication have been found

to watch fewer programs with fantasy violence (Krcmar & Viereira, 2005) and generally

spend less time viewing television (Chaffee et al., 1971; Chaffee et al., 1973). Given the

apparently limited time that children from concept-oriented families spend viewing

television, there is less opportunity for parents to coview this type of media with children.

Given these contentions, the following hypothesis is posed:

Hio: As adolescents' reports of concept-orientation increase, their reports of

coviewing hip-hop music videos with parents will decrease.

Socio-Orientation

The socio-orientation dimension relates to communication in the family that

stresses the unity of values and beliefs among members (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004,

2006). Family types that are highly oriented toward conformity among members stress

the homogeny of values and opinions, obedience of children to parents, sharing of

resources among family members, and high levels of interdependence and cohesion

(Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004, 2006). Because of these characteristics, children from

families high in socio-orientation tend to be socialized to look to others for meaning and

follow rules (Koerner, 2007). In addition, high socio-oriented families tend to avoid

conflict but, when engaged in it, often vent negative feelings (Koerner & Fitzpatrick,

1997). Further, a variety of media-related variables have been associated with parents and

children from socio-orientated families. For instance, socio-oriented families use

television to illustrate experience, reduce anxiety, model behavior, reinforce rules, and
 42

make consumer decisions (Lull, 1980). In addition, these types of families have been

found to use media more heavily than do families low in socio-orientation or high in

concept-orientation (Chaffee et al., 1971; Lull, 1980).

Parents from socio-oriented families, on the other hand, tend to practice positive

mediation and coviewing as well as to use TV rating systems to determine TV program

selection for their child (Fujioka & Austin, 2002). Based on their findings, Fujioka and

Austin suggest that "socio-oriented parents tend to make rules or use TV ratings systems,

but they engage in less critical discussion. This is problematic because open discussion

that encourages reflection seems important to the development of valuable literacy skills"

(p. 656). Parents may exercise more power and control in these types of families, but

Lull's (1980) findings suggest that television is generally not utilized for exercising

parental authority in socio-oriented families. Given these conflicting findings, and that

restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos has not yet been examined, the following

research question is asked:

RQ5: Are adolescents' reports of socio-orientation predictive of their reports of

restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos?

In general, parents from socio-oriented families tend to engage in less open-

communication or take into account their child's opinions when making family decisions.

Socio-oriented families also engage in the highest amount of television viewing,

providing parents greater opportunity to mediate their child's interpretation of television

content actively. Fujioka and Austin (2002) found that socio-orientation was a strong

predictor of positive mediation, but it was not predictive of negative mediation within

these families. Additional research indicates that socio-oriented parents stress to their
 43

children that they should not imitate television personalities and that parents affirm

realities viewed on television, such as crime and murder (Messaris & Kerr, 1983). Due to

the variations across these findings, the current study poses the following research

questions:

RQ6: Are adolescents' reports of socio-orientation predictive of their reports of

positive mediation of hip-hop music videos?

RO7: Are adolescents' reports of socio-orientation predictive of their reports of

negative mediation of hip-hop music videos?

Socio-oriented families watch more television than do concept-oriented families,

and they also tend to find this medium useful as a social resource that is useful for

entertainment and family solidarity (Lull, 1980). Indeed, several studies have found that

these families participate in large amounts of television use, but little news consumption

(e.g., Austin & Nelson, 1993; Chaffee et al., 1971). In addition, socio-oriented families

watch television together more often than do other families (Fujioka & Austin, 2002).

Although these families tend to watch heavy amounts of television, it is unclear whether

parents would engage in coviewing hip-hop music videos, a popular medium among

young audiences but not among adults. Therefore, the following research question is

posed:

RQs: Are adolescents' reports of socio-orientation predictive of their reports of

coviewing hip-hip music videos with their parents?

Family Communication Patterns and Viewing Hip-Hop Music Videos

As with parental mediation, much of the research examining the relationship

between family communication patterns and media-related outcomes has focused on

 44

television programs in general (e.g., Dimmick, 1976; Fujioka & Austin, 2002; Krcmar &

Vieira, 2005; Lull, 1980; Messaris & Kerr, 1983). Several studies have looked at specific

television programs such as news shows (e.g., Chaffee et al., 1973; Meadowcroft, 1986),

mainstream music videos (e.g., Thompson & Pingree, 1991; Thompson, Walsh-Childers,

& Brown, 1993), and violent programs (e.g., Krcmar, 1998). The current study, on the

other hand, concerns the ways that concept and socio-orientation within families are

related to adolescents' hip-hop music video viewing behaviors and their

conceptualizations and judgments of gender. The following section presents research

questions and hypotheses that are grounded in research that has examined FCP, the

media, and young people.

As discussed, adolescents and parents from concept-oriented families tend to

watch less television than do those from socio-oriented families. These viewing behaviors

have been found consistently across studies that examine general television viewing

(Lull, 1980; Chaffee et al., 1971; Chaffee et al., 1973), programs containing fantasy

violence (Krcmar & Vieira, 2005), and news-oriented television programs (Chaffee et al.,

1973). Consistent with the research question and hypothesis proposed above that involve

parent-child coviewing, adolescents from families higher in concept-orientation should

more likely to spend less time watching hip-hop music videos, and children from families

higher in socio-emotional orientation should spend less time viewing the videos. For

these reasons, the following hypothesis is stated:

Hn: As adolescent reports of concept-orientation increase, their reported time

spent watching television will decrease, and as adolescent reports of socio-

orientation increase, their reports of time watching television will increase.

 45

Hi2: As adolescent reports of concept-orientation increase, their reported time

spent watching hip-hop music videos will decrease, and as adolescent reports

of socio-orientation increase, their reports of time spent watching hip-hop

music videos will increase.

Summary

As a whole, the body of research on parental mediation suggests that parent-child

communication about television programs influences various attitudinal outcomes of

adolescent viewers. This dissertation seeks to extend our knowledge of parental

mediation by examining communication about hip-hop music videos, a specific type of

music television program that has received little attention in this body of literature. I

argue that parental mediation of hip-hop music videos is an effective communication

strategy that can encourage young viewers to be critical of the gender stereotyped

portrayals of characters and artists in these videos.

Based on previous media effects research and social criticism about sexist

portrayals in hip-hop music videos, the first objective of this study is to investigate the

relationship between viewing hip-hop music videos and adolescents' attitudes about

gender stereotypes and hip-hop music videos. In addition, adolescents' level of

involvement in hip-hop culture will be assessed as a potential predictor of gender

stereotyped attitudes. The second objective, and largely the basis of this study, is to

examine the occurrence, efficacy, and predictors of parental mediation of hip-hop music

videos.

To achieve these objectives, the first phase of this study involves focus group

sessions where adolescent fans of hip-hop music will discuss their attitudes about gender
 46

portrayals in hip-hop music videos and assess a survey instrument. The second phase of

this study seeks to test hypotheses and answer research questions by surveying

adolescents and parents. The following chapter discusses this dissertation's methodology.
 47

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODS

In order to assess the relationship between young people's reported hip-hop music

video viewing behavior, gender stereotyping, parental mediation, and family

communication patterns, the current study employs survey methodology. Survey items,

drawn from valid and reliable measures employed in previous studies, were used to

construct an initial version of parent and child surveys. The surveys were modified based

on feedback from youth in two focus group sessions conducted after the initial survey

was constructed. The following section describes the procedures of survey construction,

the items included in adolescent and parent surveys, the changes to surveys based on

focus group feedback, survey recruitment and data collection procedures, and final

survey item reliability coefficients.

Step One: Survey Construction

Adolescent Survey Development and Items

Studies that have investigated parental mediation have most often employed

survey methodologies. The advantages of this method of inquiry is its usefulness in

describing occurrences and characteristics of parental mediation among larger

populations (Babbie, 2001) as well as exploring predictors of parental mediation (Fujioka

& Austin, 2002; Nathanson, 2001b; Valkenburg et al., 1999; Warren, 2001, 2003, 2005).

Surveys are also advantageous in examining relationships between different types of

parental mediation and outcome variables such as children's interpretations of mediation

messages (Nathanson, 2001b), identification with television characters (Austin, Roberts,

 48

& Nass, 1990), media consumption (Van den Bulck & Van den Bergh, 2000), and

attitudes toward parents and mediated content (Nathanson, 2002).

The current study investigates the reported occurrence and role of parental

mediation of hip-hop music videos. The hypotheses and research questions posed in the

previous chapter prompt an exploration of characteristics of parents who engage in

mediation behaviors, characteristics of children who receive mediation, and relationships

between parental mediation and adolescents' attitudes toward gender and hip-hop music

videos. The relationship between time spent viewing hip-hop music videos, involvement

in hip-hop culture, and attitudes toward gender will also be investigated. As such, the first

phase of this project involved constructing surveys for both parents and adolescents. The

following discusses the survey items included in the initial survey, which was examined

and critiqued by focus group participants.

Adolescent Survey Development and Items

Views of gender. Investigators have employed a variety of different survey items

to explore the relationship between the media and adolescents attitudes toward and

beliefs about gender (e.g., Morgan, 1987; Signorielli & Lears, 1992; Ward et al., 2000).

The current study borrowed items from two previously established measures that were

developed to assess how young people view men and women. The Attitudes toward

Women Scale for Adolescence (ATSWA) was utilized by Ward et al. (2005) in their

study of hip-hop music videos and adolescents' sexual schemas. Ward and colleagues

used this scale to examine young African-American adolescents' (M = 16 years) views of

gender. The current study utilized items from the following two scales adopted and
 49

revised by Ward and colleagues: Attitudes toward Women Scale for Adolescents

(ATWSA; Galambos et al., 1985) and Sexual Stereotypes (Ward et al., 2005).

The ATWSA and Sexual Stereotypes scale were chosen because of their

relevance to the current study. For example, the ATWSA was constructed to assess

adolescent's global views of women and gender stereotypes, therefore, survey items of

this measure should be comprehendible for young respondents. The Sexual Stereotypes

Scale was constructed and modified, "to better reflect themes appearing in [hip-hop]

music videos" (Ward et al., 2005). This measurement tool is appropriate for the current

study, because items reflect the way that women and men are portrayed in hip-hop music

videos.

The ATWSA includes 12 items that assess adolescents' global views of women

and gender roles. Response options to scale items are rated on a 4-point scale ranging

from 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree). This scale was tested on four different

samples of young people ranging from sixth through twelfth grade and whose socio-

economic backgrounds varied (Galambos et al., 1985). The authors reported relatively

high levels of internal consistency for the ATWSA items among both boys (reported a =

.78; Galambos et al., 1985) and girls (reported a = .72; Galambos et al., 1985). The

response options for these items were changed to a 5-point scale to include a "neutral"

category.

The Sexual Stereotypes measure assesses respondents' views of sexual

stereotypes and roles in relationships (Ward et al., 2000). This measure is a modified

version of the Attitudes toward Dating and Relationships measure (Ward & Rivadeneyra,

1999) and also includes items from the Adversarial Sexual Beliefs Scale (Burt, 1980) and
 50

items created by Ward and colleagues (2005) to reflect stereotypic themes portrayed in

music videos. The items combined from these scales resulted in a final measure (i.e., the

Sexual Stereotype scale) that consists of 14 items achieving significant reliability

(reported a = .83; Ward et al., 2000). The items from this scale were included in the

current study's initial survey. Response options on Ward and colleagues' Sexual

Stereotypes Scale were rated on a 6-point scale. For the current study, response options

were rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). Responses

from focus group participants suggested whether more items should be added to these

scales, whether the current items need rewording, and whether particular items should be

dropped from these scales.

Media behavior. Several survey items were included in the initial adolescent

survey to assess the amount of time that respondents spend watching music videos,

listening to hip-hop music, and watching television in general. A common method for

assessing media use is to employ a scale to assess the amount of viewing specific

television programs (e.g., Austin et al., 1999). For the current study, one item assessed

the amount of hip-hop music videos adolescents report viewing on television ("How

often do you watch rap/hip-hop music videos on television?"), and an additional question

asked about viewing hip-hop music videos on the Internet ("How often do you watch

rap/hip-hop music videos on the Internet?"). The survey also included a question about

the amount of time respondents spend listening to hip-hop music ("How often do you

listen to rap/hip-hop music?"). Response options for each question are rated on a 4-point

scale with the following choices: "Never," "Several times a month," "Several days a

week," and "Everyday." Following similar studies that have assessed hip-hop video
 51

viewing using open-ended questions (e.g., Ward et al., 2005; Wingood et al., 2003), three

items were included in the initial survey that ask adolescent respondents the average

number of hours in a typical week that they watch rap/hip-hop music videos on

television, listen to rap/hip-hop music, and watch rap/hip-hop videos on the Internet.

Studies have assessed general television viewing behavior using open-ended

questions that ask survey respondents to estimate the amount of time in a day that they

spend watching television (e.g., Morgan, 1982, 1987; Signorielli & Lears, 1992). The

current study adopted a similar self-report measure of television use to assess the amount

of television viewing of respondents. Accordingly, two open-ended questions were asked:

"How often do you watch television on an average weekday?" and "How often do you

watch television on an average day on the weekend?" Based on previous research (e.g.,

Signorielli & Lears, 1992), these estimates were summed to provide a score for

respondents' overall viewing.

Involvement in hip-hop culture. Seven survey items were created for this study to

assess respondents' involvement in hip-hop culture. Hip-hop music videos may influence

the ways that young people think about gender; however, it has been suggested that hip-

hop culture promotes sexist and misogynistic values as well (Chung, 2007; Hurt et al.,

2006). Hip-hop culture is multi-faceted and is reflected in styles of clothing, involvement

in creating music (e.g., DJing and MCing), break-dancing, and producing graffiti art.

Survey items that measured adolescents' reported involvement in hip-hop culture should

indicate whether the level of involvement in hip-hop culture is related to adolescent

respondents' views of gender.

 52

As there is no existing scale to measure involvement in hip-hop culture, items that

reflect the various dimensions of hip-hop culture were created for the current study.

These items were developed based on literature and documentaries that discuss hip-hop

culture (e.g., Chang, 2005; Hurt et al., 2006; Reese, 1998) and my knowledge of this

culture. Focus group participants were asked about the various facets of hip-hop culture

in order to ensure that this scale includes the range of dimensions in hip-hop culture.

The following survey items were developed and used to measure adolescents'

involvement in hip-hop culture: "How often do you (1) make hip-hop music?; (2) search

for information on the Internet about hip-hop music and artists?; (3) dance to hip-hop

music?; (4) create graffiti art?; (5) create beats or scratch records?; (6) write hip-hop

lyrics?; (7) dress like the people you see in hip-hop music videos?" Response options for

each item that assess adolescents' reported involvement in hip-hop culture were based on

a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (never) to 5 (all the time). Responses to these items were

summed to create a hip-hop culture involvement score.

Parental mediation. Just as they have done with stereotypes, researchers have

utilized different measures to assess parents' mediation behaviors (e.g., Austin et al.,

1997; Nathanson et al., 2002; Warren, 2003). According to Nathanson (2001a), the

variations across studies in the ways that parental mediation is operationalized creates a

challenge for investigators examining this construct. An additional challenge, specific to

the current study, is that mediation of hip-hop music videos has yet to be examined

empirically. For these reasons, items used to assess parental mediation of hip-hop music

videos were drawn from several studies and adapted to reflect the goals of the present

project (e.g., mediation of hip-hop music videos, sampling adolescents and parents).
 53

To examine the types of active negative mediation of hip-hop music video

viewing that parents employ, items were drawn from Nathanson's (1999, 2001c) scales,

which assess mediation of children's television programs containing violence. These

items were revised to reflect mediation of hip-hop music videos, rather than specific

television programs that portray violence. The negative mediation measure consists of

four items used in a study (reported a = .94; Nathanson, 1999) and an additional item that

was appropriate to the present project and was used in a different study conducted by

Nathanson (2001c). Response options ranged on a scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always).

A closed-ended and open-ended item was included that asks adolescent

respondents to write in examples of the specific types of negative active mediation

behaviors of their paren/guardian about hip-hop music videos (e.g., "Have your

parents/guardians ever said something negative to you about rap/hip-hop music videos? If

yes, please write below the types of things that he or she says about these videos below").

Responses to this question provide a more detailed understanding of the actual statements

that parents use when actively mediating their child's hip-hop music video viewing.

As was detailed in Chapter 1, there are several types of parental mediation.

Parent-child talk about positive characteristics of mediated content (i.e., active positive

mediation), is one type of mediation behavior. A measure of positive mediation was

adopted from Fujioka and Austin (2002) and included in the current study's initial

survey. Four items were drawn from these researchers' scale (reported oc= .65; Fujioka &

Austin, 2002) and revised to reflect positive mediation of hip-hop music videos.

Response options in Fujioka and Austin's positive mediation measure are based on a 4-

point scale; however, to maintain continuity among all mediation responses used in the
 54

current study's survey, response options are based on a 5-point scale. Similar to the

questions about negative mediation behaviors, a closed-ended and open-ended item were

included that work to assess the positive active mediation behaviors of parents or

guardians about hip-hop music videos.

In order to assess restrictive mediation practices of parents, survey questions were

drawn from Nathanson's (1999, 2002) and Valkenburg et al.'s (1999) studies and

modified to reflect adolescents' reports of their parent's mediation of hip-hop music

videos. The first set of questions, adopted from Nathanson's (1999) mediation scale

(reported a = .82), asks respondents the following: "Do your parents or caregiver have

any restrictions about viewing rap/hip-hop music videos?" Response options to this item

were coded from 1 - 3 and were stated as follows: "No, there are no rules about viewing

hip-hop music videos," "Yes, they limit how much I can see these videos," and "Yes, I

am not allowed to watch these videos at all." In addition, adolescents who indicated that

their parent or guardian had rules for viewing hip-hop music videos were asked how strict

their parent or guardian is when enforcing these rules. Response options to this question

range from 1 (not at all strict) to 5 (very strict). Finally, in an effort to better understand

the specific types of rules and restrictions that parents use, the following open-ended

question was asked: "Please tell me (write in) the types of restrictions or rules, if any, that

your parents or guardians have for watching rap/hip-hop music videos."

Two questions were included that asked respondents about general active

mediation that occurs in their homes (e.g., "How often do your parents or guardians talk

to you about how the video is made?" and "How often do your parents or guardians talk

about the video with you?"). These items were not reported in Nathanson's study (1999)
 55

on parental mediation of violent television, but they were included in a copy of the survey

that Nathanson used in her 1999 study and emailed to me. Because the current study is

concerned with a variety of parent-child communications about these videos, both of

these questions were appropriate and useful for the current study.

Coviewing is assessed using items from two established scales (Nathanson, 1999;

Valkenburg et al., 1999). One item from Nathanson's (1999) measure of coviewing and

four items from Valkenburg and colleagues (1999) measure of coviewing (reported a=

.73) were used in the current study's initial survey. These items were modified to reflect

hip-hop music video viewing. Response options for the coviewing items are identical to

the response options used to measure active mediation.

Family communication patterns. Two measurement tools have been constructed

and used commonly to examine the patterns of communication in families. The first

instrument, Family Communication Patterns (FCP), was constructed by McLeod and

Chaffee (1972, 1973) as a method for assessing how communication within families is

related to the media socialization of children. As noted earlier in this proposal, the

researchers posited two distinct but interrelated dimensions to measure family

communication patterns. The first, concept-orientation, involves family discussions about

the object in question and collectively forming a shared evaluation. The second construct,

socio-orientation, occurs when one family member's evaluation of the object, most often

the parent, is recognized and then adopted by family members. The FCP inventory has

been used to examine a variety of media-related outcomes such as media use in the

family (Chaffee et al., 1971), children's interpretation of violence viewed on television

(Krcmar, 1998), how families choose television programs when there is conflict over
 56

programs (Dimmick, 1976), and mother's comments about television to children

(Messaris & Kerr, 1983).

As also noted, the original FCP was reinterpreted and revised by Ritchie and

Fitzpatrick as the Revised Family Communication Patterns scale (RFCP; Fitzpatrick &

Ritchie, 1994; Ritchie, 1991; Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990) to reflect communication

norms in the family more strongly. These scholars also reconceptualized the two

constructs in the original instrument as conversation orientation and conformity

orientation. In other words, concept-orientation was found to relate more to open

communication in the family and the value that parents place on the child's opinions

(conversation orientation) and socio-orientation was found to relate to parental power to

gain compliance and conformity from children (conformity orientation).

To date, however, much of the published work on children and the media has

utilized the FCP, although researchers who study adolescents and the media have

recognized the strength and utility of the RFCP (Fujioka & Austin, 2002). The current

study assesses family communication patterns using Ritchie and Fitzpatrick's (1990)

RFCP instrument because the researchers' revisions of the original FCP resulted in a

wider scope of communicative behaviors that were measured and added items that

increased the reliability of this instrument (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2002; Ritchie &

Fitzpatrick, 1990). In their reliability tests of both the conversation and conformity

oriented measures, Ritchie and Fitzpatrick (1990) indicated a test-retest coefficient for

seventh graders (a = .81 and a =.80, respectively). Family communication patterns were

assessed using the 26 items from the RFCP. The response options for each item range
 57

from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Specifically, 15 items measure

conversation orientation in the family and 11 items measure control orientation.

Attitudes about hip-hop music videos. To measure adolescents' attitudes toward

hip-hop music videos, portrayals of men and women in hip-hop music videos, and the

effects that hip-hop music videos may have on children, items were drawn from previous

measures of parental concern about media effects and general views of hip-hop music

(Tyson, 2006). Several studies that have examined parental mediation include items that

measure parents' attitudes toward television (e.g., Austin et al., 1999). A similar question

was used in the current study's initial survey and modified to reflect hip-hop music

videos (e.g., "Rap/Hip-hop music video viewing can negatively affect children.")

Response options for this item are based on a 5-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to

5 (strongly agree).

Additional measures were included to assess adolescents' perceptions of the

portrayals of men and women in hip-hop music videos. These items were drawn from

Tyson's (2006) Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale (RAP). This scale includes

three distinct indices that measure both negative and positive views of hip-hop music. For

the current study, questions from the Violent-Misogynistic index were used, as these

questions focus on the ways that gender and sexuality are portrayed in hip-hop music

videos, which is more specific to the goals of the current study. Five items were drawn

from this scale (reported a = .79; Tyson, 2006).

In addition, three questions were drawn from Tyson's (2006) Empowerment

scale, as it focuses on the empowering effects of hip-hop music on youth (reported a =

.88). All of these items were modified to reflect music videos, rather than hip-hop music
 58

itself. Responses to each item are based on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1

(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Demographic variables. Finally, the initial adolescent survey included the

following eight demographic variables about the respondent: age, gender, race/ethnicity,

religious preference, religiosity, parent/guardian the child lives with, and number of

siblings. Adolescent respondents were also asked about the highest level of education

achieved by their parents or guardians (see Appendix A).

Parent Survey Development and Items

Views of gender. As with the adolescents, items from Ward et al.'s (2000) Sexual

Stereotypes scale and the ATWSA (Galambos et al., 1985) were used to assess parents'

beliefs about gender and sexual stereotypes. Items used to assess adolescents' and

parents' views of gender were identical.

Media behavior. Parents were asked about their hip-hop music video viewing

behavior and their television use. These items were the same as those included in the

adolescents' initial survey. Accordingly, two closed-ended questions and two open-ended

questions assessed the amount of time parents spend watching hip-hop music videos on

television and on the Internet. Two open-ended questions also asked parents about their

general television viewing behavior. One open-ended question and one closed-ended

question were included to assess the amount of time parents spend listening to hip-hop

music. Parents were also asked the following item to assess their knowledge of their

child's hip-hop music video viewing behavior: "How often does your child watch hip-

hop music videos?" Response options for this item are based on a 5-point scale ranging

from "never" to "all the time." An option of "not sure" was also added to this scale.
 59

Parental mediation. Items on the initial survey that assessed parents' reports of

mediation of hip-hop music videos are similar to questions from the initial adolescent

survey and used the same scales. Items on this scale, however, were modified to reflect

parental assessments of their own behavior, rather than child reports of parent behaviors.

For example, parents were asked "When your child watches hip-hop music videos, how

often do you say that you disapprove of hip-hop music videos?" and "Do you have any

restrictions about your child viewing hip-hop music videos?"

Family communication patterns. Family communication patterns were assessed

using the 26 items from the RFCP that were in the adolescents' survey, however, parent

questions were modified to assess parental views of family communication patterns. The

parent RFCP includes 15 items that measure conversation orientation in the family (e.g.,

"I often ask my child's opinion when the family is talking about something," "My child

can tell me almost anything."). Control orientation was assessed using 11 items (e.g., "In

our home, the parents usually have the last word," "When my child is at home, h/she is

expected to obey the parents' rules.").

Parental concern about hip-hop. Items that measured parental attitudes toward

hip-hop music videos and the effects that hip-hop music videos may have on their child,

were identical to the items included on the adolescent survey. The only item that was

modified from the adolescents' survey measured parents' belief about the negative effects

of hip-hop music on their child, specifically (e.g. "Rap/hip-hop music video viewing can

negatively affect my child."). Response options for this items were similarly based on a

5-point scale from 1 {strongly disagree) to 5 {strongly agree).

 60

Attention to news. In order to assess parents' exposure and attention to news

media, five items were included in the initial parent survey. These items were drawn from

Moy, Pfau, and Kahlor's (1999) measure of media exposure and modified to reflect

general sources of news media (television, radio, news magazines, newspaper, and

Internet). For example, "How often would you say that you watch news on the

television?" and "How often would you say that you listen to news on the radio?"

Response options for these items are based on a 10-point scale ranging from 1 = "rarely"

to 10 = "all the time."

Third-person effect. Parents were asked two questions to measure their views of

the negative effects of hip-hop music videos on their child and other children. Similar to

other studies that have examined third-person effects (e.g., Hoffner & Buchanan, 2002),

one item asked parents how much they thought that their child was negatively affected by

hip-hop music videos. The second item asked, "How much do you think other children

your child's age are negatively affected by hip-hop music videos?" Respondents were

asked to rate their responses on a 10-point scale ranging from 1 = "not affected at all" to

10 = "affected a lot."

Demographic variables. Finally, the initial parent survey included the following

eight demographic variables about the respondent: age, gender, race/ethnicity, religious

preference, religiosity, highest level of education achieved, household income, and

average amount of time spent at work during the week (see Appendix B).

Focus Group Sessions

Focus groups allow participants to discuss topics and their interpretations of

phenomena at length, which can facilitate the construction and validation of surveys (i.e.,
 61

wording of questions, variables to include in instruments) and to assess the relationship

between variables (Kerlinger & Lee, 2000). According to Stewart and Shamdasani

(1990):

Focus groups are often a useful starting point for the design of survey

questionnaires because they provide a means for exploring the ways potential

respondents talk about objects and events, for identifying alternatives for closed-

ended survey items, and for determining the suitability of various types of scaling

approaches, (p. 12)

The focus group discussions used in the current study provided information to

modify the initial survey items on demographics, views of gender, media behavior, hip-

hop culture, parental mediation, and family communication patterns. In addition, at the

end of each focus group session, participants were provided a draft of the study's initial

survey to determine whether the wording of items was comprehendible for people their

age and that the questions reflected the language of young people. Previous research has

indicated that the structure of family communication patterns may vary according to race

(Thompson et al., 1993), and theorists have suggested that researchers use caution when

using FCP measures across different groups of individuals without modification (e.g.,

Richie, 2007). For these reasons, adolescent feedback about survey items is valuable.

Participants. Following IRB approval, the administrator of an education-based

summer program for youth in the Pacific Northwest was contacted to obtain permission

to recruit adolescents for the focus group sessions. My goal was to recruit focus group

participants between the ages of 10 to 14 in order to receive feedback on the

comprehensiveness of survey items from younger adolescents. This program was chosen
 62

because adolescents who attended the camp fell within this age range, and a large

majority of the adolescents were self-proclaimed fans of hip-hop music and videos.

After receiving permission from the summer program administrator, I attended

the parent orientation at the program's facility, spoke with parents of children who met

the age requirement, and distributed consent forms. Following this first stage of

recruitment, I continued to recruit participants by attending the camp's morning program

and distributing consent forms to potential participants. Students were notified that they

would be offered an incentive for their participation in this study. The incentive was a

free pizza lunch during the focus group sessions.

Focus group sessions were arranged and participants were assigned to the groups

according to their sex. Due to the demands of parental consent for participation and

availability of participants, recruitment resulted in enough participants for only two focus

groups. The first focus group consisted of six males and the second focus group was

comprised of three females. According to self-reported demographic data from the focus

group questionnaires, six youth were African American, and two were African American

and Asian. One participant considered himself Korean, African American, and Brazilian.

The ages of participants ranged from 11-14 years of age, and every participant reported

being a fan of hip-hop and viewing hip-hop music videos on a weekly basis. Reported

hours spent watching hip-hop music videos within a week ranged from one hour to eight

hours, with an average of 4.44 hours a week.

Procedures. Focus group sessions were held during the campers' lunch period in

a classroom on the university campus where the summer camp was being held. I was a

media literacy teacher at the summer program and worked with some of the students
 63

during the school year in an after-school program. Therefore, I had an established

relationship and a friendly rapport with some of the participants prior to the focus group

sessions. This familiarity is advantageous to the goals of the current study, because some

degree of trust had been established between the facilitator and the participants, which, in

turn, provided a more informal and supportive atmosphere to discuss sensitive issues like

perspectives of gender and gender stereotyping. This familiarity helps allay Stewart and

Shamdasani's (1990) concern that moderators who are strangers to focus group

participants "may create an atmosphere of artificiality and potentially inhibit the free flow

of discussion" (p. 35).

Immediately prior to each session, participants were briefed about the nature of

the focus groups, the topics that the focus group discussions will cover, and the process

of the group discussion. With their permission, each focus group was audio-taped. The

focus group discussions were facilitated by using a semi-structured interview protocol

with four primary questions and probes. Participants were told that they were not required

to share thoughts with the group that they did not feel comfortable disclosing.

Participants were first asked to write down the characteristics they felt best

described a "typical" man and a "typical" woman. Following this, participants shared

their responses to these questions with the group. I then asked participants to write down

a list of characteristics that best describe the images and portrayals of women and men in

mainstream hip-hop music videos. Similar to the first two questions, the participants were

asked to share their responses with the group. The group engaged in discussion until no

new ideas were generated, consistent with suggestions from Buell (2004).
 64

The second part of the focus group session focused specifically on soliciting

feedback from the young participants about the initial survey items. During this

discussion, I provided each participant with a draft of the survey. Participants were asked

to read through it and note any questions that were difficult to understand or that they

thought should be reworded. Each focus group session lasted approximately one hour.

The analysis of focus group data involved reviewing the audiotapes to assess

participants' views of the portrayals of men and women in hip-hop music videos and their

verbal feedback about the surveys items. Participant input and common views of gender

portrayals in the videos were used to refine existing survey items and create new items

for the survey that reflect the gender portrayals discussed by participants but not part of

the existing measures. These data are reported in the following section.

Survey Modification and Final Scale Reliabilities

Focus group discussions and participant analysis of the initial survey for

adolescents provided valuable information about survey items and measures. The

following describes the modifications made to the initial survey following suggestions

received from focus group participants and the final reliabilities for scale items.

Demographic variables. Several participants in the female focus group session

recommended that the question about parent or guardian's highest level of education

received be changed. Their reasoning was based on their own limited knowledge about

their parents' education level and their belief that many youth may similarly not know the

answer to this question. Therefore, the open-ended survey item used to assess

parents'/guardians' highest level of education on the adolescent survey was modified to

include the following 5 response options: some high school, graduated high school or
 65

GED, graduated college, graduate school, and not sure. This change was also made on the

parent surveys.

Participants also noted that "caregiver" is not the terminology they use to denote

individuals who are not parents. According to participants, a more commonly used word

is "guardian." Therefore, the term "caregiver" was changed to "guardian" throughout the

adolescent survey.

Views of gender. Focus group participants read through and evaluated the items

for the Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents (ATWSA; Galambos et al.,

1985) and Sexual Stereotypes (Ward et al., 2005) scales. All 12 items from the ATWSA

scale, which assess adolescents' global views of women and gender roles, were reported

by focus group participants as comprehendible and valid measures. Five of the items on

this scale were reverse scored and, therefore, transformed to reflect the same scale

direction as the remaining seven items. Similar to Galambos and colleagues' method,

respondents' scores on the twelve items were summed and averaged (i.e., divided by 12

to maintain the original item metric) to create a global score of attitudes toward women

(a = .78). Higher scores on the ATWSA scale indicated more traditional attitudes toward

women and gender roles.

The Sexual Stereotypes measure, which assesses respondents' views of sexual

stereotypes and reflects stereotypic themes portrayed in music videos, was modified

based on responses from focus group participants, however. The measure on the initial

survey consisted of 14 items. Focus group participants were confused by two items:

"There is nothing wrong with men whistling at shapely women," and "Something is

wrong with a guy who turns down a chance to score with a woman." These items were
 66

dropped because the word choice was confusing to participants, and I believed that these

dimensions of stereotypes were better represented in other survey items. The following

item was also dropped from the existing scale because I felt that this item was too

provocative for twelve year-olds and may create challenges in gaining consent from

teachers and parents: "Men want sex; women want relationships." The final scale, then,

included 11 items from the original Sexual Stereotypes scale (a = .81). These items were

summed and averaged for each respondent to create a final score. Higher scores on this

measure indicated more stereotyped beliefs about relationships and sexual roles.

Both of these scales were highly correlated (r = .57, p < .01), however, each scale

represents a different aspect of gender stereotypes. For example, the ATSWA scale items

measure attitudes toward traditional gender stereotypes about issues like intelligence

(e.g., "On average, girls are as smart as boys"), athletics (e.g., "It is all right for a girl to

want to play rough sports like football"), relationship roles (e.g. "If both husband and

wife have jobs, the husband should do a share of the housework such as washing dishes

and doing laundry"), and academics (e.g., It is important for boys than girls to do well in

school"). Items included in the Sexual Stereotypes scale assess stereotyped attitudes

about sexual roles and relationships that "better reflect themes appearing in music

videos" (Ward et al., 2005) such as, "What women find most attractive about a man is his

money, job, or car" and "Using her body and looks is the best way for a woman to attract

a man."

Media behavior. The initial survey included three open-ended questions to assess

the amount of time during the week that respondents spend listening to hip-hop music,

watching hip-hop music videos on the Internet, and watching hip-hop music videos on
 67

television. Focus group participants had a difficult time estimating the average amount of

hours during a week spent using these media. Additionally, several participants in the

male focus group wrote responses on the survey to the open-ended questions with "a lot"

and "a little" rather than writing in the amount of hours. For these reasons, the open-

ended survey items that assessed the amount of time spent listening to hip-hop music,

watching hip-hop music videos on television, and watching hip-hop music videos on the

Internet were dropped from both parent and adolescent surveys. The initial survey's

closed-ended items appear sufficient in measuring respondents' hip-hop media behavior.

In addition to watching hip-hop music videos on television and the Internet, focus

group participants stated that young people also watch hip-hop music videos on IPods

and MP3 players. Therefore, the following survey item was added to adolescent and

parent surveys: "How often do you watch rap/hip-hop music videos on an IPod and/or

MP3 player?" Response options were identical to those that asked respondents to gauge

how often they watch hip-hop music videos on television and the Internet (e.g., "Never,"

"Several times a month," "Several days a week," and "Every day"). The final measure of

hip-hop music video viewing included the three items that assessed how often

respondents watched hip-hop music videos on television, the Internet, and on IPods/MP3

players (a = .79).

Hip-hop culture. Seven items on the initial survey assessed adolescents' level of

involvement in hip-hop culture. One question asked the following: "How often do you

search for information on the Internet about hip-hop music?" A focus group participant

advised that the wording of this item was too formal and suggested changing the wording

of this item. Working with focus group participants, the survey item was modified and
 68

now reads, "How often do you search the Internet to look up websites about hip-hop

music and artists?" Another survey item asked the following: "How often do you create

graffiti art?" A participant suggested that this question was confusing and hip-hop art

includes much more than just graffiti (e.g., hand-drawn pictures and names written on

paper in an artistic font). For these reasons, the wording of this survey item was changed

to the following: "How often do you create hip-hop art (for example, graffiti or

drawings)?"Another participant mentioned that singing along with hip-hop music, in

addition to dancing, reflected a person's involvement in hip-hop culture. Therefore, the

following question was added to the scale: "How often do you sing along with hip-hop

music?" The final Involvement in Hip-Hop Culture (IHHC) scale included 8 items (a =

.82).

Parental mediation. The initial survey included a closed-ended question about the

types of restrictions that parents have about viewing hip-hop music videos. The initial

question was worded as follows: "Do your parents or caregiver have any restrictions

about viewing rap/hip-hop music videos?" Focus group participants were a bit confused

about this wording and advised that the wording be changed to "rules" rather than

"restrictions." Therefore, this question was changed to the following on both adolescent

and parent surveys: "Do your parents/guardians have any rules or restrictions about

viewing rap/hip-hop music videos?"

During the focus group discussions, a participant mentioned that her parent

allowed her to watch videos only by certain artists. Another female participant added that

she was not allowed to watch videos by "Little Wayne" and several other artists because

her parents felt that these videos were too sexually explicit. Therefore, the following
 69

closed-ended response option was added to the adolescent survey item that assessed

parent/guardian rules about hip-hop video viewing: "Yes, I can only watch certain hip-

hop videos." A similar question was added to the parent survey.

The initial survey included measures that assessed both positive and negatively

valenced active mediation. Within both focus groups, a majority of respondents said that

their parents did indeed watch the videos with them. When respondents were asked about

whether their parents told them negative or positive things about the videos during

coviewing, however, several respondents said that their parents made comments aloud

that seemed non-directive (e.g., comments that were not positively or negatively

valenced). Therefore, these closed-ended and open-ended items were added to the survey:

"Have your parents/guardians ever made general comments (not necessarily positive or

negative) about rap/hip-hop music videos? (yes/no) If yes, please write the types of things

that they say about these videos below."

Several closed-ended questions on the initial survey that assess parental mediation

of hip-hop music videos were modified based on the feedback I received during the focus

group sessions. One question about positive active mediation confused respondents. It

initially read, "When you watch rap/hip-hop music videos at home, how often does your

parent or caregiver tell you that he or she agrees with what you are seeing in a hip-hop

music video?" This question was dropped from the survey. The revised measure of

positive mediation included three items.

One question on the initial adolescent survey asked whether parents watch videos

with the respondents because they like the video, and another asked whether parents

watch the video because they like the song. A focus group participant stated that parents
 70

and children most often watch the videos because they like the song and the video, rather

than just liking the video. Respondents suggested combining these two items into one

survey item that now reads, "When you watch rap/hip-hop music videos at home, how

often does your parent or guardian watch hip-hop music videos with you because you

both like the videos or songs?"

The final scale that measured negative mediation included five items (a = .83).

These items were summed and averaged for each respondent to reflect a final score of

negative parental mediation. Higher scores on this index indicate more negative parental

mediation that occurs. Positive mediation was measured with three items (a =.74), which

were summed and averaged to create a positive parental mediation score. Higher scores

on this measure, like the negative mediation score, reflected more positive mediation of

hip-hop music videos. Four survey items measured parent-child coviewing (a = .88).

These scores were summed and averaged to create a coviewing score where higher scores

reflected more coviewing of hip-hop music videos.

Family Communication Patterns. In both focus groups, adolescents noted that the

Revised Family Communication Patterns scale (Fitzpatrick & Ritchie, 1994; Ritchie,

1991; Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990) was "too long," "boring," and exhausting. Two male

focus group participants responded to the RFCP items by circling the same response

option throughout the scale. The RFCP instrument included 26 items and was located

near the end of the initial survey that focus group participants examined. Feedback from

participants indicated that the inclusion of this instrument, along with the other items on

the survey, may lead to errors due to respondent fatigue. Therefore, the RFCP items were

replaced with items from the original FCP instrument used in previous studies on parental
 71

mediation (e.g., Austin, 1993). Whereas the RFCP is considered by its authors to be a

stronger measure, the tradeoff to a measure more likely to be completed seemed sound.

There are other benefits to making this change. The Family Communication

Patterns instrument was constructed by McLeod and Chaffee (1972, 1973) as a method

for assessing how communication within families is related to the media socialization of

children. Most of the studies that have examined the relationship between family

communication patterns and parental mediation have used the FCP scale (e.g., Austin,

1993; Austin & Nelson, 1993; Fujioka & Austin, 2002; Messaris & Kerr, 1983). Austin

(2008) uses the original FCP scale in her studies on family communication patterns and

parental mediation because the RFCP scale was developed and tested on samples of

college students and, therefore, the items on the revised version of the scale should be

difficult for younger adolescents and children to comprehend. The focus group

participants for the current study were between the ages of 11-14 and did not have

difficulty understanding the RFCP survey items; however, two of the participants from

the female focus group suggested the rewording of several items.

Based on focus group discussions, the RFCP items were changed to the FCP

items used by Austin (1993) on both the adolescent and parent surveys. The FCP scale

used in the current study consisted of 11 items. Six items assessed concept-orientation

(reported a = .81; Austin, 1993) and five items assessed socio-orientation (reported a =

.74; Austin, 1993). The response options for each item range from 1 (never) to 5 (all the

time). Items on the parent scale were modified to reflect parental assessments of their

own beliefs and behavior, rather than child reports of parent behaviors.
 72

The six items used to measure concept-orientation in the current study were

summed and averaged to create a concept-orientation score for each participant (a - .73).

Respondents with higher scores were considered to be from more concept-oriented

families. The items used to measure socio-orientation were summed and averaged to

create a socio-orientation score for respondents (a = .88). Respondents with higher scores

were considered to be from more socio-oriented families.

Attitudes toward hip-hop music videos. Focus group participants read through

each item that measured negative or positive attitudes toward hip-hop music videos.

Participants clearly understood each question. Therefore, the items of these scales were

not modified. The violent-misogynistic scale included five items (a = .77). These items

were summed, and higher scores indicated more negative attitudes toward the portrayals

of men and women in these videos. The empowerment scale included three items (a =

.88). These items were summed, and the final score indicated more positive attitudes

toward hip-hop music videos.

Attention to news. Five items that measured parents' attention to news across

different news mediums were included in the parent survey, but they were not included

on the adolescent survey. Therefore, focus group participants did not provide feedback on

these items. Cronbach's alphas were run for the five items collectively (a = .39). Due to

the low alpha level, the item that measured respondents' amount of time watching

television news was dropped. This improved the alpha level of the scale of the four

remaining items (a = .55). The final score for attention to news, therefore, included the

four items that were summed and averaged for each participant. Final scores on this
 73

measure ranged from 1 - 10, with higher scores indicating more attention to news across

mediums (e.g., radio, newspaper, news magazines, and Internet).

Step Two: Data Collection

The second phase of this project entailed (1) recruiting youth and parents to

participate in the study and (2) surveying participants. Data for this study were collected

from adolescents ages 12-18 and their parent/guardians living in a large metropolitan city

in the Northwest region of the United States. The final sample was composed of 324

adolescents and 100 parents/guardians.4 Project recruitment and data collection

procedures are detailed below. This is followed by demographic information about the

survey sample.

Procedures

A list of teachers who taught at racially diverse secondary schools in a major

metropolitan area in the Northwest were supplied by a high-school teacher who agreed to

participate and provide me with teacher referrals. After receiving preliminary approval

from the University of Washington's (UW) Human Subjects Review Committee,

recruitment for participants began. Fourteen teachers were contacted through email. The

email correspondence included a brief overview of the study and requested permission to

recruit and survey students in every class that the particular teacher taught. The email

also notified teachers that an incentive of $50 would be provided to participating teachers

for use in their classroom.

Nine teachers agreed to allow their classes to participate in the study. Prior to

working with teachers at each school, I obtained a written consent from the principal at

4
The terms "parent" and "guardian" were used throughout the adolescent and parent surveys to refer to an
adult primary caregiver or guardian of the child taking the survey. The term "parent" that is used
throughout the text of this dissertation refers to parent or guardian, however.
 74

the each school. Once permission was granted and approved by the UW's human

subject's board, a time was arranged with each teacher to discuss the details of the project

further. Teachers were informed about their participation and their student's participation

in the study. This included scheduling a time to visit classes, talk about the project to

students, and distribute consent forms. The final sample of students was recruited from

three different schools (one K-12, one middle school, and one high school) in a

metropolitan area on the periphery of a large city.

Students from 31 classrooms across 3 schools participated in this study. The first

step in data collection involved distributing consent forms to students. To do so, I visited

each class, discussed the project briefly, and distributed consent forms to students.

According to teachers' class lists, 865 students received a copy of the study's consent

form. These forms were two pages and included a brief overview of the study, study

procedures, information about potential risks, stress, or discomfort, and the potential

benefits of the study. The end of the form included two boxes for parents to mark. Parents

were asked for (1) permission to survey their child, and (2) whether they would be

willing to complete a survey. Parents had the option of checking no boxes, one box, or

both boxes. Responses on the consent forms for this study indicate that less than one-

third of parents checked both boxes. Most gave permission for their child but did not

agree to be in the study themselves.

Throughout recruitment and survey procedures, adolescents were reminded of

their anonymity as a participant. In addition to anonymity, students were told that their

participation in the project was voluntary. The presentation and overview of the project

prior to distributing consent forms ranged from 5-15 minutes in length across classes.
 75

Before leaving each class, teachers were provided extra copies of consent forms and

manila envelopes for returned consent forms. Students were told to return their consent

forms to the appropriate envelope.

On average, teachers provided students with one week to return their signed

consent forms. I collected consent forms from classes several days before the class was

scheduled to be surveyed. A total of 363 consent forms were signed and collected across

the 31 classes. The return rate for adolescents (42%) and parents (11%) was similar to

other studies where survey participation necessitated parental consent (e.g., Nathanson,

1999) or surveys were sent home to parents (e.g., Warren, 2003). In fact, Nathanson

(1999, citing Kearney et al.'s 1983 study) affirms that "obtaining written parental consent

for children's participation in research typically deflates the participation rate...most

studies using this method achieve a participation rate of 50% or less" (p. 139). The return

rate for parents in the current is unusually low, and the lack of incentive for parents is

most likely responsible. Students, like parents, were not provided incentive for

participation in this study. Some classes did appear to show more excitement about

participating in the project when their teacher showed enthusiasm. These classes

generally had a higher return rate.

The survey procedures began by the distribution of surveys to students who

received parental consent. Before taking the survey, I provided students with a brief

overview of the content of the survey and survey procedures. Students who did not have a

signed consent form were assigned an alternative activity by their teacher. I remained in

the classroom as students completed surveys, and participants were encouraged to ask me
 76

questions if anything appeared confusing. On average, respondents spent approximately

15-30 minutes on the survey.

Students whose parents agreed to participate in the study were provided an

unsealed manila envelope containing a short letter to their parent and a survey. One

hundred parents agreed to participate in this study by filling out a survey. Parent surveys

were marked with an identical number to their child's survey. Students were responsible

for taking the envelope to their parent and returning a completed survey in the envelope,

sealed, to their teacher.

Sample

Adolescents. The final sample of youth included 324 adolescents in the age range

of 12-18 years (M = 15.1). According to power/sample size calculations with a five

percent margin of error, 95% level of confidence, a population size of more than 20,000,

and a 50% response distribution, a sample size of 377 adolescents should provide

significant statistical power (Vovici, 2004). Due to time intensive recruiting procedures

and challenges associated with receiving parental consent (explained above) the sample

of 324 adolescents, while not optimal, should provide adequate data and statistical power.

A number of studies on mediation survey smaller samples or samples of similar size. For

example, Austin et al. (1999) sampled 225 parents to investigate parental mediation and

perceptions of television, and Nathanson (2001) surveyed 167 undergraduate students to

examine peer and parental mediation.

The majority of adolescent survey respondents were female (60%; n = 195). In

total, slightly over half of the sample was White (55%; n = 178), followed in frequency

by Asian or Pacific Islander (19%; n - 62), respondents who considered themselves

 77

several races or mixed race (15%; n = 47), African-American (4%; n - 13), Hispanic

(3%; n= 11), respondents who checked the "other" race category (3%; n = 9), and Native

American (1%; n = 3).

Adolescents' reported religious affiliations varied, but "no religion" was the

modal category (29%; n = 95). The majority of adolescent respondents reportedly lived

with both their mother and father (68%; n = 222), followed in frequency by those who

lived with just their mother (21%; n = 67). Adolescents reported that 42% of parents had

a college degree (n = 137), followed by 31% who completed graduate school (n = 100).

Parents. Forty-nine parents between the ages of 29 - 58 (M = 48.3) returned

completed surveys. One survey was returned blank and, therefore, dropped from the

analysis. As noted, the sample of parents is particularly low, which is problematic both in

terms of statistical power and generalizability. Importantly, however, scholars (e.g.,

Fujioka & Austin, 2003) have stressed the value of data about parental mediation from

the adolescent or child's perspective, rather than the parent perspective, an argument

followed in this dissertation.

The majority of parent respondents in the final sample were female (82%; n - 40)

and a majority were White (86%; n = 42), followed by mixed race (6%; n = 3), Asian or

Pacific Islander (4%; n = 2), African-American (1%; n - 2), and Hispanic (1%; n - 2).

Most of the parents reported their highest level of education as graduate school (47%; n =

23), followed by 37% who reported graduating college (n = 18), 12% who attended some

college {n - 6), and 4% who graduated high school or obtained a GED (n - 2).

The annual household income reported by parent respondents was fairly high,

with 55% of parents reporting over $101, 000 (n = 27), 18% reporting between $76, 000 -
 78

$100, 000 (n - 9), and 27% reporting an annual household income under $75, 000 (n -

13). The time spent at work on an average week reported by parents ranged from 0 - 6 0

hours (M = 34.2). Similar to adolescent respondents, the modal category reported by

parents for religious affiliation was "no religion" (45%; n = 22).

Summary

This study utilized a multi-methodological approach to investigate parental

mediation of hip-hop music videos and the relationship between viewing these videos and

adolescents' attitudes about gender and hip-hop music videos. The first phase of this

project involved focus group sessions with adolescent fans of hip-hop music and videos.

The results of these sessions provided useful information that facilitated in further

development and editing of the adolescent and parent surveys distributed during the

second phase of this project.

In an effort to answer research questions and test hypotheses posed in this study,

surveys were distributed and collected from 324 adolescents and 49 parents during the

second phase of this project. The following chapter discusses the process of data analysis

and the subsequent results of these analyses.

 79

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS

Descriptives and Preliminary Analyses

Prior to testing hypotheses and research questions, descriptive analyses were run

with the independent and dependent variables for both adolescent and parent data (for an

overview, see Table 1). Child's age, parent's education, and child's sex have been

identified as "potential sources of either spuriousness or increased error variance in

analyses involving mediation" (Nathanson, 2001, p. 209). For these reasons, correlations

were run to investigate the relationships between adolescents' reported demographic

variables and other variables in the current study. For example, Pearson's correlations

were run with adolescent's age and the other continuous variables. Spearman correlations

were also run with adolescents' reports of the highest level of education their parents'

received and study variables. Independent t-tests were used to explore whether boys and

girls differed on the study measures.

In addition to these demographics, race of adolescents was considered an

important variable to consider before running final analyses. Hip-hop is a genre of music

and a distinct culture that began in Black communities (Ward, 2006), and Black youth

report listening to hip-hop music and watching hip-hop music videos more so than do

other races (Cohen et al., 2007). For these reasons, independent sample t-tests were run to

investigate the differences between adolescents' race (Black/Non-Black) on the study

variables.

Finally, the relationships between adolescents' reported time spent viewing

television and adolescents' gender stereotyped attitudes and attitudes toward hip-hop
 80

music videos were investigated. Previous research has indicated that gender stereotyped

portrayals of women and men are not only specific to hip-hop music videos but, rather,

pervade television programs as an aggregate (Signorielli & McLeod, 1994; Smith &

Cook, 2008). Additionally, studies have found that television viewing is predictive of

adolescent gender stereotyped beliefs about women and men (Morgan, 1997; Walsh-

Childers & Brown, 1993), indicating that television viewing in general may be a potential

source of spuriousness in the relationship between viewing hip-hop music videos and

gender stereotyped attitudes.

The amount of time watching television may also be predictive of adolescents'

attitudes toward hip-hop music videos. For example, adolescents who spend more time

watching television in general may be desensitized to gender stereotyped portrayals and

therefore, may hold less negative attitudes toward stereotyped portrayals of women and

men in these videos. For these reasons, Pearson's correlations were run on adolescents'

reported average hours spent watching television during a week and their reported gender

stereotyped attitudes and attitudes toward hip-hop music videos. Following are the results

of these analyses.

Several demographic variables reported by parents were correlated with the other

variables in this study. For example, Spearman correlations were run with parents'

reported highest level of education received and study variables. Spearman correlations

were also run with parents' reports of annual household income and mediation variables.
 81

Table 1.
Descriptive Statistics for Study Variables

Mean (SD)___ Range N

Adolescents
Media behavior
Television viewing (hours) 21.55 18.71 0-100 309
Hip-hop video viewing .69 .76 0-3 324
On television .75 .93 0-3 324
On the Internet .85 .92 0-3 323
On IPod/MP3 player .47 .87 0-3 323
Listen to hip-hop music 1.9 1.1 0-3 320
Parental mediation
Restrictive mediation 1.1 .34 1-3 315
Enforcement 2.8 1.0 1-5 33
Positive mediation 1.4 .64 1-5 318
Negative mediation 1.6 .79 1-5 318
Co viewing 1.5 .78 1-5 318
Views of gender
ATSWA scale 1.8 .54 1-5 324
Sexual stereotypes scale 2.7 .62 1-5 324
Involvement in hip-hop culture
Level of involvement 1.9 .72 1-5 324
Family Communication Patterns
Socio-orientation 2.5 .85 1-5 324
Concept-orientation 3.1 .85 1-5 323
Attitudes about hip-hop videos
Violent-misogynistic scale 3.4 .70 1-5 324
Empowerment scale 3.0 .79 1-5 324
Parents
Media behavior
Television viewing (hours) 11.59 8.49 0-36 48
Hip-hop video viewing
On television .10 .31 0-3 49
On the Internet .04 .20 0-3 49
On IPod/MP3 player .06 .43 0-3 49
Listen to hip-hop music .63 .93 0-3 49
Parental mediation
Restrictive mediation 1.1 .33 1-3 49
Enforcement 3.8 .84 1-5 5
Positive mediation 1.5 .64 1-5 48
Negative mediation 2.2 .79 1-5 49
Coviewing 1.6 .76 1-5 49
Views of gender
ATSWA scale 1.4 .32 1-5 48
Sexual stereotypes scale 1.8 .41 1-5 48
Family Communication Patterns
Socio-orientation 2.1 .52 1-5 48
Concept-orientation 3.7 .43 1-5 48
 82

Table 1 continued

Mean (SD) Range N

Attitudes about hip-hop videos
Violent-misogynistic scale 3.7 .58 1-5 47
Empowerment scale 3.0 .54 1-5 48
Attention to news
Across mediums 6.8 1.6 1-10 49
Third-person effect
Negatively affect owri child 2.6 1.7 1-10 47
Negatively affect other children 5.8 1.9 1-10 46

Adolescent Reported Variables

Adolescent age. Two-tailed Pearson's correlations showed that adolescents' age

was significantly related to many of the key variables in this study (see Table 2). Results

indicate that as adolescents' age increases, their reported weekly television viewing hours

decrease, r = -.11, p < .05, and reported time spent viewing hip-hop music videos across

different mediums decreases, r = -.25, p < .01. Several types of parental mediation of

hip-hop music videos reported by adolescents were also significantly related to

adolescents' age. Specifically, as adolescents' age increases, they are less likely to report

receiving restrictive mediation, r = -.21, p < .01, positive mediation, r - -.14, p < .05, and

to coview hip-hop music videos with parents, r - -.18,/? < .18. Reports of negative

mediation were not significantly related to child's age, r = -.08, however. Adolescent age

was significantly and positively related to reports of negative views of hip-hop music

videos, r - .21, p < .01, and negatively related to reports of positive views of hip-hop

music videos, r = -.16, p < .01, indicating that as adolescents get older, their reported

views of hip-hop music videos become more negative. Due to the high number of

significant correlations, adolescent age was added to every multiple regression model in

this study.
 83

Parent education. Two-tailed Spearman correlations were run to investigate the

relationship between adolescent reports of parents' level of education and study variables

(see Table 2). Study variables were related to adolescents' reports of parents' education;

however, 17% (n = 56) of adolescents reported their parents' highest level of education as

"unsure." Because parent education level was reported by adolescents, rather than

parents, and a large number of adolescents were not certain of their parents highest level

of education, this variable was dropped from the primary analyses.

Table 2.
Associations between Adolescents' Age, Parent Education, and Study Variables

Variables Age Parent Education

weeKiy leievision -.11 -.25**
(309) (258)
Listen to hip-hop .01 -.04
(320) (266)
Hip-hop viewing -.25** -.10
(324) (268)
Restrictive mediation _ 91 ** -.06
(315) (263)
Positive mediation -.14* -.13*
(318) (262)
Negative mediation -.08 -.04
(318) (262)
Coviewing -.18** -.15*
(318) (262)
Hip-hop culture -.12* -.12*
(324) (268)
ATSWA scale -.08 -.12
(324) (268)
Sexual stereotypes scale .01 -.13*
(324) (268)
Socio-orientation -.20** -.15*
(324) (268)
Concept-orientation ^9** 2a**
(323) (268)
Violent-misogynistic scale .21** .07
(324) (268)
Empowerment scale -.16** .00
(324) (268)
Notes: p < .05; **p<.01
Pearson's correlations were run with the age variable and Spearman correlations were run
with the parent education variable
 84

Adolescent sex. Independent sample t-tests were run to investigate the differences

between boys and girls for the variables of interest (Table 3). The results indicate that

differences existed between the sexes on five variables. Specifically, boys (M = 24.73,

SD = 21.16) reported spending significantly more hours watching television during an

average week than did girls (M = 19.63, SD = 16.70), t(211) = 2.24, p = .026. A

significant difference was found between reports of coviewing and sex, t(315) = -3.39,

p = .001, indicating that adolescent girls (M = 1.64, SD = .84) were more likely to report

watching hip-hop music videos (e.g., coview) with their parents than were boy

respondents (M - 1.35, SD = .66). A significant difference was also found between sex

and stereotyped attitudes toward women and men reported on both the ATSWA scale,

t(232) = 8.95,p < .001, and the Sexual Stereotypes scale t(321) = 7.23,p < .001. Boys

were more likely than girls to report stereotyped attitudes about women and men on both

gender stereotype measures. Finally, adolescents' reported attitudes toward hip-hop

music videos was significantly related to sex, (321) = -2.41, p = .01, indicating that girls

(M = 3.51, SD = .70) reported more negative attitudes toward hip-hop music videos than

did boys (M = 3.32, SD = .69). Due to the large number of differences between

adolescent girl and boy responses and study variables, adolescent sex was added to each

regression model.
 85

Table 3.
Associations between Child's Gender and Variables of Interest

Gender
Male Female
Variables M (SD) M (SD) t df P
Weekly television 24.73 21.16 19.63 16.70 2.24 211 .03*
Listen to hip-hop 1.82 1.12 1.94 1.08 -1.01 317 .31
Hip-hop viewing .73 .82 .67 .72 .60 321 .55
Restrictive mediation 1.08 .33 1.12 .35 -.92 312 .36
Positive mediation 1.37 .64 1.43 .64 -.90 315 .37
Negative mediation 1.54 .81 1.59 .79 -.46 315 .65
Coviewing 1.35 .66 1.64 .84 -3.39 315 .01*
Hip-hop culture 1.91 .77 2.0 .68 -.91 320 .56
ATSWA scale 2.16 .54 1.65 .44 8.95 232 .01*
Sexual stereotypes scale 3.01 .61 2.56 .55 7.23 321 .01*
Socio-orientation 2.54 .85 2.50 .85 .53 321 .60
Concept-orientation 3.08 .90 3.14 .82 -.59 320 .56
Violent-misogynistic scale 3.32 .69 3.51 .70 -2.41 321 .02*
Empowerment scale 2.98 .89 2.96 .71 .16 229 .88
Note: * indicates a significant difference.

Adolescent race: Black'non-Black. Independent sample t-tests were run to explore

the differences between Black adolescents and Non-Black adolescents and study

variables (see Table 4). Significant differences between Black adolescents and Non-

Black adolescents were found for all of the media-related variables, several mediation

variables, hip-hop culture, concept-orientation, and the Empowerment scale. For

example, a significant difference existed between reports of time spent watching hip-hop

music videos and race, t(321) - -3.27, p - .001, indicating that Black adolescents (M =

1.36, SD - 1.02) reportedly watched more hip-hop music videos than adolescents of other

races (M = .67, SD = .73). Black adolescents also reportedly received more positive

parental mediation of hip-hop music videos (M = 2.28, SD = 1.14) than did adolescents of

other races (M = 1.37, SD = .59), (11.23) = -2.76, p = .018, and reported coviewing hip-

hop music videos more often with parents (M = 2.40, SD = 1.36) than did adolescents of

other races (M = 1.49, SD = .74), (11.25) = -2.29, p = .043. Due to the large number of
 86

differences between Black adolescents and adolescent of other races, the variable of

Black/NonBlack was added to every regression model using adolescent data. Multiple

regressions run with parent data, however, did not include child's race, because none of

the parent respondents' children were Black.

Table 4.
Associations between Black/Non-Black Adolescents and Study Variables

Race
Black Other
Variables M (SD) M (SD) t df P
Weekly television 37.38 22.50 20.95 18.32 -3.02 306 .003*
Listen to hip-hop 2.62 .87 1.86 1.10 -3.03 13.69 .009*
Hip-hop viewing 1.36 1.02 .67 .73 -3.27 321 .001*
Restrictive mediation 1.23 .44 1.10 .34 -1.09 12.62 .296
Positive mediation 2.28 1.14 1.37 .59 -2.76 11.23 .018*
Negative mediation 1.76 .89 1.56 .79 -.84 315 .400
Coviewing 2.40 1.36 1.49 .74 -2.29 11.25 .043*
Hip-hop culture 2.77 1.15 1.92 .68 -2.65 12.35 .021*
ATS WA scale 1.89 .78 1.85 .53 -.24 321 .806
Sexual stereotypes scale 3.10 .86 2.73 .60 -1.53 12.50 .151
Socio-orientation 3.25 .83 2.48 .84 -3.26 321 .001*
Concept-orientation 2.76 .76 3.14 .85 1.59 320 .113
Violent-misogynistic scale 3.45 .81 3.44 .70 -.02 321 .988
Empowerment scale 3.54 .78 2.94 .78 -2.7 321 .007*
Note: * indicates a significant difference.

Adolescent television viewing. Prior to running correlations with television

viewing hours and study variables, adolescents' reports of the hours they spent watching

television were recoded. Thirty-four respondents reported average television viewing on

a weekday and weekend as an implausible number of hours (e.g., average hours on a

weekday = 26). To correct these responses, any adolescent who reported more than 14

hours5 spent watching TV on an average weekday was coded as "missing." After this

variable was recoded, the 34 implausible adolescent responses to this question were

considered "missing," and 27 respondents reported watching 6 or more hours of

5
The highest possible weekday TV viewing score was created by subtracting 6 hours (for time spent in
school) and 4 hours (for sleep) from a 24 hour day.
 87

television on an average weekday. Adolescents whose response to the average hours of

time spent viewing television on the weekend was higher than 20 hours6 were coded as

"missing." After this variable was recoded, 17 responses to this item were considered as

"missing," and 31 respondents reported watching television for 6 or more hours on an

average weekend. The recoded weekly TV score was multiplied by 5 (to reflect each day

of the week), and the recoded weekend TV score was multiplied by 2 (to reflect each day

of the weekend). These two scores were then added together to create an hours spent

watching television on an average week score (M= 21.55; SD = 18.71).

Two-tailed Pearson's correlations were run to investigate the relationship between

adolescents' estimated time spent watching television on an average week and their

gender stereotyped attitudes toward women and men. Significant relationships were

found between the average hours of watching television reported by adolescents and both

stereotype measures and attitude toward hip-hop music video measures. Specifically,

adolescents reported that the more time they spent watching television in general, the

more likely they were to report more traditional stereotyped attitudes about women and

men, r = .28, p < .01, and sexualized stereotypes about women and men, r = .32,/? < .01.

These results also indicated that as adolescents' reports of time spent watching television

increased, their negative views of hip-hop music videos decreased, r = -.20, p < .01, and

their positive attitudes toward hip-hop music videos increased, r = .22,/? < .01. The

results of these correlations indicate that time spent viewing television was significantly

related to each study variable; however, including this variable in regression models

would significantly decrease the sample size because those who had this variable

6
The highest possible weekend day TV viewing score was created by subtracting 4 hours (for sleep) from a
24-hour day.
 88

"missing" would be left out of analyses. In addition to the large number of adolescents

who seemingly misinterpreted this survey item, adolescent responses were reported

estimates, not actual hours spent watching television. For these reasons, this variable was

excluded as a control variable within the multiple regression models in this study.

Parent-Reported Variables

Parent education. Parent reports of their highest education level achieved were

correlated with only the mediation variables (see Table 5), because parent data will only

be used in this study to investigate predictors of parental mediation behaviors and parent

education has been identified as a cause of spuriousness in previous studies involving

parental mediation (see Nathanson, 2001). Two-tailed Spearman correlations indicated

that parent education level was not significantly related to any of the mediation variables

in this study. The parent sample was considerably smaller than the adolescent sample,

however, and the parent education variable was added to multiple regression models

using parent data.

Annual household income. Parent reports of annual household income were

correlated with the parental mediation variables (see Table 5). Two-tailed Spearman

correlations showed that annual household income was significantly and negatively

related to each mediation variable. Specifically, as parent reports of annual household

income increased, parents reportedly engaged in less restrictive mediation, r = -.29, p <

.05, positive mediation, r = -.54,p < .01, negative mediation, r = -.33, p < .05, and

coviewing, r - -.42, p < .01. Annual household income, therefore, was added to multiple

regression models using parent data that investigated predictors of parental mediation.
 89

Table 5.
Associations between Parents' Education, Annual Household Income, and Study
Variables

Variables Parent Education Income

Restrictive mediation (n - 49) -.11 -.29*
Positive mediation (n - 48) -.16 -.54**
Negative mediation (n = 49) -.18 -.33*
Coviewing (n = 49) -.10 -.42**
Notes: *p < .05; **p < .01

Summary

These preliminary analyses indicate several variables that may potentially be

responsible for increased error or spuriousness in the variance of criterion measures in

this study. Therefore, the following variables were included in specific multiple

regression analyses. Adolescents' age, race, and sex were found to be covariates for many

of the independent and dependent variables in this study. Therefore, all analyses with

adolescent data discussed later in this chapter using multiple regression models included

adolescents' age, sex, and race (Black/Non-Black) in the first block of the model.

Multiple regressions run with parent data included child's sex and age, as well as parents'

reports of highest education level achieved and annual household income as control

variables. Below are the results of these analyses.

Hip-Hop Music Videos and Involvement in Hip-hop Culture

Hip-Hop Video Viewing and Gender Stereotypes

Hypothesis 1 predicted that as adolescent time spent viewing hip-hop music

videos increases, their gender stereotyped attitudes toward women and men will also

increase. Multiple regressions were run to investigate the relationship between time spent

viewing videos and each stereotype scale (e.g., ATSWA and Sexual Stereotypes scales).

Within both models, child's sex, age, and race were entered in the first block as controls,
 90

and hip-hop video viewing behavior (the predictor variable) was entered in the second

block (see Table 6).

For the ATSWA scale, the block of demographic variables accounted for 24% of

variance. Differences between sexes was predictive of traditional gender stereotyped

attitudes toward women and men, 8 = -.48, p < .01, indicating that boys, more so than

girls, report adhering to traditional gender stereotyped beliefs about women and men.

Adolescents' age was related to traditional stereotypical views of women and men,

8 = -.14,/) < .005, such that reported adherence to traditional gender stereotypical beliefs

about women and men decreases with age. The second block, consisting of hip-hop video

viewing behavior, accounted for an additional 4% of variance. Specifically, the more that

adolescents reported watching hip-hop music videos, the more likely they were to report

adhering to traditional gender stereotypical views of women and men, 8 = .22, p < .01.

An identical regression model was used to assess adolescents' attitudes toward

gender stereotypes using the Sexual Stereotype scale as the dependent variable. The first

block containing demographic variables accounted for 16% of variance in beliefs about

sexual stereotypes. Boys, more so than girls, reported adhering to sexualized gender

stereotyped views of women and men, 8 = -.39, p < .01. Black youth8, more so than youth

of other races, also reported adhering to sexualized gender stereotyped views of women

and men, 8 = .14, p < .005. Age and sexual stereotyped views, however, were not

significantly related, 8 = -.02, p - .51. The second block accounted for an additional 8%

of variance. Amount of reported hip-hop video viewing positively predicted sexual

7
For all multiple regressions that included adolescent sex as a control variable, boys were coded as " 1 " and
girls were coded as "2"
8
For all multiple regressions that included adolescent race (Black/Non-Black) as a control variable, Non-
Black adolescents were coded as "0" and Black adolescents were coded as "1".
 91

stereotyped views of women and men, 6 = .30, p < .01, indicating that as adolescents'

reported time spent watching hip-hop music videos increased, their reported sexualized

stereotyped attitudes toward women and men also increased. Therefore, hypothesis 1 was

supported.

Hip-hop Culture and Gender Stereotypes

Research question 1 asked if adolescents' reported involvement in hip-hop culture

increases will their stereotyped views of women and men increase. Multiple regressions

were run with child's sex, age, and race (Black/Non-Black) in the first block. The second

block included the hip-hop video viewing variable, because it was found to be predictive

of adolescents' gender stereotyped views of women and men (see Table 6). Adolescents'

report of their involvement in hip-hop culture was entered in the third block for each

stereotype scale (i.e., ATSWA scale and Sexual Stereotypes scale) as the criterion

measure (see Table 6).

For the ATSWA scale, the block of demographic variables accounted for 24% of

variance. Adolescents' sex was predictive of traditional gender stereotyped attitudes

toward women and men, 6 = -.48,/) < .01, indicating that boys, more so than girls, report

adhering to traditional gender stereotyped beliefs about women and men. Adolescents'

age was related to traditional stereotypical views of women and men, 6 = -.14, p < .01,

such that reported adherence to traditional gender stereotypical beliefs about women and

men decreases with age. The second block accounted for 4% of variance. Adolescents

reports of viewing hip-hop music videos positively predicted their traditional gender

stereotyped beliefs and women and men, 6 = .22, p < .01. The third block was significant,

but accounted for 1% of variance in reported traditional stereotypical attitudes toward

 92

women and men. There was no significant relationship between reported involvement in

hip-hop culture and traditional stereotypical views, 8 = -.07, p = .24.

An identical regression model was used to assess adolescents' reported attitudes

toward gender stereotypes using the Sexual Stereotype scale as the dependent variable.

The first block containing control variables accounted for 16% of variance in beliefs

about sexual stereotypes. Boys, more so than girls, reported adhering to sexualized

gender stereotyped views of women and men, 8 = -.39, p < .01. Black youth, more so

than youth of other races, reported adhering to sexualized gender stereotypical views of

women and men, 8 = .14, p < .01. Age and reports of sexual stereotyped views, however,

were not significantly related, 8 = -.02, p = .31. The second block accounted for 8% of

variance and adolescent time spent viewing hip-hop music videos positively predicted

sexualized gender stereotyped attitudes about women and men, 8 = .30, p < .01. The third

block accounted for an additional 2% of variance. Involvement in hip-hop culture

predicted sexual stereotypical views, 8 = .16, p < .01, indicating that, as adolescents

reported involvement in hip-hop culture increased, their reported sexualized stereotyped

attitudes toward women and men increased. Therefore, in answer to research question 1,

as adolescents' involvement in hip-hop culture increased, their sexualized stereotyped

views of women and men increased.

 93

Table 6.
Predicting Adolescents Gender Stereotyped Beliefs by Hip-hop Video Viewing (HI) and
Involvement in Hip-hop Culture (RQ1)

ATSWA Sexual Stereotypes

6 B
Stepl
Child sex (F) -.48**
Child age -.14** -.02
Child race (Black) .04 .14**
R2 _24** .16**
Step 2
Video viewing .22* * .30**
Incremental R2 .04** .08**
Step 3
Hip-hop culture -.07 .16**
Incremental R2 .01** .02**
Total R2 .29 .26
Note: +p < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01

Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients

Parental Mediation

Parental Mediation Frequencies

Research question 2a asked about the types of parental mediation of hip-hop

music videos that adolescents and parents report and how often they report these different

types of mediation of hip-hop music videos occurring (see Table 7). Positive and negative

forms of active mediation and coviewing items were each measured on a scale of 1

(never) to 5 (always). According to adolescent respondents, negative mediation occurred

most often (M = 1.57, SD = .79), followed by coviewing (M = 1.52, SD = .57), and

positive mediation (M = 1.40, SD = .64).

The restrictive mediation scale included response options on a scale from 1 (no

rules) to 3 (not allowed to watch any). Similar to the other mediation items, adolescents

reported low levels of restrictive mediation taking place in their homes (M = 1.10, SD =

.34). The majority (87%) of adolescent respondents reported that their parents had no
 94

rules about viewing hip-hop music videos. Of the remaining adolescents, 3.7% reported

that their parents allow them to watch certain hip-hop videos, parents of 3.4% of the

respondents limit how much their children can view these videos, and 1.2% were not

allowed to watch these videos at all. One respondent reported that parents limit the use of

these videos along with allowing that respondent to watch only certain videos (.3%).

The sample of parents reported negative mediation occurring most often (M = 2.2,

SD = 1.2), followed by coviewing (M = 1.60, SD = .76), and positive mediation (M =

1.46, SD = .64). Parents reported little to no restrictive mediation occurring in their

homes (M = 1.1, SD = .33). More specifically, the majority of parents (88%) reported

enforcing no rules about viewing hip-hop music videos, followed by 10% who reported

allowing their child to only watch certain videos and 2% who limited how much their

child could see the videos. In answer to research question 2a, adolescents and parents

reported low amounts of the different types of parental mediation occurring. Both parents

and adolescents reported negative mediation occurring most often, followed by

coviewing, positive mediation, and restrictive mediation.

Table 7.
Frequencies of Parental Mediation from Parent and Adolescent Reports (R2a)

Variables Mean (SD) Range Valid N

Adolescents
Positive mediation 1.4 .64 1-5 318
Negative mediation 1.6 .79 1-5 318
Coviewing 1.5 .78 1-5 318
Restrictive mediation 1.1 .34 1-3 315
Parents
Positive mediation 1.5 .64 1-5 48
Negative mediation 2.2 1.20 1-5 49
Coviewing 1.6 .76 1-5 49
Restrictive mediation 1.1 .33 1-3 49
 95

Parental Mediation and Gender Stereotypes

Research question 2b asked whether a relationship existed between adolescent

reports of the different types of parental mediation and adolescents' gender stereotyped

attitudes toward women and men. Multiple regressions were run with demographic

variables (e.g., adolescent sex, age, and race) as well as hip-hop music video viewing and

involvement in hip-hop culture scores, entered in the first block, and the different types of

parental mediation entered in the second block. The hip-hop video viewing and

involvement in hip-hop culture variables were added to the first block of the models

because they were found to be predictive of adolescents' gender stereotyped views of

women and men (see Table 8). The different types of parental mediation were entered in

the second block, and analyses were run separately with the ATSWA scale and the

Sexual Stereotypes scale as criterion measures (see Table 8).

The demographic variables and hip-hop variables for the ATSWA scale model

contributed to 30% of the variance in traditional views of women and men. Specifically,

boys, more so than girls, adhered to traditional gender stereotyped attitudes about women

and men, 8 = -.48,/? < .01. Hip-hop video viewing was predictive of traditional gender

stereotyped attitudes about women and men, 6 = .05, p < .01, indicating that as

adolescents' reports of hip-hop music video viewing increased, reports of traditional

stereotypical attitudes toward gender increase. The different types of parental mediation

contributed 2% of additional variance, however, adolescents' reports of coviewing were

the only significant predictor of reports of traditional stereotyped beliefs about women

and men, B = -.21, p < .01.

 96

The demographic variables and hip-hop variables in block one of the Sexual

Stereotype scale model accounted for 27% of variance. Adolescent sex was predictive of

sexualized stereotyped beliefs, 6 = -.39, p < .01, indicating that boys, more so than girls,

reported more sexual stereotyped beliefs about women and men. Hip-hop video viewing,

6 = .21, p < .01) and involvement in hip-hop culture, 6 = .16, p < .01, were also predictive

of reported sexual stereotyped beliefs about women and men. The second block of

parental mediation types contributed an additional 1% of the variance. Positive mediation

was the only type of parental mediation that significantly predicted sexual stereotyped

views of women and men, B = .19, p < .05, indicating that as adolescents reports of

positive parental mediation about hip-hop music videos increased, their reports of

sexualized stereotyped views of women and men increased. Therefore, in response to

research question 2b, a relationship does exist between adolescents' reports of traditional

gender stereotyped attitudes of women and men and coviewing. Additionally, a

relationship was found between adolescents' reports of sexualized stereotyped attitudes

toward women and men and positive mediation.

Parental Mediation and Attitudes about Videos

Hypothesis 2 predicted that, as negative and restrictive mediation of hip-hop

music video viewing increase, adolescents' negative attitudes toward these videos will

increase. Multiple regressions were run with demographics (e.g., adolescents' sex, age,

and race) as well as the hip-hop music video viewing variable and involvement in hip-

hop culture variable, entered in the first block. The hip-hop variables were added to the

first block of the model because they were found to be predictive of adolescents' views of

women and men (see Tables 7 and 8). The different types of parental mediation were
 97

entered in the second block, and analyses were run separately with the Violent-

Misogynistic scale (VM scale) and the Empowerment scale as criterion measures (see

Table 8).

The first block of demographic variables and hip-hop variables in the VM scale

model contributed 12% of the variance in negative attitudes toward hip-hop music

videos. Girls reported more negative attitudes toward hip-hop music videos than did

boys, 8 = .17, p < .005, and, as adolescents' age increased, their reports of negative

attitudes toward hip-hop music videos increased, 6 = .19, p < .01. Reported time spent

watching hip-hop music videos negatively predicted reports of negative views of hip-hop

music videos, 8 = -.24, p < .01, and adolescents' reports of involvement in hip-hop

culture positively predicted reports of negative views of hip-hop music videos, 8 = .20, p

< .005. The second block containing the different types of parental mediation contributed

an additional 6% of variance. Negative mediation positively predicted adolescents views

of hip-hop music videos, 6 = .27, p < .01, indicating that as adolescents reported negative

parental mediation about hip-hop music videos increased, their negative attitudes toward

hip-hop music videos increased. Restrictive mediation was not significantly related to

views of hip-hop music videos, 6 = -.08, p = .16.

A multiple regression was run to examine the relationship between positive

attitudes toward hip-hop music videos and parental mediation (see Table 8). The first

block of demographic variables and hip-hop variables contributed 25% of variance. As

adolescents' age increased, their reported attitudes toward hip-hop music videos became

less positive, 8 = -.10,p < .05. Involvement in hip-hop culture positively predicted

positive views of hip-hop music videos, 8 = .42, p < .01, indicating that as adolescents
 98

reported more involvement in hip-hop culture, their reported positive attitudes toward

hip-hop music videos increased. The second block of parental mediation variables

contributed 2% of the variance. Negative mediation negatively predicted positive views

of hip-hop music videos, 6 = -.12, p < .05, indicating that as adolescent reports of

negative mediation of hip-hop music videos increased, their reports of positive attitudes

toward hip-hop music videos decreased. Reports of restrictive mediation did not predict

reported positive attitudes toward hip-hop music videos, B = -.00,/? = .99. Hypothesis 2

was partially supported.

Table 8.
Predicting Adolescents' Gender Stereotyped Beliefs (RQ2b) and Attitudes about Hip-hop
Music Videos (H2) by Adolescents' Reports of Parental Mediation

ATSWA Sex Stereo VM Scale Empower

6 6 6 B
Step 1
Child sex (F) -.48** _ go** 17** -.06
1 Q* *
Child age -.07 .05 -.10*
Child race (Black) .14 .08 -.01 .05
Video viewing .05** .21** -.24** .07
Hip-hop culture .05 .16** .20** .42**
R2 .30** 97** 12** .25**
Step 2
Negative med -.02 .00 .27** -.12*
Positive med .13 .19* -.12 .07
Restrictive med .02 -.03 -.08 -.00
Coviewing _ 91 ** -.10 -.06 .09
Incremental R2 .02** ni** .06** .02**
2
Total R .32 .28 .18 .27
Note: +p < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01

Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients

Parental Views of Videos and Parental Mediation

Hypothesis 3 predicted that as parents negative views of hip-hop music videos

increase, their restrictive and negative mediation will increase. Multiple regressions were

run to investigate whether parent reports of positive and negative attitudes toward hip-
 99

hop music videos predicted parent reports of negative and restrictive mediation (see

Table 9). Within both models, child's sex, age, parent education, and annual household

income were entered in the first block as controls, and the Violent-misogynistic scale and

Empowerment scale (the predictor variables) were entered in the second block.

For the negative mediation scale, the first block of demographic variables were

not significant, however, the second block of positive and negative attitudes toward hip-

hop music videos accounted for 26% of variance. Specifically, as parents' reports of

negative attitudes toward hip-hop music videos increased, their reports of negative

mediation increased, 6 = .23, p < .10. As parents' reports of positive attitudes about hip-

hop music videos increased, their reports of negative mediation decreased, 6 = -.40, p <

.005.

For the restrictive mediation model, the first block of demographic variables were

not significant. The second block of positive and negative attitudes toward hip-hop music

video variables accounted for 11% of the variance. Parents' positive attitudes was the

only predictive variable in the second block that reached significance, 6 = -.35, p < .05,

indicating that as parents' reports of positive attitudes toward hip-hop music videos

increase, their reports of restrictive mediation decrease. Therefore, hypothesis 3 was

partially supported.
 100

Table 9.
Predicting Negative and Restrictive Mediation by Parental Attitudes about Hip-hop
Music Videos (H3)

Negative Mediation Restrictive Mediation

fi 8
Stepl
Child sex (F) .04 .00
Child age -.22 -.31+
Parent education -.06 -.02
Annual income -.18 -.15
R2 .14 .16
Step 2
VM scale .23+ -.03
Empowerment scale - .40 * * -.35*
Incremental R2 .26* .11*
Total R2 .40 .27
Notes: +p < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01

Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients

Parental Views of Video Effects and Parental Mediation

Hypothesis 4 predicted that, as parents beliefs about the negative effects of hip-

hop music videos on their child increased, their restrictive and negative mediation would

increase. Multiple regressions were run with child's sex, age, parent education, and

household income entered in the first block. The second block included parents' views of

the effects that hip-hop music videos have on their child (see Table 10). Multiple

regressions were run on one model that included negative mediation as the criterion

variable and on a second model that included restrictive mediation as the criterion

variable.

For the negative mediation model, the first block of demographic variables did

not reach significance. The second block accounted for 18% of variance. Specifically, as

parents reports that hip-hop music videos negatively affect their child increased, their

negative mediation increased, B = .44, p < .005.

 101

The first block of demographic variables in the restrictive mediation model did

not reach significance. The second block accounted for 19% of variance. Parents'

reported attitudes about the effects that hip-hop music videos have on their child

positively predicted their reports of restrictive mediation, 8 = .45,/? < .01. Therefore,

hypothesis 4 was supported.

Table 10.
Predicting Negative and Restrictive Mediation by Parent Attitudes about the Effects of
Hip-hop Music Videos on Child (H4)

Negative Mediation Restrictive Mediation

B B
Stepl
Child sex (F) .04 .00
Child age -.28+ -.34*
Parent education -.10 -.05
Annual income -.10 -.11
R2 .14 .16
Step 2
Own child affected .44* * .45**
2
Incremental R .18**
Total R2 .32 .35
Note: +p < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01
Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients

Adolescents' Age and Parental Mediation

Hypothesis 5 predicted that as the age of adolescents increases, their reports of

parental mediation of hip-hop music videos would decrease. One-tailed Pearson's

correlations were run to investigate the relationship between age of adolescents and the

different types of parental mediation. Age of adolescent respondents was negatively

correlated with restrictive mediation, r = -.21, p < .01, coviewing, r = -.18, p < .01, and

positive mediation, r = -.14,/? < .01, indicating that as adolescents' age increase, their

reports of coviewing, restrictive mediation, and positive mediation decrease. A

 102

significant relationship was not found between negative mediation and age of adolescent,

r - -.08, p > .05. Therefore, hypothesis 5 was partially supported.

Parent Sex and Parental Mediation

Research question 3 asked whether there was a difference in mediation behaviors

based on parents' sex. Independent samples t-tests were run to investigate parents' sex

and the different types of parental mediation (see Table 11). Results indicated that a

difference in parents' sex was significant only for positive mediation, (9.22) = 1.96, p =

.002. Specifically, fathers or male guardians (M = 2.00, SD = .90) engaged in positive

mediation about hip-hop music videos with their children more so than mothers (M -

1.35, SD = .51). Therefore, in response to research question 3, a difference in reported

mediation behaviors of parents was significant only for positive mediation.

Table 11.
Difference in Parental Mediation Types According to Parent Sex (RQ3)

Gender
Male Female
Variables M (SD) M (SD) t df P
Restrictive 1.22 .44 1.10 .30 1.00 47 .071
mediation
Positive mediation 2.00 .90 1.35 .51 1.96 9.22 .002*

Negative mediation 2.36 1.25 2.19 1.25 .357 47 .996

Coviewing 1.86 .72 1.54 .76 1.18 47 .806

Notes: * indicates a significant difference

Third-Person Effects

H6 predicted that parents would report that other children would be more affected

by hip-hop music videos than their own child. A paired-sample t-test was run to test this

hypothesis. Results indicated that on average, parents reported their belief that other

children are more negatively affected by hip-hop music videos (M - 5.80, SD = 1.93)
 103

than their own child (M = 2.61, SD = 1.76), f(45) = -10.80, p < .01. Therefore, hypothesis

6 was supported.

Third-Person Effects and Parental Mediation

Research question 4 asked if the discrepancy of parents' reports that other

children are more affected by hip-hop music videos increased, will parents report more or

less mediation behaviors. A multiple regression model was used to test the relationship

between parents' reports of the effects of hip-hop music videos with each mediation type

(see Table 12). The first block of each regression model included child's sex, age, parent

education, and household income. The predictor variable (i.e., parents reports that other

children are more affected by hip-hop music videos than their own) was created by

subtracting parents' scores on the measure of effects that viewing hip-hop music videos

has on their child from the measure of the effects that hip-hop music videos has on other

children. Response options for this variable ranged from 0 (not affected at all) to 10

(affected a lot). All parent respondents reported that other children were more affected by

hip-hop music videos than their own child or that their child was affected the same as

other children. Therefore, all parent scores on the new predictor variable were positive

(M= 3.2, SD = 2.0).

The negative mediation and the restrictive mediation model did not significantly

predict variance in the criterion variables, indicating that parents reports of hip-hop music

videos affecting other children more than their own child, are not predictive of reports of

negative or restrictive mediation. For the positive mediation model, the first block of

demographic variables accounted for 41% of variance. Child's age, 6 = -.29, p < .05, and

household income, 8 = -.43,/? < .005, negatively predicted parents' reports of positive
 104

mediation. The second block of the model contributed an additional 5% of variance.

Specifically, as parents' reports that hip-hop music videos affect other children more than

their own child increased, their reports of positive mediation decreased, B = -.23, p < .05.

The first block of the coviewing model accounted for 31% of variance.

Specifically, child's age, B = -.26,p < .10, and annual household income, B = -.32,p <

.05, negatively predicted coviewing hip-hop music videos. The second block contributed

an additional 2% variance, however, parents' reports that hip-hop music videos affect

other children more than their own child was not a significant predictor of coviewing.

Therefore, in response to research question 4, parents' reports that other children are

more affected by hip-hop music videos than their own child are only predictive of reports

of positive mediation.

Table 12.
Predicting Parental Mediation by Parent Attitudes about the Effects of Hip-hop Music
Videos on other Children (RQ4)

NM PM RM CV
B B B B
Stepl
Child sex (F) .02 .08 .00 .05
Child age -.27 -.29* -.34 -.26+
Parent income -.10 -.00 -.05 -.15
Annual Income -.10 -.43** -.11 -.32*
R2 .13 .41** .16 "21 **

Step 2
Other child affected -.10 -.23* -.00 -.13
Incremental R2 .01 .05** .00 .02**
Total R2 .14 .45 .16 .33
Note: +p < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01
Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients
 105

Family Communication Patterns

Concept-orientation and Active Mediation

Hypothesis 7 predicted that as adolescents reports of concept-orientation

increased, their reports of active (i.e., positive and negative) mediation from parents

would increase. A multiple regression was run with demographic variables (e.g., child's

age, sex, and race) entered in the first block of the model. The second block, included

concept-orientation assessed as a continuous measure (see Table 13). The demographic

variables in the negative mediation model contributed a non-significant 1% of variance.

The second block, containing concept-orientation, contributed an additional 2% of the

variance. Results indicated that as adolescents' reports of concept-orientation increased

their reports of negative mediation of hip-hop music videos increased, 6 = .16, p < .01.

The first block of demographic variables in the positive mediation model

accounted for a significant 9% of variance. Child's age, 8 = -.12,p < .05, and race, 8 =

.26, p < .01, were significant predictors of positive mediation. Concept-orientation,

entered in the second block, accounted for an additional 1% of variance. Results

indicated that as adolescents' reports of concept-orientation increased, their reports of

positive mediation of hip-hop music videos increased, B = .10, p < .10. Therefore,

hypothesis 7 was supported, although the significance level of covariance between

positive mediation and concept-orientation was weak.

Concept-orientation and Restrictive Mediation

Hypothesis 8 predicted that as adolescents' reports of concept-orientation

increased, their reports of restrictive parental mediation of hip-hop music videos would

increase. A multiple regression was run with demographic variables (e.g., child's sex,
 106

age, and race) added to first block and concept-orientation included in the second block

(see Table 13). The block of demographic variables accounted for a significant 5% of the

variance. Child's age was a negatively predictive of restrictive mediation, 6 = -.21, p <

.01, indicating that as age of adolescents increase, their reports of restrictive mediation

decrease. The second block contributed 1% of the variance, however, reports of concept-

orientation were not significantly predictive of reported restrictive mediation, 6 = -.09, p

= .12. Therefore, hypothesis 8 was not supported.

Concept-orientation, Attention to News, and Parental Mediation

Hypothesis 9 predicted that as parents' reports of concept-orientation increase,

their attention to news will increase and therefore, their reports of negative and restrictive

mediation of their child's hip-hop music video viewing behavior will increase. A one-

tailed Pearson correlation found no significant relationship between concept-oriented

families and their attention to news, r = .16,p > .05. Therefore, hypothesis 9 was not

supported.

Concept-orientation and Coviewing

Hypothesis 10 predicted that as adolescents' reports of concept-orientation

increase, their reports of coviewing hip-hop music videos with parents would decrease. A

multiple regression was run with demographic variables (e.g., adolescents' sex, age, and

race) entered in the first block and concept-orientation entered in the second block (see

Table 13).

The first block of demographic variables accounted for a significant 10% of

variance. All of the demographic variables were predictive of coviewing. Specifically,

girls reported coviewing hip-hop music videos with parents more so than did boys, 6 =
 107

.15, p < .01, and as adolescents' age increased, their reports of coviewing hip-hop music

videos with parents decreased, 8 = -.15, p < .005. Additionally, Black youth reported

coviewed hip-hop music videos with their parents more often than did adolescents of

other races, B = .20, p < .01.

Concept-orientation accounted for 3% of the variance in the model and was

predictive of coviewing hip-hop music videos, 6 = .17, p < .005. Specifically, as

adolescents' reports of concept-orientation increased, their reports of coviewing hip-hop

music videos with parents increased. Therefore, hypothesis 10 was not supported.

Table 13.
Predicting Parental Mediation by Concept-orientation (H7, H8, H10)

NM PM RM CV
B_ 8 fi B
Stepl
Child sex (F) .01 .02 .03 .15**
Child age -.08 -.12* _ 91 ** -.15**
Child race (Black) .04 .26** .06 .20**
R2 09** .05**
Step 2
1 "7**
Concept-orientation .16** .10+ -.09
2
Incremental R .02* .01** .03**
Total R2 .03 .09 .06 .13
Note: +p < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01
Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients

Socio-orientation and Parental Mediation

Research questions 5-8 investigated the relationship between adolescents' reports

of socio-orientation and the different types of parental mediation of hip-hop music

videos. Multiple regressions were run with demographic variables entered in the first

block (e.g. adolescents' sex, age, and race) and concept-orientation entered in the second

block for each type of parental mediation (see Tables 14). For research question 5,

restrictive mediation, the demographic variables accounted for a significant 5% of

 108

variance. The only demographic variable that was predictive of restrictive mediation was

child's age, 6 = -.21,p < .01, indicating that as age increased, adolescents' reports of

restrictive mediation decreased. Socio-orientation, entered in the second block, accounted

for 3% of the variance. Specifically, as adolescents' reports of socio-orientation

increased, their reports of restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos increased, 8 =

.18, p < .005. Therefore, in response to research question 5, adolescent reports of socio-

orientation positively predict reports of restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos.

Research question 6 asked whether adolescent reports of socio-orientation

predicted positive mediation of hip-hop music videos (see Table 14). The block of

demographic variables contributed a significant 9% of the variance to the model. Child's

age was predictive of positive mediation, 8 = -.11, p < .05, and Black adolescents, more

so than adolescents of other races, reported more positive mediation of hip-hop music

videos, 8 = .26, p < .01. Socio-orientation contributed an additional 4% of the variance to

this model. Specifically, as adolescents' reports of socio-orientation increased, their

reports of positive mediation of hip-hop music videos also increased, 8 = .20, p < .01. In

answer to research question 5, adolescent reports of socio-orientation positively predicted

reports of positive mediation of hip-hop music videos.

Research question 7 asked whether adolescent reports of socio-orientation

predicted negative mediation. The first block of demographic variables contributed a non-

significant 1% of variance to the model (see Table 14). The second block, however,

contributed a significant 7% of variance. Results indicated that as adolescents' reports of

socio-orientation increased, their reports of negative mediation increased, 8 = .26, p <

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.01. Therefore, in response to research question 7, adolescents' reports ofsocio-

orientation positively predict their reports of negative mediation of hip-hop music videos.

Research question 8 asked whether adolescent reports of socio-orientation were

predictive of coviewing of hip-hop music videos. The first block of demographic

variables accounted for 10% of the variance (see Table 14). Adolescents' sex, 8 = .15, p

< .005, age, 6 = -.15, p < .01, and race, 8 = .20,/? < .01, were predictive of adolescents'

reports of parent-child coviewing of hip-hop music videos. Socio-orientation accounted

for less than 1% of the variance and was not a significant predictor of parent-child

coviewing of hip-hop music videos, 6 = .06,/? = .29. Therefore, in response to research

question 8, adolescents' reports of socio-orientation are not predictive of their reports of

coviewing hip-hop music videos with their parent.

Table 14.
Predicting Parental Mediation by Socio-orientation (RQ5, RQ6, RQ7, RQ8)

NM PM RM CV
B_ 8 B 8
Stepl
Child sex (F) .02 .02 .03 .15**
Child age -.07 -.11* -.21** -.15**
Child race (Black) .04 .26** .06 .20**
R2 .01 .09** .05** j n * *

Step 2
Socio-orientation .26 .20** .18** .06
Incremental R2 .07 .04** .03** .00
2
Total R .07 .13 .08 .10
Note: +p < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01
Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients

Family Communication Patterns and Television Viewing

Hypothesis 11 predicted that as adolescent reports of concept-orientation

increased, their reported time spent watching television would decrease and as adolescent

reports of socio-orientation increase, their reports of time watching television will

 110

increase. A multiple regression was run with demographic variables entered in the first

block (e.g., adolescents' sex, age, and race), and both family communication pattern

orientations in the second block, with each television viewing hours as the criterion

measure (See Table 15).

All of the demographic variables entered in the first block, and together

contributed to 6% of the variance. Specifically, boys, more so than girls, reported

spending more time watching television, B = -.15, p < .01. As age of adolescent

respondents increased, their reported time spent watching television decreased, B = -.12, p

< .05. Black youth reported watching more television than did youth of other races, 8 =

.17, p < .005. The second block, containing both FCP orientations as predictor variables,

contributed an additional 2% of the variance to the model. Both FCP variables were

predictive of time spent watching television. As adolescents' reports of concept-

orientation increased, their reported time spent watching television decreased, B = -.12, p

< .05. Additionally, as adolescents' reports of socio-orientation increased, their time

spent watching television increased, B = .15, p < .10. Additionally, hypothesis 11 was

supported.

Family Communication Patterns and Video Viewing

Hypothesis 12 predicted that as adolescent reports of concept-orientation

increased, their reports of time spent watching hip-hop music videos will decrease, and as

adolescent reports of socio-orientation increase, their reports of time spent watching hip-

hop music videos will increase. A multiple regression was run with demographic

variables entered in the first block (e.g., adolescents' sex, age, and race), and both family
 Ill

communication pattern orientations in the second block, with hip-hop video viewing

hours as the criterion measure (See Table 15).

The first block of demographic variables contributed 10% of the variance. The

only significant variable in this block was child's race, 6 = .17,p < .005, indicating that

Black youth, more so than youth of other races, spent more time viewing hip-hop music

videos. The second block contributed an additional 4% of the variance. Only socio-

orientation was a significant predictor of hip-hop music video viewing, B = .20, p < .01,

such that as adolescents' reports of socio-orientation increased, their reports of time spent

viewing hip-hop music videos increased. Therefore, hypothesis 12 was partially

supported.

Table 15.
Predicting Hip-hop Video Viewing and Television Viewing by Family Communication
Patterns (Hll, H12)

Hip-hop video viewing Television viewing

B B
Stepl
Child sex (F) -.07 -.15**
Child age -.25 -.12*
Child race (Black) .17**
R2 .10** .06**
Step 2
Socio-orientation .20** .10+
Concept-orientation -.02 -.12*
Incremental R2 .04 * * .02**
2
Total R .13 .08
Note: +P < .10; * p < .05; **p < .01
Entries are standardized OLS regression coefficients

Summary

Analyses of data collected from adolescent and parent surveys revealed a variety

of significant results. As hypothesized, adolescents' reported time spent viewing hip-hop

music videos was predictive of reported stereotyped attitudes about women and men.
 112

Furthermore, adolescents' reported involvement in hip-hop culture positively predicted

reports of sexualized stereotyped attitudes about gender. This investigation also indicated

that specific types of parental mediation are related to adolescents' attitudes about gender

stereotypes and hip-hop music videos. Finally, particular characteristics of families,

parents, and children were found to be predictive of different types of parental mediation.

The next chapter discusses these results in detail, including the implications, limitations,

and future directions of these findings.

 113

CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION

In this dissertation I have argued that parent-child communication about hip-hop

music videos may be a potentially effective communication strategy that encourages

young viewers to be critical of the stereotyped portrayals of women and men in some hip-

hop music videos. The primary focus of this study, therefore, was to explore the

occurrence and efficacy of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. I sought to gain

an understanding of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos that is reported to occur

in families and whether this communication is predictive of adolescents' gender

stereotyped attitudes and views of gender portrayals in hip-hop music videos.

The first section of Chapter 2 in this dissertation illustrates the recent efforts of

hip-hop activists, fans, and other adults who are concerned about the ways that women

and men of color are portrayed in these videos. Furthermore, in that chapter, I discuss

media effects studies that have linked viewing hip-hop music videos to viewers'

behavioral and attitudinal outcomes. The second part of the chapter provides an overview

of the body of parental mediation research, focusing on the effects of parent-child

communication about television and characteristics of parents and families who engage in

parental mediation.

As a whole, the results of this dissertation, reported in Chapter 4, contribute to the

existing body of literature on media effects and parental mediation. My data add to these

areas of research by further investigating the possible effects of viewing hip-hop music

videos as well as examining the role of adolescents' involvement in hip-hop culture as an

additional predictor of adolescents' gender stereotyped attitudes. This dissertation

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extends previous research on parental mediation by focusing on the occurrence and

efficacy of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. Finally, these data suggest

characteristics of parents and of families who are more likely to engage or not engage in

parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. These results, however, reflect reports of

mediation rather than observed behaviors.

In the following, I discuss the results of the present investigation, beginning with

the relationship between adolescents' reports of viewing hip-hop music videos, their

attitudes about gender stereotypes, and their level of involvement in hip-hop culture. The

next section discusses my findings on the presence and role of parental mediation of hip-

hop music videos and the relationship between parent-child communication about these

videos and adolescents' attitudes about gender stereotypes and hip-hop music videos. The

next two sections focus on predictors of parental mediation and, specifically, the

relationship between family communication patterns and parental mediation. Each

section concludes with some implications of these findings. Following the results and

implications of each section of this study, I discuss limitations of these findings and

directions for future research. The final section of this chapter concludes this dissertation

by discussing the results and implications of these data as a whole.

Predictors of Gender Stereotyped Attitudes

As discussed in Chapter 2, mainstream hip-hop music videos have been criticized

for their negative and stereotyped portrayals of women and men (Committee on Energy

and Commerce, 2007; Hurt et al., 2006; Rap Sessions, 2007), and empirical analyses

suggest a relationship between viewing these videos and stereotyped attitudes about

gender (e.g., Gan, Zillman, & Mitrook, 1997; Ward, Hansbrough, and Walker, 2005). My
 115

dissertation contributes to this body of literature by further investigating this relationship

and incorporating two related, but distinct, measures of gender stereotyped attitudes:

traditional gender stereotypes and sexualized gender stereotypes.

The ATSWA scale was used to assess adolescents' attitudes about traditional

gender stereotyped statements. Specifically, this scale measures respondents' attitudes

about females' rights and roles in relationships and in society (Galambos et al., 1985;

Ward et al., 2005). I used the Sexual Stereotypes scale to measure respondents' attitudes

about sexualized gender stereotyped statements, which reflect portrayals of women and

men in mainstream hip-hop music videos more strongly than does the ATSWA scale

(Ward et al., 2005). Prior to reviewing the results of this analysis, I discuss respondents

reported stereotyped attitudes and several key demographic characteristics of respondents

that were predictive of their reported attitudes about gender stereotypes.

Descriptive analyses from parent and child samples in this study showed

relatively low levels of agreement on both stereotype scales; however, on average, both

groups showed more agreement on the sexual stereotypes items than on the traditional

gender stereotype items. For adolescents, this difference was more pronounced,

suggesting that adolescents' may hold more sexualized stereotypical attitudes (e.g.,

women are attracted to a muscular body, women should show off their figure and use

their body to attract a man) about women and men, much like those seen in the media,

than traditional gender stereotypes (e.g., boys are smarter than girls, swearing is worse

for a girl than a boy). Further research, however, would need to investigate gender

stereotyped attitudes of adolescents to make any larger claims about this attitudinal

difference between gender stereotyped beliefs.

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There were several notablefindingsabout the characteristics of adolescents who

reported that they were more likely to endorse traditional and sexualized stereotyped

attitudinal statements about women and men. First, adolescents' sex was the strongest

predictor of stereotyped attitudes on both measures within every regression model when a

stereotyped measure was the criterion variable. Specifically, adolescent boys, more so

than adolescent girls in this study, reported adhering to traditional and sexualized

stereotyped statements about women and men. These findings are similar to previous

studies that have found adolescent boys to report more gender stereotyped attitudes than

do girls on the ATSWA scale (Galambos et al., 1985; Ward et al., 2005) and the Sexual

Stereotypes scale (Ward et al., 2005).

Age, according to my data, negatively predicted adolescents' reported attitudes

about traditional gender stereotyped beliefs on three of the four ATSWA regression

models. Age, however, was not predictive of adolescents' attitudes about sexual

stereotypes. These data reveal that, as adolescents' age increase, their attitudes about

gender become less traditionally stereotyped. This result is similar to Nathanson's (2002)

experimental study on mediation of gender stereotyped television content, where she

found that older children held more non-stereotyped attitudes than younger children.

In addition, Black adolescents in this dissertation were more likely to report

agreement with sexual stereotyped statements about men and women, than adolescents of

other races on three of the four Sexual Stereotype models. No differences were found,

however, between Black and non-Black adolescents' reports on the ATSWA scale.

Hip-hop Music Videos

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On average, adolescents in this study reported relatively low amounts of time

spent watching hip-hop music videos compared to what has been claimed in other

studies. Previous research has reported that youth watch hip-hop music videos several

times a week (Cohen et al., 2007) or every day (Bell et al., 2007; Ward et al., 2005).

Adolescent respondents in the current study, on average, reported listening to hip-hop

music several days a week and watching hip-hop music videos less than several times a

month.

Adolescents' age was related to their reported time spent viewing hip-hop music

videos. Specifically, as adolescents' age increased, their time spent watching hip-hop

music videos decreased. This finding is similar to other studies that suggest that, as

adolescents' age increases, their time spent viewing music videos in general decreases

(e.g., Christenson & Roberts, 1998). Additionally, Black youth (M = 1.4; SD = 1.02)

reported watching hip-hop music videos more than twice as often as youth of other races

(M = .67; SD - .73). Again, this result mirrors other research where Black adolescents

report viewing hip-hop music videos more often than youth of other races (e.g., Cohen et

al., 2007). Boys and girls did not differ in their reports of time spent viewing hip-hop

music videos in the current study.

The first hypothesis in this study predicted that, as adolescents' time spent

viewing hip-hop music videos increases, the degree to which they hold stereotyped

attitudes about women and men will increase. This hypothesis was supported.

Specifically, the results of this study indicated that adolescents' reports of the time they

spend viewing hip-hop music videos positively predicted their traditional and sexualized

stereotyped attitudes about women and men, even when adolescents' sex, age, and race
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were controlled. Hip-hop music video viewing, however, explained more variance in the

sexualized stereotype model than it did in the traditional gender stereotype model. This

result is not surprising, considering that the items on the Sexual Stereotype scale reflect

the portrayals of men and women in hip-hop music videos (Ward et al., 2005). Therefore,

adolescent reports of viewing hip-hop music videos, in this study, positively predicted

gender stereotyped attitudes and this relationship was stronger for reported sexualized

stereotyped attitudes than traditional stereotyped attitudes.

Involvement in Hip-hop Culture

Along with hip-hop music videos, critics (e.g., Hurt et al., 2006) have argued that

hip-hop culture glamorizes misogyny, sexism, and hypermasculinity. Hip-hop culture,

which evolved with hip-hop music, includes break-dancing, creating beats or music, art,

and clothing styles (Hamilton, 2004; Reese, 1998). An extensive search through research

indicated that no empirical studies have been published that investigate the relationship

between adolescents' involvement in hip-hop culture and their gender stereotyped

attitudes, despite criticism directed toward hip-hop culture. For these reasons, I was

interested in investigating whether adolescent involvement in hip-hop culture was

predictive of adolescents' gender stereotyped attitudes.

The results of this analysis indicate that, as adolescents' reported involvement in

hip-hop culture increases, their endorsement of sexualized, but not traditional,

stereotyped statements about women and men also increases. This relationship was

significant, even when adolescents' age, sex, race, and their time spent viewing hip-hop

music videos were controlled statistically. The relationship between sexualized, but not

traditional, stereotyped attitudes, and involvement in hip-hop culture is not surprising,

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considering that the stereotyped statements on the Sexual Stereotypes scale reflect gender

portrayals in hip-hop music videos (Ward et al., 2005) and hip-hop culture (Hurt et al.,

2006) more closely than the statements on the ATSWA scale.

Implications

This set of analyses focused on the relationship between adolescents' reported

time spent viewing hip-hop music videos and their reported adherence to gender

stereotyped statements about women and men. In addition, adolescents' reported level of

involvement in hip-hop culture as a predictor of their reported gender stereotyped

attitudes was assessed. The results of these analyses indicate that a significant and

positive relationship exists between adolescents time spent viewing hip-hop music videos

and their reported stereotyped attitudes about gender on both scales. These findings are

similar to the results of Ward et al.'s (2005) experimental study. Ward et al. found that

when demographic backgrounds, media use, and baseline gender stereotyping were

controlled for, adolescents who viewed videos with stereotyped portrayals of women and

men still reported more traditional and sexualized gender stereotyped attitudes. These

scholars state that their results indicate "powerful evidence of the potential contribution

of music video exposure in shaping young viewers' beliefs about how women and men

should look, act, and behave" (p. 159). My findings further contribute to the body of data

that has found a positive relationship between viewing hip-hop music videos and gender

stereotyped attitudes of young viewers (e.g., Gan et al., 1997; Johnson et al., 1995).

Furthermore, these results suggest that research investigating gender stereotyped

portrayals in hip-hop music videos and attitudinal outcomes in viewers should include
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dependent variables that are representative of the types of stereotypical portrayals within

this genre of music videos.

These findings also show that male adolescents were more likely to endorse

traditional and sexualized stereotyped attitudinal statements about women and men than

were females. This finding suggests that viewing hip-hop music videos may have

detrimental consequences for young boys, because the videos often reinforce preexisting

stereotyped attitudes about women and men. Indeed, Ward et al. (2005) reported that,

across all of the genres of television programs they assessed among young viewers, music

videos were the strongest and most consistent correlate of reported gender stereotyped

beliefs. These beliefs about the roles and behaviors of women and men may affect young

males' attitudes about themselves, expectations about women, and their behaviors in

relationships.

This study also extends our knowledge about hip-hop and gender stereotypes by

including a scale to measure adolescents' involvement in hip-hop culture. Adolescents'

reported level of involvement in hip-hop culture did predict their sexualized gender

stereotyped attitudes about women and men; however, my study was a cross-sectional

analysis and therefore, a causal relationship between these two variables cannot be

established. For these reasons, further studies that investigate the roles of men and

women in hip-hop culture should employ longitudinal and experimental designs to better

understand the relationship between hip-hop videos and hip-hop culture and gender

stereotyped attitudes about women and men.

Parental Mediation
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The primary goal of this dissertation was to investigate the presence and efficacy

of parental mediation of adolescents' hip-hop music video viewing. Scholars have

suggested that active mediation of television is an effective communication strategy for

influencing young people's interpretation of media content (Austin, 1993; Austin et al.,

1990). Previous studies on parental mediation have focused on television programs as an

aggregate (Austin et al., 1999; Warren, 2001) or specific types of programs (e.g., violent

programs, advertisements) that may have detrimental effects on children (Nathanson,

1999, 2001; Nathanson et al., 2002). Despite being the target of praise and criticism,

parental mediation of mainstream hip-hop music videos has received little research

attention. This study, therefore, contributes to this area of scholarship by assessing

parental mediation of hip-hop music videos empirically.

Frequencies

According to data from this study, parental mediation of hip-hop music videos

occurs rarely between adolescent respondents and their parents. Parents and adolescents

both report negative mediation occurring most often, followed by coviewing, positive

mediation, and restrictive mediation. Scholars have found mixed results about the

frequencies of reported parental mediation that occur in families. For example, parents in

one study reported coviewing most often, followed by active, and then restrictive

mediation (Valkenburg et al., 1999). Another study found that parents reported coviewing

occurring most often followed by negative and positive mediation (Austin et al., 1999),

and parents in Warren's (2005) study reported restrictive mediation occurring most often.

My sample of parents was considerably smaller than the sample of adolescents,

although reports of positive, restrictive, and coviewing mediation across samples were
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similar. There was a larger discrepancy between the samples' reports of negative

mediation than any of the other mediation types, and the discrepancy may be the result of

parents overestimating their negative mediation behaviors, as they may perceive that such

actions are socially desirable and may therefore over-report those actions (Desmond et

al., 1985). Scholars suggest, however, that children's reports of parental mediation may

be a better predictor of mediation outcome variables than parents reports (Fujioka &

Austin, 2003).

Parental Mediation Predicting Views of Gender

As a whole, the different forms of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos

were not strong predictors of adolescents' stereotyped attitudes on the ATSWA or the

Sexual Stereotypes scale. Parent-child coviewing of hip-hop music videos was the only

type of parental mediation that predicted adolescent reports of traditional stereotyped

attitudes, after reports of child's sex, age, race, time spent watching hip-hop music

videos, and involvement in hip-hop culture were controlled for statistically. Specifically,

as adolescents' time spent coviewing hip-hop music videos with parents increased, their

reported traditional stereotyped attitudes about women and men decreased.

At first glance, this relationship seems counter-intuitive. As discussed in Chapter

2 of this dissertation, coviewing without discussion about television content can convey

parental endorsement of television content (Nathanson, 2002), and it is more closely

related to positive mediation than negative mediation (Austin et al., 1999). It is unclear,

therefore, why a negative relationship was found between coviewing hip-hop music

videos and traditional stereotyped attitudes in these data. One explanation may be that

parents are in control of the hip-hop music videos that they are watching with their
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children and watch videos that do not portray women and men in negative ways. Sexually

stereotyped attitudes were not related to coviewing, however, and the themes in hip-hop

music videos more closely reflect sexualized stereotypes rather than traditional

stereotypes. Another explanation may be that as adolescents' and parents' traditional

gender stereotyped beliefs increase, their interest in watching programs with sexualized

portrayals of women and men decreases. Indeed, the traditional gender stereotype items

in the survey are conservative in the sense that they do not include sexualized statements

about relationships or physical appearance as do items in the sexualized stereotype scale.

Further research, including uses and gratification assessments, would have to be

conducted to better understand why coviewing negatively predicts traditional gender

stereotyped attitudes. In addition, a study that employs media diaries to investigate

parents and adolescents' daily media behaviors (e.g., records of television programs

watched together) may help explain this relationship.

Positive mediation of hip-hop music videos was the only type of mediation that

was predictive of increased sexual stereotyped views of women and men after controlling

for demographic and hip-hop variables. Specifically, as adolescents' reports of positive

mediation of hip-hop music videos increased, their reported adherence to sexual gender

stereotypes increased. This finding is consistent with studies that have shown that

positive mediation of television content communicates parental endorsement of media

content and may enhance negative media effects (e.g., Austin & Chen, 2003). These

scholars found that college students' recollections of positive mediation of alcohol

advertisements resulted in more desirable attitudes toward beer advertisements and higher

social expectancies for drinking. My results suggest that positive mediation of hip-hop
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music videos may enhance or reinforce young viewers' sexualized stereotyped notions

about gender or work to shape the ways that young viewers think about gender.

Furthermore, if viewing hip-hop music videos positively predicts sexualized stereotyped

attitudes about gender, parents who positively mediate while their child is viewing these

videos may further reinforce these attitudes. Future research is necessary, however, to

assess the causality of this relationship. For example, an experimental study that assesses

the effects of active mediation of hip-hop music videos would provide more insight into

the direction of the relationship between positive mediation and sexualized stereotyped

attitudes of adolescents.

Parental Mediation Predicting Adolescent Attitudes about Hip-Hop Music Videos

Previous research on parental mediation has shown that active mediation may

influence a child's interpretation of television content being viewed (Austin, 1993; Austin

et al., 1990). Along with investigating the relationship between parental mediation of hip-

hop music videos and adolescents' attitudes about gender stereotypes, I was interested in

learning more about parental mediation as a predictor of adolescents' attitudes about the

portrayals of women and men in hip-hop music videos. To assess this, five items from the

Violent-Misogynistic portion of Tyson's (2006) Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale

were included in the current study's survey. An additional three items from Tyson's

(2006) Empowerment scale were included to investigate adolescents' positive attitudes

about hip-hop music videos (i.e., these videos have positive themes, important messages,

and reflect reality).

Several demographic and media-related variables were predictive of adolescents'

attitudes about hip-hop music videos. Compared to boys, girls expressed more negative
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attitudes about hip-hop music videos. This finding is similar to another study that showed

that young girls had less positive attitudes about objectionable television than did boys

(Nathanson, 2002). Older adolescents expressed more negative attitudes about hip-hop

music videos than did younger adolescents. The two hip-hop measures were strongly

related to negative reports of gender portrayals in hip-hop music videos. Specifically, as

adolescents' time spent watching hip-hop music videos increases, their negative attitudes

about these videos decrease.

As adolescents' involvement in hip-hop culture increased, their negative attitudes

about hip-hop music videos increased (i.e., scores on the Violent-Misogynistic scale

increased), indicating that they were more critical of the portrayals of women and men in

these videos. Interestingly, as adolescents' involvement in hip-hop culture increased, they

were also more likely to report positive endorsements of hip-hop music videos (i.e.,

scores on the Empowerment scale increased). At first glance, these findings seem

contradictory; however, a plausible explanation may be that youth who are more involved

in hip-hop culture are aware that mainstream hip-hop music videos include both positive

and negative themes and therefore, show agreement with positive and negative statements

about these videos.

Child's age was also predictive of adolescents' reported attitudes about hip-hop

music videos. Specifically, as adolescents' age increased, their negative attitudes about

hip-hop music videos increased and their attitudes that hip-hop music videos were

empowering decreased.

Negative mediation was the only type of parental mediation predictive of

adolescents' reported negative and positive attitudes about hip-hop music videos, even
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when demographic variables and hip-hop variables were controlled. Specifically, as

adolescents reports of receiving negative mediation of hip-hop music videos increased,

their reported negative attitudes about these videos increased and, in addition, their

positive attitudes about these video decreased. Furthermore, adolescents' reports of

negative mediation were stronger predictors of their reported negative attitudes about

these videos (i.e., Violent-Misogynistic scale) than their attitudes that these videos were

empowering or had positive themes (i.e., Empowerment scale).

Restrictive mediation was not predictive of adolescents' positive or negative

views of hip-hop music videos. According to adolescent and parent reports, restrictive

mediation of adolescents' hip-hop viewing behavior was said to occur less often than any

other type of mediation. For those adolescents who reported that they did receive

restrictions and rules about viewing hip-hop music videos, parent restrictions may not be

an effective strategy that communicates parental disapproval of hip-hop music videos.

Previous studies have shown that restrictive mediation of television programs

(Nathanson, 1999; Schooler et al., 2006) is predictive of adolescent behaviors; however,

mediation of hip-hop music videos has not been examined.

Implications

This set of investigations focused on the relationship between parental mediation

and adolescents attitudes about gender and hip-hop music videos. The results of this

investigation suggest the potential efficacy of negative mediation on encouraging

children to think critically about gender portrayals and themes in hip-hop music videos.

These data do not explain causation; rather, they suggest that parents who increasingly

talk about the unrealistic elements and derogatory portrayals of men and women in hip-
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hop music videos may influence a child's attitudes about hip-hop music videos. Future

research using experimental and longitudinal methods should investigate this relationship

further to better understand causation and assess the specific types of communication

between parent and child that reflect negative mediation.

Another important finding was that positive mediation of hip-hop music videos

predicted adolescents' reports of sexual stereotyped views of women and men. According

to Fujioka and Austin (2002), "positive mediation appears to heighten potential

persuasive effects of media messages, particularly to the extent it occurs together with

increased viewing and a less reflective strategy of parental discussion" (p. 656). Again,

causation cannot be purported, but the findings do indicate that positive mediation of

television content that largely portrays women as sexual objects is related to young

viewers' endorsement of sexualized gender stereotyped statements about women. For

these reasons, experimental and longitudinal research should focus on parental

endorsement of gender stereotyped television content. This is an important direction for

future studies because, according to Austin and colleagues (1997), positive mediation

most often occurs due to "happenstance," and parents may not be aware that this type of

communication may enhance problematic media effects.

Predictors of Parental Mediation

Previous studies on parental mediation have found that particular characteristics

of parents, adolescents, and their families are predictive of parental mediation. For

example, parents engage in parental mediation of television more often with younger than

with older children, and, as children get even older, parental mediation occurs even less

often (Nathanson, 2001; Valkenburg et al., 1999). Predictors of overall parental

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mediation of hip-hop music videos, however, have received little attention. In this

dissertation, I was interested in examining whether variables that were found to be

predictive of parental mediation of television programs in previous studies were

predictive of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. These results are discussed

below.

Parent Attitudes about Hip-Hop Music Videos

According to previous research, parents who report more negative attitudes about

television content engage in restrictive and negative parental mediation more frequently

with their children (Warren, 2003). Therefore, I was interested in whether parental

concern was also predictive of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. My results

indicated that parent reports of negative attitudes about hip-hop music videos were a

weak and marginally significant predictor of negative mediation and did not predict

restrictive mediation. Parents' reports of positive attitudes about hip-hop music videos,

however, did negatively predict negative mediation and restrictive mediation.

Specifically, as parents' positive attitudes about hip-hop videos increased, their reports of

negative and restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos decreased.

The findings that parental negative attitudes about hip-hop music videos did not

predict restrictive and negative mediation may be a result of parents' knowledge about

hip-hop music videos. In fact, several parents wrote unsolicited comments on their

surveys that they did not watch hip-hop music videos and were not aware of the content

of these videos. One parent, for example, wrote the following: "Taking this survey makes

me think that I should at least check out rap/hip-hop videos because maybe there is

something there I don't want my child watching." Therefore, parents' attitudes about the
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portrayals of women and men in these videos may have been based on a lack of

familiarity with hip-hop music videos and, therefore, were not related directly to their

mediation practices. Indeed, frequencies run on parent data indicated that parents in this

sample spent very little time watching hip-hop music videos.

Parent Attitudes about the Effects of Hip-Hop Music Videos

Researchers have found that parents who are more concerned about the effects of

television will engage in more restrictive and/or negative parental mediation of television

content (Abelman, 2001; Nathanson, 2001); however, this work has not investigated

parents' concerns about the effects of viewing hip-hop music videos. I therefore

hypothesized that as parental concern about the negative effects of hip-hop music videos

on parents children increased, their reports of restrictive and negative mediation would

increase. In addition, I hypothesized that parents will report that other children are more

affected by viewing hip-hop music videos than their own child.

The results of these analyses indicated that parental concern about the negative

effects of hip-hop music videos on their child was predictive of their reported

engagement in negative and restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos. Specifically,

as parents' reports that hip-hop music videos negatively affect their child increased, their

reports of engaging in negative and restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos also

increased. These beliefs were stronger predictors of both types of parental mediation than

were child's sex, age, parents' education, and annual household income.

According to third-person effects literature, parents report beliefs that other

children are more affected by television violence than their own child (e.g., Hoffner &

Buchanan, 2002). Based on these findings, I hypothesized that parents would report
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beliefs that other children were more affected by hip-hop music videos than their own

child. The results of my analyses showed that, on average, parents reported that other

children would be more negatively affected by hip-hop music videos (M = 5.80, SD =

1.93) than their own child (M = 2.61, SD = 1.76). This difference was significant and

indicated that, on average, parents reported that other children were twice as likely to be

affected by hip-hop music videos as their own child.

Furthermore, I was interested in whether the discrepancy between parents' belief

that other children are more affected by hip-hop music videos than their own child would

be predictive of their mediation behaviors. Hoffner and Buchanan, in their (2002) study

on third-person effects, parental mediation, and violent television, found that parents who

believed that other children were more affected by television violence than their own

engaged in more mediation of their children's television viewing. The authors, however,

did not differentiate between parental mediation types, using only one measure of

parental mediation. My analysis included each type of parental mediation defined in the

existing literature, and the results indicated that as the discrepancy between parents'

beliefs that other children were more affected by hip-hop music videos than their own

child increased, their reports of positive mediation of hip-hop music videos increased.

Child's Age

Previous research has indicated that younger children receive more parental

mediation of television than older children (e.g., Valkenburg et al., 1999). Therefore, I

was interested in investigating whether a relationship existed between adolescents' age

and parental mediation of hip-hop music videos. Correlations supported previous

findings, indicating that younger adolescents reported receiving more restrictive, positive,
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and coviewing mediation. Negative mediation, however, was not related to child's age in

the present study. When age was entered in the regression models with parental concern

about the effects of hip-hop music videos, age was not a significant predictor of negative

or restrictive mediation. These results support Warren's (2003) suggestions that higher

occurrences of mediation among parents with younger children may be based largely on

parental concern about the negative effects of television rather than on a child's age.

Indeed, previous research (e.g., Austin et al., 1999; Warren et al., 2002) has found that

parents that have more negative attitudes about television, despite the age of their child,

mediate their child's television viewing more often than those with less negative attitudes

(as cited in Warren, 2003, p. 411). In other words, child's age was correlated with

mediation behaviors; however, when parental concern was added to the regression model,

child's age was not a significant predictor of mediation behaviors. My results suggest that

parental concern about hip-hop effects, not the age of an adolescent per se, is predictive

of negative or restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos.

Parent Sex

Studies have found that differences exist between sex of parents and their

mediation practices. For example, Valkenburg and colleagues (1999) found that mothers

engage in parental mediation more often than do fathers. For this reason, I was interested

in assessing whether there was a difference between the mediation behaviors based on the

sex of the parent. According to my results, the only type of parental mediation practice

that was significantly different between male and female parents was positive mediation.

Specifically, fathers reported engaging in more positive mediation of hip-hop music

videos with their child than did mothers. Although an interesting result, readers should
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take caution of this result, as 82% of the sample was mothers or female guardians, and

this inconsistent cell size may have had an impact on the results of the analysis.

Implications

This set of investigations focused on whether various predictors of parental

mediation found in previous studies would be predictive of parental mediation of hip-hop

music videos. Many of these findings support the results of previous studies on parental

mediation of television programs and some (e.g., third-person effects) further our

understanding about the various reasons why parents may engage in mediation of hip-hop

music videos. As discussed earlier, as parental concern about the effects of hip-hop music

videos on their child increased, parents' reports of negative and restrictive mediation of

hip-hop music videos increased. Although these finding mirror those from other studies

(Fortman, 1998; Warren, 2003), we currently know little about where parents learn about

the potential negative effects of the media. Future research should investigate the reasons

that contribute to parental concerns about media effects and the communication channels

through which parents learn about media effects. This type of information can be

especially important for media literacy campaigns that work to encourage parents to

engage in parental mediation. According to my results, it may be particularly important

for media literacy programs to target fathers, who reportedly practice more positive

mediation of hip-hop music videos than do mothers.

The results of this dissertation also show that a significant difference in means

between parents' reported beliefs that other children are more affected by hip-hop music
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videos and the level of concern that their own child is affected by these videos.

Specifically, nearly every parent in this sample reported that hip-hop music videos

negatively affect other children more than their own child and as these reported beliefs

increased, parents' engagement in positive mediation of hip-hop music videos increased.

Previous studies have investigated the various predictors of parental mediation (e.g.,

Ableman, 2001; Austin et al., 1999; Valkenburg et al., 1999); however, much less

attention has been given to third-person effects as a possible predictor of parental

mediation (e.g., Hoffner & Buchanan, 2002). The results of my dissertation suggest that a

third-person effect measure may be an important explanatory variable to include in future

parental mediation studies.

FCP as Predictors of Parental Mediation and Media Use

Family communication patterns have been found to be predictive of a variety of

media-related variables in research (e.g., Chaffee et al., 1986; Dimmick, 1976; Krcmar,

1998; Messaris & Kerr, 1983). For example, family communication patterns have been

associated with media use in the family (Chaffee et al., 1986) and children's

interpretation of violence viewed on television (Krcmar, 1998). Furthermore, several of

these studies have assessed the relationship between family communication patterns and

parental mediation or parent-child communication about television (e.g., Fujioka &

Austin, 2002; Messaris & Kerr, 1983). Previous research, however, has not focused on

family communication patterns as predictors of parental mediation of hip-hop music

videos. Therefore, I was interested in learning more about the relationship between these

variables. Prior to discussing these findings I review the findings about several
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characteristics of adolescents that were predictive of the different forms of parental

mediation that adolescents reported receiving.

According to the positive mediation (criterion measure) regression model, age and

race (Black/Non-Black) were predictive of adolescents' reports of positive mediation of

hip-hop music videos. Specifically, Black adolescents reported more positive parental

mediation of hip-hop music videos than did adolescents of other races. This difference

most likely exists because hip-hop music and videos are largely a part of Black culture.

Parents of Black youth, therefore, may be more likely to talk more positively than will

other parents about these videos as they like hip-hop music and/or grew up listening to

hip-hop music. Indeed, one item on the positive mediation scale asked adolescents

whether parents repeated something seen or heard in a hip-hop music video, such as

lyrics that the parents enjoy. Another positive mediation item asked respondents if their

parents tell them that they like a character in the video, which may be an artist that the

parents enjoy. Finally, in addition to race, as adolescents' age increased, their reports of

receiving positive parental mediation of hip-hop music videos decreased. This finding is

similar to studies that report that parental mediation decreases as children get older

(Valkenburg et al., 1999).

The only demographic variable related to restrictive mediation was adolescents'

age. Specifically, as age increased across the sample of adolescents, respondents' reports

of receiving restrictive mediation decreased. This finding mirrors research that has found

a negative relationship between restrictive mediation and age (Nathanson, 1999;

Valkenburg et al., 1999). Parental concern about the effects of hip-hop music videos on

their child, however, may be a stronger predictor of restrictive mediation than child's age.
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Fortman (1998), for example, found that an increase in restrictive mediation among

parents was a result of parental concern about the negative effects of television, rather

than the age of the parents' child. In other words, when parental concern about negative

media effects is entered in a regression model as a control along with child's age parental

concern is a stronger predictor of restrictive meditation. Within my parental mediation

regression models, however, parental concern was not entered as a control variable

because data from adolescent reports, rather than parent reports, were used to assess this

relationship. For these reasons, readers should take caution when interpreting age of

adolescent as a predictor of parental mediation, as parental concern about the effects of

hip-hop music videos on their child, may be more predictive of variance in restrictive

mediation. Future research can take up this question more accurately.

Sex, age, and race of respondents were all predictive of adolescent reports of

coviewing hip-hop music videos with parents. Within this study, girls and Black youth

reportedly coviewed hip-hop music videos with their parents more often than did boys or

adolescents of other races, respectively. In addition, like findings in other studies

(Nathanson, 1999), as adolescents' age increased, their reports of coviewing hip-hop

music videos with parents decreased.

Concept-orientation

Families that are highly concept-oriented encourage open communication (e.g.,

unrestrained interaction, sharing ideas and feelings) in the family (Fitzpatrick & Ritchie,

1994; Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004,2006) and use the television to communicate ideas,

such as transmitting family values and regulating children's experiences (Lull, 1980).

Previous studies have found that parents from more highly concept-oriented families will
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engage in more active mediation (Fujioka & Austin, 2002) than will those who score

lower on this scale. Myfindingssupport this, indicating that as adolescents' reports of

concept-orientation increase, their reports of positive and negative mediation of hip-hop

music videos also increase. These results were only marginally significant for positive

mediation.

In addition, children from families higher in concept-orientation have been found

to report spending less time viewing television (Chaffee et al., 1971; Chaffee et al., 1973;

Krcmar & Viereira, 2005). Therefore, I hypothesized that as adolescents' reports of

concept-oriented increased, their reports of coviewing hip-hop music videos with parents

would decrease. The results of this analysis did not support this hypothesis; in fact, as

adolescents' reports of concept-oriented increased, their reported time spent coviewing

hip-hop music videos with parents increased. It is unclear why this result occurred;

however, one explanation may be that parents are watching hip-hop music videos with

their children while they are discussing the negative and, possibly, the positive aspects of

hip-hop music videos. The mediation survey items did assess the level of mediation that

occurs while adolescents are watching hip-hop music videos.

Parents who are high in concept-orientation have been found to read more hard

news and discuss politics with their children more often than those parents lower in

concept-orientation (Chaffee et al., 1973). Furthermore, Saphir and Chaffee (2002) found

that children from families that were more concept-oriented were more likely to initiate

discussions about news and politics with parents than those from families lower in

concept-orientation. Based on these findings and research that suggests that parents from

more highly concept-oriented families are more concerned about the negative effects of
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television viewing and therefore engage in more restrictive mediation than those from

less concept-oriented families (Abelman, 1990; Valkenburg et al., 1999; Warren, 2001,

2005), I hypothesized that as parents reports of concept-orientation increased they would

pay more attention to the news and, therefore, learn more about the possible negative

effects that hip-hop music videos would have on their child. This would then lead to

parents engaging in more restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos. My results,

however, indicated that no relationship existed between parent reports of concept-

orientation and their reported time spent using different news sources. This finding may

be a result of the small number of parents within this sample.

Socio-orientation

Socio-orientation is the dimension that relates to communication in the family that

stresses the unity of values and beliefs among members (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2004,

2006). Family types that are highly oriented toward conformity among members stress

the homogeny of values and opinions, obedience of children to parents (Koerner &

Fitzpatrick, 2004,2006), and these types of families have been found to use media more

heavily than do families low in socio-orientation or high in concept-orientation (Chaffee

et al., 1971; Lull, 1980). Previous research on the relationship between socio-orientation

and parental mediation has found mixed results. For example, some studies suggest that

parents from families higher in socio-orientation may engage in more restrictive

mediation but not negative mediation (Fujioka & Austin, 2002). On the other hand,

families that are more highly socio-oriented tend not to utilize television for exercising

parental authority (Lull, 1980). Because of the inconsistency in previous research, I posed
 138

research questions to assess the relationship between socio-orientation and parental

mediation.

Myfindingsindicated that level of socio-orientation positively predicted

restrictive mediation, such that as adolescents' reports of socio-orientation increased,

their reports of receiving restrictive mediation of hip-hop music videos increased.

Additionally, socio-orientation positively predicted active mediation, such that as

adolescents reported more socio-orientation in their family, they reported receiving more

negative and positive mediation of hip-hop music videos. This result about positive

mediation supports other researchers' work (e.g., Fujioka & Austin, 2002) who found that

families higher in socio-orientation practice more positive mediation, but found no

relationship between socio-orientation and negative mediation.

FCP as Predictors ofMedia Use

Previous research has indicated that adolescents and parents from concept-

oriented families watch less television than do those from socio-oriented families

(Chaffee et al., 1971; Chaffee et al., 1973; Krcmar & Vieira, 2005; Lull, 1980).

Therefore, I hypothesized that as adolescents reported more socio-orientation in their

family, they would also increasingly watch more television and hip-hop music videos.

The results of my study support these findings, as adolescents' reports of socio-oriented

increased, their time spent viewing hip-hop music videos and television increased,

although the finding was only marginally significant. For concept-orientation,

adolescents whose with higher reported concept-orientation reported decreasing time

spent watching television; however, no relationship was found between level of concept-

orientation and viewing hip-hop music videos.

 139

Implications

This set of investigations focused on family communication patterns as predictors

of parental mediation and adolescent media use (i.e., hip-hop music videos and

television). These findings contribute to our understanding of the characteristics of

communication within families that are predictive of parental mediation practices. Both

level of concept-orientation and socio-orientation, were predictive of different types of

mediation. As reports of emphasizing that their families used open communication and

encourage members to share opinions (e.g., concept-orientation) increased, so did reports

of levels of active mediation and coviewing hip-hop music videos with parents. Concept-

orientation, however, was a marginally significant predictor of positive mediation. These

results suggest that, as this type of orientation increases in a family, parents will spend

more time watching hip-hop music videos and discussing the negative aspects of these

videos with their children. These findings may be a result of negative mediation

occurring when parents and children are watching these videos together; however, my

data cannot confirm this relationship. Future research should assess the efficacy of

different types of mediation that co-occur. This can be valuable information that would

extend our knowledge about the effects of parental mediation on children's attitudes and

behaviors.

As adolescents' reports that their parents' stressed the conformity of values and

opinions among family members and the obedience of their children (e.g., high socio-

orientation) increased, adolescents' reports of restrictive mediation and active mediation

increased. Because socio-orientation has been associated with parental power and

authority, it is not surprising that an increase in this type of orientation would predict
 140

parental rules and restrictions about children's viewing of hip-hop music videos. The

reports of increasing levels of positive and negative mediation occurring as families

socio-orientation increase is an interesting finding that suggests further investigation. For

example, does socio-orientation positively predict a parent engaging in both positive and

negative mediation of hip-hop music videos with their child? If so, how does that child

interpret these two seemingly conflicting messages?

Research that investigates the patterns of communication that occur in families

that predict mediation behaviors provides valuable information about characteristics of

parents who are more likely or less likely to engage in parental mediation. My data, for

example, show that as concept and socio-orientation increase in a family, parental

negative mediation of hip-hop music videos increase. This finding suggests that parents

who are less likely to encourage open communication and parental authority may spend

less time negatively mediating their child's viewing of hip-hop music videos. Media

literacy campaigns that target parents might focus on targeting families with

characteristics that reflect these findings.

Limitations and Future Research

The results of this dissertation extend our understanding of gender stereotypes,

media use, and parental mediation by focusing on a specific type of media that has

received little research attention. This study serves as a springboard for future research,

as it provides a closer look at the relationship between viewing hip-hop music videos and

attitudes about gender stereotypes and hip-hop music videos, as well as providing a first

look at the prospective efficacy of parental mediation of hip-hop music videos and the

characteristics of families who engage in the various types of mediation. Yet, it also has
 141

several limitations, which must be kept in mind when attending to the results. The

following discusses some of the limitations of these findings and suggests possibilities for

future research.

One limitation of this study is the lack of generalizability of parent data due to the

small and homogenous sample of parents. Specifically, the majority of parents were

female (82%), White (86%), had either graduated from college or attended graduate

school (84%), and reported an annual household income over $101,000 (55%).

According to 2007 US Census data, the average household income was $50,233

(DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2008), and only 27% of adults over the age of 25 had

earned a bachelors degree or higher (Crissey, 2009). Research on parental mediation

practices of low-income African-American families has indicated that parents' work

hours predicted their time spent at home which further predicted their mediation practices

(Warren, 2005). Future research should consider more aggressively sampling parents

from low-income families and include variables that measure time spent at home.

Availability of parents may be a better predictor of mediation practices than is income

level, as parents who have more time to spend with their children are afforded more

opportunities to mediate. In terms of parent education as a predictor of parental

mediation, studies have found mixed results (e.g., Nathanson, 1999, 2002; Valkenburg et

al., 1999; Warren, 2003). Future studies should, however, obtain samples where parents'

education level is representative of the larger population.

The characteristics of the parent sample were most likely the result of several

choices and circumstances in the sampling procedures and data collection including the

following. First, as noted previously in this dissertation, parents were not offered an
 142

incentive to participate in this study. Providing parents with an incentive would likely

have increased the sample size and possibly diversified the sample. The fact that my

sample of parents was highly educated might reflect their knowledge of graduate research

and willingness to voluntarily participate in this study. Second, adolescents were

responsible for taking home the survey to parents who agreed to participate in this study

and then return the survey to their teacher in a sealed envelope. These steps in the data

collection process increase the likelihood of the survey getting lost, misplaced, or

forgotten by a child.

Beyond issues of generalizability, another result of obtaining such a small and

homogenous parent sample is that comparing adolescent and parent reports across my

research questions and hypotheses would consequently decrease and homogenize the

sample of adolescents. As such, I did not compare reports from both samples. Although

this was not necessarily a research goal, the opportunity to look for similarities and

differences in the adolescent and adult members within families was limited. These

experiences underscore the value of providing incentives to parents, as well as recruiting

and collecting data from parents through alternative communication channels (e.g.,

mailers, telephone) to increase sample size and diversity.

The sample of youth was quite racially diverse, compared to other studies on

parental mediation (e.g., Austin et al., 1999; Fujioka & Austin, 2002; Hoffner &

Buchanan, 2002; Warren, 2003; Warren et al., 2002). Only 4% of the adolescent sample

consisted of Black youth, however. This small percentage of Black adolescents decreases

the generalizability of findings about race and presents some statistical concerns about

unequal cell size. Obtaining a larger proportion of Black youth in studies that investigate
 143

hip-hop is important, as these youth consume more hip-hop media (Cohen et al., 2007),

and the large majority (e.g., 89%) of hip-hop artists and characters in hip-hop music

videos are Black (Conrad et al., 2007). Although the findings about race in this study are

limited due to the small percentage of Black youth in my sample, and the assumption of

equal sample size in parametric research was compromised, there were statistically

significant differences between Black adolescents and adolescents of other races. For

these reasons, further research that investigates hip-hop and parental mediation should

focus more persistently on oversampling Black youth during study recruitment

procedures so that the results found here can be replicated with greater validity.

Other limitations of this study relate to variables that were dropped from analyses.

Parental mediation scholars have suggested that parents' level of education should be

controlled in parental mediation regression models (Nathanson, 2001); however, many

adolescents in my study had difficulty reporting their parents' highest level of education.

In addition, this survey item asked adolescents about the highest level of education that

their parents/guardians had achieved, rather than asking about the parent who most often

mediates their hip-hop video viewing. For these reasons this variable was dropped from

my analyses of the adolescent data. Interestingly, however, the parent education variable

in analyses run with parent data was not significantly related to most of the mediation

variables. This finding may be the result of a highly educated sample of parents, which

contributed little variance across parent education scores. For these reasons, readers

should take caution when interpreting my results that included parent education. Future

research should continue to assess this variable in analyses of parental mediation, but it

should include a more valid measure in adolescent or child surveys.

 144

Adolescents' time spent watching television was an additional variable that was

dropped from all but one model in this study, because it proved to be an invalid measure

of this behavior. Specifically, a substantial number of adolescents over-reported the

average number of hours spent a day watching television (e.g., 37 hours a day).

Furthermore, adolescents most likely would have a difficult time estimating the number

of hours they spend watching television on an average weekday. Future research might

include a closed-ended response option for this measure coupled with a media diary for

adolescents to document the hours they spend watching television.

Another limitation of this study is that parental mediation was measured with

reported estimates from parents and children rather than by observation of actual

behaviors. The majority of studies on parental mediation, however, measure parental

mediation with self-reports from parents and children. This method provides important

information about parental mediation behaviors and outcome variables, but it also limits

our understanding of parental mediation practices. Self-reported attitudes and behaviors

also limit our understanding of causation. In order to further our knowledge of parental

mediation, future studies should use parental mediation diaries, ethnographic research,

experimental procedures, or longitudinal analyses. Additional research on parental

mediation should include open-ended items where adolescents and parents can report

specific examples of parental mediation. Gathering qualitative data on parental mediation

practices would provide more insight into the actual types of parent-child communication

about hip-hop music videos or television programs in general that influence adolescents

attitudes and behaviors.

 145

The final limitation of this study to be discussed here involves the statistical

analyses of family communication patterns. In an effort to better understand the role of

FCP as a predictor of parental mediation, I chose to measure FCP using the two

constructs of socio-orientation and concept-orientation because previous studies assessing

parental mediation and FCP have utilized these two constructs (e.g., Fujioka & Austin).

My findings further our understanding about the relationship between FCP and parental

mediation of hip-hop music videos; however, using the FCP fourfold typology may

provide more specifics about the FCP and parental mediation. For these reasons, future

research that examines the relationship between FCP and parental mediation of hip-hop

music videos might separate respondents scores on both of these measures into the

fourfold typology used in other studies.

Conclusion and Implications for Media Literacy

Young people in much of our contemporary world are inundated with mediated

images that work to shape their perceptions of gender roles and stereotypes. Mainstream

hip-hop music videos are a specific type of media form that consistently portrays women

and men in sexualized and stereotyped ways. The purpose of my dissertation was to

investigate empirically the validity of some of the widespread criticisms of hip-hop music

videos and assess, indirectly, whether parent-child communication about these videos is

an effective strategy for mitigating the effects of these videos on the attitudes of

adolescents. I was interested additionally in characteristics of families, parents, and

children that are predictive of various types of parental mediation.

As a longtime fan of hip-hop music, I have watched hip-hop music videos on

cable television become increasingly more sexist and misogynistic. Hip-hop has always
 146

been, and still is, an eclectic genre of music. Some hip-hop songs have uplifting and

positive themes, and others address social issues like racism, political and corporate

corruption, war, and Black empowerment. The majority of mainstream hip-hop music

videos played on cable television (e.g., Black Entertainment Television and Music

Television), however, portray women and men in negative and stereotypical ways.

Coupled with sexist and misogynistic lyrics, I believe that the stereotyped images in these

videos can work to shape or reinforce young peoples' attitudes about gender,

relationships, and themselves.

These observations and concerns led me to not only investigate the relationship

between viewing hip-hop music videos and adolescent attitudinal outcomes but to also

explore whether parent-child communication can potentially mitigate this relationship.

The results of my dissertation support previous findings that have found a positive

relationship between viewing hip-hop music videos and gender stereotyped attitudes of

young people. This relationship appears to be especially strong for sexualized stereotyped

attitudes about women and men, which were positively related to adolescents'

involvement in hip-hop culture. Communicating to children about the content of hip-hop

music videos may be an effective strategy that parents can employ to encourage

adolescents to think critically about media content. Indeed, an important finding from this

dissertation that contributes to media education is the positive relationship between

negative mediation and adolescents' negative attitudes about sexist themes and gender

portrayals in hip-hop music videos. My data provides evidence to support scholars and

media literacy activists who emphasize the efficacy of parent-child communication about

media content.
 147

Research that provides a better understanding of the characteristics of families

and parents that engage in mediation behaviors is invaluable for media literacy education

programs and campaigns. This information can inform campaigns directed toward

educating and equipping parents about media effects and the value of parent-child

communication about media content. My data suggest that, as parents become more

concerned that hip-hop music videos negatively affect their child, they are more likely to

talk critically about the negative elements of the videos and restrict their child's video

viewing. Furthermore, parents who are more likely to believe that other children,

compared to their own child, are more affected by these videos increasingly engage in

positive mediation of hip-hop music videos. For these reasons, it is important for media

literacy campaigns to disseminate information to parents about questionable media

content and how it can affect young people, including their own children. Children who

are not receiving parental mediation may be those whose parents are uninformed about

such effects. Parents may also feel that communication with their child about the media is

futile. Media literacy campaigns that reach these parents can potentially influence these

attitudes and encourage parental mediation.

The results of this dissertation provide many different avenues for further research

and media literacy programs. In an ever increasingly mediated world where adolescents

reportedly spend more time in front of screens (e.g., television, computer) than any other

activity except sleeping (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005), it is essential that children are

educated about the role of media in society and taught skills to assess and evaluate

mediated images and messages. My dissertation suggests that an ideal place for this to

begin is at home:
 148

Images are powerful. How media depict male, female, race, ethnicity, class, age,

occupation even size influences how we see ourselves and others. Are the

images we see what we aspire to be? Or how can we change this picture? (Center

for Media Literacy)

 149

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 162

Appendix B
Adolescent Survey

The purpose of this survey is to study people's thoughts and views about hip-hop music
videos and family communication. This survey will take about 20-30 minutes to complete.
Please read the directions carefully. There are no right or wrong answers, so please give
your honest opinion to all the questions. Thank you!

The following questions help me to get to know a little about you:

1. What is your age?

2. What is your gender? (circle one) [1] Male [2] Female

3. What is your race or ethnicity? (circle one or more)

[1] African-American [2] Latino/Latina/Hispanic [3] Caucasian (white)

[4] Asian/Pacific Islander [5] Native American/Alaskan Native

[6] Other - write it in:

4. What is your family's religious preference? (circle one)

[I] Protestant [2] Roman Catholic [3] Jewish [4] Mormon

[5] Islam/Muslim [6] Orthodox Church (Greek or Russian) [7] Baptist

[8] No religion [9] Buddhist [10] Atheist, Not a believer

[II] Other religion - write in:

5. How often does your family attend religious services? (circle one)

[1] Never [2] Rarely [3] Sometimes [4] Frequently

[5] Always

6. Who do you live with? (circle one or more)

[1] Mother [2] Father [3] Female Guardian

[4] Male Guardian

7. Do you have any siblings? (Circle one)

[1] Yes If yes, How many siblings? How old are they?

[2] No
 163

8. What is the highest level of education that your parents/guardians have achieved (circle
one)?

[1] Some High School [2] Graduated High School or GED [3] Graduated college

[4] Graduate School [5] Not sure

9. Different people have different ideas about men and women. Below are some things that
people have said about women and men. Please circle a number next to each statement
based on how much you agree or disagree with the statement.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

disagree agree

a) Women should be more

concerned about their 1 2 3 4 5
appearance than men.
b) Women arc most attracted
by a muscular body and a 1 2 3 4 5
handsome face.

c) It is all right for a girl to

want to play rough sports like 1 2 3 4 5
football.

d) Being with an attractive

woman gives a man prestige 1 2 3 4 5
(e.g. a trophy date).
e) What women find most
attractive about a man is his 1 2 3 4 5
money, job, or car.
1) Using her body and looks is
the best way for a woman to 1 2 3 4 5
attract a man.
g) On the average, girls are as
smart as boys. 1 2 3 4 5

h) Dating is basically a game,

a battle of the sexes, where 1 2 3 4 5
both males and females try to
gain the upper hand and
manipulate each other

i) Women should not be afraid

to wear clothes that show off 1 2 3 4 5
their figure; after all, if you've
got it, flaunt it.
 164

j) It is okay for a woman lo

pursue a man who is already 1 2 3 4 5
taken. After all, all is fair in
love and war.
k) Women should do whatever
they need (e.g. use make-up, 1 2 3 4 5
buy attractive clothes, work
out) to look good enough to
attract a man.

1) Swearing is worse for a girl

than for a boy 1 2 3 4 5

m) On a date, the boy should

be expected to pay all 1 2 3 4 5
expenses.
n) Most women are sly and
deceptive when they try to 1 2 3 4 5
attract a man and often hide
their flaws and act sweet.

o) More encouragement in a
family should be given to sons 1 2 3 4 5
than daughters to go to
college.
p) A man will be most
successful in picking up 1 2 3 4 5
women if he has "game" or
uses flattering, sexy, or cute
pick-up lines.
q) In general, the father should
have greater authority than the 1 2 3 4 5
mother in making family
decisions.
r) It is all right for a girl to ask
a boy out on a dale. 1 2 3 4 5

s) It is more important for

boys than girls to do well in 1 2 3 4 5
school.
t) If both husband and wife
have jobs, the husband should 1 2 3 4 5
do a share of the housework
such as washing dishes and
doing the laundry.

u) Boys are better leaders than 1 2 3 4 5

girls.
 165

v) Girls should be more

concerned with becoming 1 2 3 4 5
good wives and mothers than
desiring a professional or
business career.

w) Girls should have the same 1 2 3 4 5

freedom as boys.

Different people spend different amounts of time watching rap/hip-hop music videos and
television. How often do you...

10. Watch television on an average day during the week? hours

11. Watch television on an average day on the weekend? hours

12. Listen to rap/hip-hop music? (circle one)

Never Several times a month Several days a week Every day

13. Watch rap/hip-hop music videos on television? (circle one)

Never Several times a month Several days a week Every day

14. Watch rap/hip-hop music videos on the Internet? (circle one)

Never Several times a month Several days a week Every day

15. Watch rap/hip-hop music videos on an IPod and/or MP3 player? (circle one)

Never Several times a month Several days a week Every day

The next questions ask you about the kind of communication between you and your
parents/guardians:

16. Do your parents/guardians have any rules or restrictions about viewing rap/hip-hop music
videos? If you answer "No," please skip questions 17 and 18 and go to question 19.

No, there are no rules about viewing hip-hop music videos

Yes, they limit how much I can see these videos

Yes, I can only watch certain hip-hop music videos

Yes, I am not allowed to watch these videos at all

 166

17. How strict are your parents/guardians in enforcing these restrictions?

not at all very

strict strict

1 2 3 4 5

18. Please tell me (write in) the types of restrictions or rules that your parents or guardians have
for watching rap/hip-hop music videos:

(a) Which parent/guardian sets these rules? (circle one or more)

[1] Mother [2] Father [3] Female Guardian

[4] Male Guardian

For the next set of questions, please rate how often your parents or guardians do the
following things. If you do not watch rap/hip-hop music videos, please skip these questions
and go to question 20.

19. When you watch rap/hip-hop music videos at home, how often do your parents or
guardians...

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always

a) watch the video with you? 1 2 3 4 5

b) talk about the video with 1 2 3 4 5

you?

c) talk to you about how the 1 2 3 4 5

video is made?

d) tell you that what happens 1 2 3 4 5

in the video wouldn't happen
in real life?
e) tell you not to imitate what 1 2 3 4 5
the artists and/or people in
the video do or say?
 167

1) tell you thai he or she 1 2 3 4 5

doesn't like how the artists or
people in the video behave?
g) encourage you to think 1 2 3 4 5
about how the women in the
video might feel?
h) say that he or she 1 2 3 4 5
disapproves of hip-hop music
videos?
i) tell you that he or she likes 1 2 3 4 5
a person or character seen in
a hip-hop music video?
j) repeal something that you 1 2 3 4 5
have heard or seen in a hip-
hop music video?
k) tell you that something 1 2 3 4 5
seen in a hip-hop music
video often happens in real
life?
1) watch hip-hop music 1 2 3 4 5
videos with you because you
both like the videos or songs?
m) watch together just for 1 2 3 4 5
fun?

n) laugh with him or her 1 2 3 4 5

about the things you see in
hip-hop music videos?

The next questions ask you about the types of things that your parents or guardians say
about rap/hip-hop music videos.

20. Have your parents/guardians ever said something negative to you about rap/hip-hop music
videos? (circle one)

YES NO

If YES, please write below the types of negative things that they say about these videos.

If YES, which parent/guardian says negative things about these videos? (circle one or more)

[1] Mother [2] Father [3] Female Guardian

[4] Male Guardian

 168

21. Have your parents/guardians ever said something positive to you about rap/hip-hop music
videos? (circle one)

YES NO

If YES, please write below the types of positive things that they say about these videos.

If YES, which parent/guardian says positive things about these videos? (circle one or more)

[1] Mother [2] Father [3] Female Guardian

[4] Male Guardian

22. Have your parents/guardians made general comments (not necessarily positive or negative)
about rap/hip-hop music videos? (circle one)

YES NO

If YES, please write the types of general comments that they say about these videos below.

If YES, which parent/guardian says general things about these videos? (circle one or more)

[1] Mother [2] Father [3] Female Guardian

[4] Male Guardian

 169

23. Think about things that are related to hip-hop music.

How often do you...

Never Rarely Some- Often AH the

times time

a) make hip-hop music? 1 2 3 4 5

b) search ihc Internet to look

up websites about hip-hop 1 2 3 4 5
music and artists?

c) dance to hip-hop music? 1 2 3 4 5

d) sing along with hip-hop 1 2 4 5

music?
e) create hip-hop art (for
example, graffiti or 1 2 3 4 5
drawings)?

1) create beats or scratch 1 2 4 5

records?

g) write hip-hop lyrics? 1 2 3 4 5

h) dress like the people you 1 2 3 4 5

see in hip-hop music videos?

24. Different people communicate differently at home. In general, at home how often do
your parents/guardians...

Never Rarely Some- Often All the

times time
a) say his or her ideas are
correct and you shouldn't 1 2 3 4 5
argue with them?
b) encourage you to question
other people's opinions? 1 2 3 4 5

c) tell you not to say things

that make people angry? 1 2 3 4 5

d) say that every member of

the family should have some 1 2 3 4 5
say in family matters?
 170

e) say that you shouldn't

argue with adults? 1 2 3 4 5

1) say that you should look at

both sides of an issue? 1 2 3 4 5

g) answer your argument by

saying you'll know better 1 2 3 4 5
when you grow up?
h) say that getting your idea
across is important even if 1 2 3 4 5
others don't like it?
i) ask for your opinion when
the family is discussing 1 2 3 4 5
something?
j) say there are some things
that just shouldn't be talked 1 2 3 4 5
about?
k) admit that kids know more
about some things than 1 2 3 4 5
parents do?

25. The following questions ask you about your views on rap/hip-hop music videos.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

disagree agree
a) Sexually explicit rap/hip-
hop music videos cause males 1 2 3 4 5
to be sexually explicit with
females
b) Most rap/hip-hop music
videos express negative 1 2 3 4 5
attitudes toward homosexuality

c) Many youth relate to

rap/hip-hop music videos 1 2 3 4 5
because it is about their reality

d) Most males in rap/hip-hop

music videos project macho 1 2 3 4 5
attitudes

e) There are very important

messages in most rap/hip-hop 1 2 3 4 5
music videos

1) Some rap/hip-hop music-

videos have positive themes 1 2 3 4 5
that uplift and empower people
 171

g) Most rap/hip-hop music 1 2 3 4 5

videos suggest that women are
just for male sexual
satisfaction

h) Sexism in rap/hip-hop
videos contributes to sexist 1 2 3 4 5
behavior from viewers

i) Rap/Hip-hop music video

viewing can negatively affect 1 2 3 4 5
children and teens
 172

Appendix B
Parent Survey

The purpose of this survey is to study peoples' thoughts and views about hip-hop music
videos and family communication. Some of the questions below ask about your beliefs and
behaviors. Other questions ask you about your interactions with the child that brought
home this survey. If you have more than one child, please answer these questions only about
the child that brought home this survey. The survey will take about 20-30 minutes to
complete. There are no right or wrong answers, so please give your honest opinion to all the
questions. Thank you!

The following questions help me to get to know a little about you:

1. What is your age?

2. What is your gender? (circle one) [1] Male [2] Female

3. What is your race or ethnicity? (circle one or more)

[1] African-American [2] Latino/Latina/Hispanic [3] Caucasian (white)

[4] Asian/Pacific Islander [5] Native American/Alaskan Native

[6] Other - write it in:

4. What is your family's religious preference? (circle one)

[1] Protestant [2] Roman Catholic [3] Jewish [4] Mormon

[5] Islam/Muslim [6] Orthodox Church (Greek or Russian) [7] Baptist

[8] No religion [9] Buddhist [10] Atheist, Not a believer, atheist

[10] Other religion - write in:

5. How often do you attend religious services? (circle one)

[1] Never [2] Rarely [3] Sometimes [4] Frequently

[5] Always

6. What is the highest level of education you have completed? (circle one)

[1] Some high school [2] Graduated High School or GED

[3] Some college [4] Graduated college

[5] Other:
 173

7. What was your total household income before taxes in 2008? (circle one)

[ l ] $ 0 - $ 2 5 , 00 [2] $21,000 - $50, 000 [3] $51, 000 - $75, 000

[4] $76, 000 - $100, 000 [5]$101, 000 +

8. How many hours do you spend at work during an average week? hours

Different people spend different amounts of time watching hip-hop music videos and
television. How often do you...

9. Watch television on an average weekday? hours

10. Watch television on an average day on the weekend? hours

11. Listen to rap/hip-hop music? (circle one)

Never Several times a month Several days a week Every day

12. Watch rap/hip-hop music videos on television? (circle one)

Never Several limes a month Several days a week Every day

13. Watch rap/hip-hop music videos on the Internet? (circle one)

Never Several times a month Several days a week Every day

14. Watch rap/hip-hop music videos on an IPod or/and MP3 player? (circle one)

Never Several times a month Several days a week Every day

The next questions ask you about the kind of talk between you and the child who brought
home this survey.

15. Do you have any rules or restrictions about your child viewing of rap/hip hop music videos?
If you answer "No," please skip questions 16 and 17 and go to question 18.

No, there are no rules about viewing hip-hop music videos

Yes, I limit how much my child can see these videos

Yes, my child can only watch certain hip-hop videos

Yes, my child is not allowed to watch this kind of video at all

 174

16. How strict are you in enforcing your restrictions?

not at all very

strict strict

1 2 3 4 5

17. Please tell me (write in) the types of rules or restrictions that you have for your child about
viewing hip-hop music videos:

18. How often does your child watch hip-hop music videos (circle one)? If you answer "never,"
please go to question 20.

Not sure Never Rarely Sometimes Often All the time

For the next set of questions, please rate how often you do the following things with the
child who brought home this survey.

19. When your child watches rap/hip-hop music videos, how often do you:

Never Rarely Some- Often Always

times
a) watch the video with your 1 2 3 4 5
child?
b) talk about the video with 1 2 3 4 5
your child?
c) talk to your child about how 1 2 3 4 5
the video is made?
d) tell your child that what
happens in the video wouldn't 1 2 3 4 5
happen in real life?
e) tell your child not to imitate
what the artists and/or people 1 2 3 4 5
in the video do or say?
1) tell your child that you don't
like how the artist and/or 1 2 3 4 5
people in the video behave?
g) encourage your child to
think about how the women in 1 2 3 4 5
the video might feel?
h) say that you disapprove of
hip-hop music videos? 1 2 3 4 5
 175

i) tell your child that you like a

person or character that you see 1 2 3 4 5
in a hip-hop music video?
j) repeat something that you
have heard or seen in a hip-hop 1 2 3 4 5
music video?
k) tell your child that
something seen in a hip-hop 1 2 3 4 5
music video often happens in
real life?
1) watch hip-hop music videos
with your child because you 1 2 3 4 5
both like the videos or songs?
m) watch hip-hop music videos
with your child for fun? 1 2 3 4 5

n) laugh with your child about

the things you see in hip-hop 1 2 3 4 5
music videos?

The next questions ask you about the types of things that you have said to your child about
hip-hop music videos.

20. Have you ever said something negative to your child about hip-hop music videos?
yes no

If yes, please write below the types of things that you have said about these videos.

21. Have you ever said something positive to your child about hip-hop music videos?
yes no

If yes, please write below the types of things that you have said about these videos.

22. Have you ever made general comments (not necessarily positive or negative) about hip-hop
music videos?

yes no If yes, please write below the types of things that you have said about these
videos below.
 176

23. Different people communicate differently at home and have different beliefs about how
children should be raised. In general, with your child, how often do you...

Never Rarely Some- Often All the

times time
a) say your ideas are
correct and your child 1 2 3 4 5
shouldn't argue with
them?
b) encourage your child
lo question other people's 1 2 3 4 5
opinions?

c) tell your child not to

say things that make 1 2 3 4 5
people angry?
d) say that every member
of the family should have 1 2 3 4 5
some say in family
matters?
e) say that your child
shouldn't argue with 1 2 3 4 5
adults?
f) say that your child
should look at both sides 1 2 3 4 5
of an issue?
g) answer your child's
argument by saying he or 1 2 3 4 5
she will know better
when they grow up?
h) say that getting your
idea across is important 1 2 3 4 5
even if others don't like
it?
i) ask for your child's
opinion when the family 1 2 3 4 5
is discussing something?
j) say there are some
things that just shouldn't 1 2 3 4 5
be talked about?
k) admit that kids know
more about some things 1 2 3 4 5
than parents do?
 177

24. Different people have different ideas about women and men. Below are some things that
people have said about women and men. Please circle a number next to each statement
based on how much you agree or disagree with the statement.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

disagree agree

a) Women should be more

concerned about their 1 2 3 4 5
appearance than men.
b) Women are most attracted
by a muscular body and a 1 2 3 4 5
handsome face.
c) It is all right for a girl to
want to play rough sports like 1 2 3 4 5
football.
d) Being with an attractive
woman gives a man prestige 1 2 3 4 5
(e.g. a trophv date).
e) What women find most
attractive about a man is his 1 2 3 4 5
money, job, or car.
1) Using her body and looks
is the best way for a woman 1 2 4 5
lo attract a man.
g) On the average, girls are
as smart as boys 1 2 3 4 5

h) Dating is basically a game,

a battle of the sexes, where 1 2 3 4 5
both males and females try to
gain the upper hand and
manipulate each other

i) Women should not be

afraid to wear clothes that 1 2 3 4 5
show off their figure; after
all, if you've got it, flaunt it.
j) It is okay for a woman lo
pursue a man who is already 1 2 3 4 5
taken. After all, all is fair in
love and war.
k) Women should do
whatever they need (e.g. use 1 2 3 4 5
make-up, buy attractive
clothes, work out) to look
good enough to attract a man.
 178

1) Swearing is worse for a girl

than for a boy 1 2 4 5

m) On a date, the boy should

be expected to pay all 1 2 3 4 5
expenses.
n) Most women are sly and
deceptive when they try to 1 2 3 4 5
attract a man and often hide
their Haws and act sweet.

o) More encouragement in a
family should be given to 1 2 3 4 5
sons than daughters to go to
college.
p) A man will be most
successful in picking up 1 2 4 5
women if he has '"game" or
uses flattering, sexy, or cute
pick-up lines.
q) In general, the father
should have greater authority 1 2 3 4 5
than the mother in making
family decisions.
r) It is all right for a girl to
ask a boy out on a date. 1 2 3 4 5

s) It is more important for

boys than girls to do well in 1 2 3 4 5
school.
t) If both husband and wife
have jobs, the husband 1 2 3 4 .5
should do a share of the
housework such as washing
dishes and doing the laundry.
u) Boys are better leaders
than girls. 1 2 3 4 5

v) Girls should be more

concerned with becoming 1 2 3 4 5
good wives and mothers than
desiring a professional or
business career.

w) Girls should have the

same freedom as boys. 1 2 3 4 5
 179

25. Different people use different types of media to get their news and spend different
amounts of time reading or watching the new. Some people don't pay attention to the news
at all. How often would you say that you...

Rarely Frequently
a) Watch news on
the television? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

b) Listen to news
on the radio? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

c) Read the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
newspaper?

d) Read news 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
magazines?

e) Read news on 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
the Internet?

26. Below are some questions about hip-hop music and videos. Please rate the extent to
which you agree or disagree with these statements?

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

disagree agree
a) Sexually explicit rap/hip-
hop music videos cause males 1 2 3 4 5
to be sexually explicit with
females
b) Most rap/hip-hop music
videos express negative 2 ** 4 5
1 j

altitudes toward homosexuality

c) Many youth relate to

rap/hip-hop music videos 1 2 3 4 5
because it is about their reality

d) Most rap/hip-hop music

videos project macho altitudes 1 2 3 4 5

e) There are very important

messages in most rap/hip-hop 1 2 3 4 5
music videos

1) Some rap/hip-hop music

videos have positive themes 1 2 3 -:: 4 5
that uplift and empower people
 180

g) Most rap/hip-hop music

videos suggest that women are 1 2 3 4 5
just for male sexual
satisfaction

h) Sexism in rap/hip-hop
videos contributes to sexist 1 2 3 4 5
behavior

i) Rap/hip-hop music video

viewing can negatively affect 1 2 3 4 5
my child

27. The following questions ask you about your views on how your child and other children
are affected by hip-hop music video

Not affected Affected

at all a lot
a) How much do
you think your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
child is negatively
affected by hip-hop
music videos?

b) How much do
you think other 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
children your
child's age are
negatively affected
by hip-hop music
videos?
 181

CURRICULUM VITAE

Jessica A. Harvey
500 NE 70th Street Unit 304
Seattle, WA 98115
(602) 369-6776
jessharv@ii.washington.edu
(June 2009)

EDUCATION
2009 PhD Candidate, Communication, University of Washington,
Seattle
Emphasis: Family Communication, Adolescence, and Media
Effects
Dissertation Title: "Rapping about Rap: The Occurrence, Efficacy,
and Predictors of Parental Mediation of Mainstream Hip-Hop
Music Videos"
Advisor: Valerie Manusov
Committee Members: Patricia Moy, Crispin Thurlow, Randall
Beam, and Diane Carlson-Jones (UW, School of Educational
Psychology)
2003 M.A. Communication, Arizona State University (West Campus),
Phoenix
Emphasis: Interpersonal Communication and Family
Communication
Thesis Title: "Trauma and Recovery Strategies across the Lifespan
of Long-term Married Couples"
Advisor: Vincent Waldron
Committee Members: Doug Kelley and Leslie DiMare

1997 B.A. Public Relations (Minor: English), Purdue University, West

Lafayette

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT HISTORY AND RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

May 2009 - University of Washington, College of Education Seattle, WA
present Research Assistant for Marilyn Cohen at Teen Futures Media
Network/NW Center for Excellence in Media Literacy

Sept 2008 - UW, Communication Department Seattle, WA

Dec 2008 Teaching Assistant

Jan 2008 - University of Washington, College of Education Seattle, WA

Sept 2008 Research Assistant for Marilyn Cohen at Teen Futures Media
Network/NW Center for Excellence in Media Literacy
 182

June 2008 Urban League Summer University Seattle, WA

Aug 2008 Media literacy teacher for 2 courses (one class of children grades
K-5 and another class of children grades 6-8)

Sept 2004 UW, Communication Department Seattle, WA

Dec 2007 Teaching Assistant
Instructor of Record
Research Assistant for Valerie Manusov

March 1998 IIA (Junior College) Phoenix, AZ

Present On-line Instructor, 2002 - present
Course Peer Reviewer, 2007 - present
Full-time Instructor, 1998 - 2004
GED Instructor, 2002 - 2003
Student Council Facilitator, 1998 - 1999
Student Orientation Facilitator, 2003
Graduation Commencement Speaker, 2002, 2003

2001-2002 Arizona State University West Glendale, AZ

Research Assistant

March 1999 Academy of Business College Phoenix, AZ

July 1999 Business Instructor on the Gila River Reservation

PUBLICATIONS
Waldron, V., Kelley, D., & Harvey, J. (2008). Forgiving tactics and relational outcomes.
In M. T. Motley (Ed). Studies in applied interpersonal communication (pp. 165-183).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Manusov, V., Docan-Morgan, T., & Harvey, J. (Under review). Nonverbal firsts: When
nonverbal cues are the impetus of relational and personal change in romantic
relationships. Personal Relationships.

MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION
Harvey, J. & Engle, S. "Dump Him!" Romantic relationship advice in popular teenage
magazines for young girls. (Themes currently being verified by second coder)

Manusov, V., & Harvey, J. Bumps and Tears on the Road to the Presidency: Assessing
"Mixed Metaphors" in Mediated Discourse of Key Nonverbal Events in the 2008
Democratic Election.

Harvey, J. An exploratory analysis of teenagers' romantic relational knowledge and

source identification. (Transcriptions of the 7 focus group sessions with teenagers are
almost complete and currently being analyzed)
 183

Manusov, V., Docan-Morgan, D., & Harvey, J. When a small thing means so much:
Nonverbal cues as turning points in relationships.

CONFERENCE PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS
Manusov, V., & Harvey, J. (Awarded the Top Four Paper award in Media Studies, 2009).
Bumps and Tears on the Road to the Presidency: Assessing "Mixed Metaphors " in
Mediated Discourse of Key Nonverbal Events in the 2008 Democratic Election. Western
States Communication Association, Phoenix, AZ

Manusov, V., Docan-Morgan, D., & Harvey, J. (2008). When a small thing means so
much: Nonverbal cues as turning points in relationships. National Communication
Association, San Diego, CA.

Harvey, J. A. (2008). "Dump Him!" Romantic relationship advice in popular teenage

magazines for young girls. Western States Communication Association, Broomsfield,
CO.

Manusov, V., Docan-Morgan, D., & Harvey, J. (2008). Nonverbal firsts: When nonverbal
cues are the impetus of relational and personal change. Western States Communication
Association, Broomsfield, CO.

Waldron, V., Kelley, D., & Harvey, J. (2007). Forgiving communication and relational
consequences. National Communication Association, Chicago.

Harvey, J. A., & Hickerson, A. (2007). The representation of romantic relationships in

popular teenage media: A content analysis of text and images in Seventeen. Western
States Communication Association, Seattle.

Harvey, J. A. (2006). An exploratory analysis of teenagers' romantic relational

knowledge and
source identification. International Association for Relationship Research, Crete.

Harvey, J. A. (2004). Recovery strategies across the lifespan of long-term married

couples. Western States Communication Association, Albuquerque.

Waldron, V., Gitelson, R., Kelley, D., Regalado, J, & Harvey, J. (awarded with the Top
Four Paper award, 2004). Two tickets to paradise? Exploring the effects of sunbelt
retirement on social support resources. Western States Communication Association,
Albuquerque.

Waldron, V., Gitelson, R., Regalado, J., & Harvey, J. (awarded with the Top Three Paper
award, 2003). Making new friends during the retirement years: Longitudinal patterns of
social support and the role of community activities. National Communication
Association, Miami.
 184

Waldron, V., Kelley, D., Gitelson, R., & Harvey, J. (2001). Relocation to a retirement
community: Examining the effects of social support networks and marital satisfaction on
feelings of regret. National Communication Association, Atlanta.

Harvey, J. (2001) Parent-teen relationship discourse: An analysis of occurrence among

teenage mothers. ASU West Student Communication Conference, Glendale.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
January 2008 - University of Washington, Teen Futures Media Network
September 2008 Education Department
Position: Research Assistant
Primary Researcher: Marilyn Cohen, PhD. Director
- Worked on developing and modifying two media literacy
curricula modules for middle school and high schools in the Pacific
Northwest. One module focused on topics of nutrition and the
media and the other module focused on safe sex and the media.
The goals of these projects were to encourage inquiry and critical
thinking about media messages, create awareness of the influence
of media messages, and encourage skepticism about advertising.
Both modules will be pilot tested across schools in the Pacific
Northwest.
- Helped facilitate focus groups of teachers and students to receive
feedback on media literacy curricula

Summer University of Washington, Department of Communication

2007, 2008 Position: Research Assistant
Primary Researcher: Valerie Manusov, PhD
- Facilitated in collecting and analyzing data

June 2005 - Family Health Project

August 2006 Position: Voluntary Research Assistant (unpaid position)
Primary Researcher: Sybil Carrere, PhD
-Coding observational videos of parent-child interactions
-Coding observational videos of adolescent meta-emotion
interviews
-Helped to create coding guide for meta-emotion observational
videos

2001 - 2002 Sun City Grand Project

Position: Research Assistant
Primary Researchers: Vincent Waldron, PhD & Doug Kelley, PhD

GRANTS AND RESEARCH AWARDS

2008 Department nominee for UW Social Science Dissertation
Fellowship Award
 185

2008 Peter Clarke Research Award

- Awarded $2087 from UW alumnus Peter Clarke for dissertation
research costs
2004 Graduate Student Top Scholar Award, University of Washington

GRADUATE COURSEWORK
University of Washington
COM 500 Communication Theory Development (Barbara Warnick and Patricia
Moy)
COM 501 Methods of Inquiry (Valerie Manusov and Philip Howard)
COM 502 Communication Scholarship and Public Life (Gerry Philipsen)
COM 511 Content Analysis (David Domke)
COM 520 Statistical Methods in Communication (Mike Peters)
COM 521 Advanced Statistical Methods in Communication (Patricia Moy)
COM 576 Interpersonal Communication (Valerie Manusov)
COM 590 Selected Readings: Media Effects (David Domke)
COM 594 Writing for Academic Publication (Lisa Coutu)
COM 594 Research Funding (Lisa Coutu)
COM 594 Technology in Teaching and Research (Lisa Coutu)
COM 596 Communication Pedagogy (Leah Ceccarelli)
COM 597 Relational Communication (Valerie Manusov)
EDPSY 531 Socialization of School-Age Children (Diane Carlson-Jones, Education)
PSYCH 456 Social and Moral Development (Peter Kahn, Psychology)

Arizona State University West

COM 502 Theory & Practice in Communication & Persuasion (Leslie DiMare)
COM 505 Methods in Applied Communication Research (Vincent Waldron)
COM 506 Human Inquiry & Field Research in Communication (Richard Morris)
COM 532 Advocacy in Interpersonal Settings (Doug Kelley)
COM 565 Globalization and Advocacy (Fernando Delgado)
COM 592 Independent Study & Research (Vincent Waldron)
COM 598 Special Topics: Communication & Social Change (Richard Morris)
COM 598 Special Topics: Conflict & Negotiation (Doug Kelley)
CRJ 535 Statistical Tools for Criminal Justice

COLLEGIATE COURSES TAUGHT

Central Washington University (Lynnwood campus)
Summer 2009 Com 302: Intercultural Communication
Adjunct Faculty

University of Washington
Fall 2008 Com 270: Interpersonal Communication
Instructor of Record (i.e. sole instructor of course)
Fall 2007 Com 480: Communication in Adolescent's Environments
Instructor of Record
Summer 2007 Com 202: Introduction to Communication II
 186

Instructor of Record
Spring 2007 Com 343: Effects of Mass Communication
Teaching Assistant - lecture of 110 students
Fall 2006 Com 270: Interpersonal Communication
Stand Alone (i.e. sole instructor for course)
Summer 2006 Com 202: Introduction to Communication II
Instructor of Record
Spring 2006 Com 270: Interpersonal Communication
Stand Alone
Winter 2006 Com 202: Introduction to Communication II
Lead Teaching Assistant - lecture of 450 students
Fall 2005 Com 202: Introduction to Communication II
Teaching Assistant - lecture of 450 students
Summer 2005 Com 202: Introduction to Communication II
Instructor of Record
Spring 2005 Com 270: Interpersonal Communication
Stand Alone
Winter 2005 Com 270: Interpersonal Communication
Stand Alone
Fall 2004 Com 270: Interpersonal Communication
Stand Alone

International Institute of the Americas

Stand alone courses taught: Business Communication, Business Management, Business
Principles, Keyboarding, Introduction to Computers, Microsoft Word, Master Student
Skills, Master Student Workshops, Career Development, Professional Development,
Business Writing, Psychology, Human Resource Management, Political Science, Science
and Society, World Cultures, Sociology, Business Law, Socialization & Societal
Development

On-line courses taught: Small Group Communication, Management Communication,

Business Communication, Psychology, Sociology, Science & Society, Socialization &
Societal Development, World Cultures, Political Science, English Composition, Human
Resources, Critical Thinking, Contemporary Literature, Master Student Workshop,
Master Student/Introductory Course

SCHOLARSHIPS, SERVICE & TEACHING AWARDS

2007-2008 Recipient of 2 Mortar Board Alumni/Tolo Foundation scholarships
(nominated by department and based on achievement in
scholarship, leadership and service)
- Recipient of the Carrie Cowgill-Thompson Scholarship
- Recipient of the Berthine Leiren Anderson Scholarship
2005-2006 Recipient of annual UW Communication Department "Outstanding
Graduate Student Service Award"
2003 Top 5 Campus Instructor of the Year Award (total of 4 campuses)
2002-2003 Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Member
1999 IIA Instructor of the Month Award

DEPARTMENT AND UNDERGRADUATE MENTOR ACTIVITIES

Spring 2009 Project Manager for Undergraduate Graduation Video Contest
(Supervising and working with 4 undergraduate students)
Internship Advisor (5 students)
Research Advisor (2 students)
Winter 2009 Project Manager for Undergraduate Graduation Video Contest
(Supervising and working with 4 undergraduate students)
Research Advisor (4 undergraduate students)
Internship Advisor (4 undergraduate students)
Graduate Student Recruiter
Fall 2008 Research Mentor Center Tutor & Volunteer
Summer 2008 Research Advisor (2 undergraduate students)
Spring 2008 Research Advisor (3 undergraduate students)
Internship Advisor (3 undergraduate students)
Graduate Student Recruiter
Communication Department Graduation Ceremony Volunteer
Winter 2008 Research Advisor (4 undergraduate students)
Internship Advisor (1 undergraduate student)
Communication 343 Guest Speaker
Fall 2007 Internship Advisor (1 undergraduate student)
Spring 2007 Internship Advisor (1 undergraduate student)
Research Advisor (2 undergraduate students)
Laura Crowell Fund Graduate Student Liaison
Research Mentor Center Tutor & Volunteer
Graduate Student Recruiter
Communication Department Graduation Ceremony Marshall
Winter 2007 Internship Advisor (1 undergraduate student)
Laura Crowell Fund Graduate Student Liaison
Organized and helped create spring department newsletter
Fall 2006 Graduate Student Orientation Speaker
Incoming Graduate Student Mentor
Research Mentor Center Tutor & Volunteer
Internship Advisor (3 undergraduate students)
Summer 2006 Directed Readings Advisor (1 undergraduate student)
Incoming Graduate Student Mentor
Spring 2006 Research Advisor (2 undergraduate students)
Internship Advisor (2 undergraduate students)
Graduate Student Recruiter
Research Mentor Center Tutor & Volunteer
Faculty Meeting Graduate Student Representative
Laura Crowell Fund Graduate Student Liaison
Communication Department Graduation Ceremony Marshall
Winter 2006 Research Advisor (2 undergraduate students)
Research Mentor Center Tutor & Volunteer
 188

Faculty Meeting Graduate Student Representative

Laura Crowell Fund Graduate Student Liaison
Fall 2005 Internship Advisor (2 undergraduate students)
Graduate Student Orientation Speaker and Group Facilitator
Incoming Graduate Student Mentor
Faculty Meeting Graduate Student Representative
Summer 2005 Internship Advisor (2 undergraduate students)
Incoming Graduate Student Mentor
Spring 2005 Internship Advisor (1 undergraduate student)
Research Mentor Center Tutor & Volunteer
Graduate Student Recruiter
Winter 2005 Internship Advisor (1 undergraduate student)
Research Mentor Center Tutor & Volunteer

DISCIPLINE ACTIVITES
2007 Paper Session Chair, NCA Conference, Chicago
2007 Conference Paper Reader (22 papers and 3 panels), Interpersonal
Communication Division of Western States Communication
Association Conference, Broomsfield, CO 2008
2007 Registration and Conference Set-up, Western States
Communication Association Conference (Assisted Valerie
Manusov)
2007 Conference Paper Reader, Communication & Social Cognition
Division of NCA, Chicago 2007
2006-present New Scholar Manuscript Reviewer, Personal Relationships (3
manuscripts)
2006 Paper Session Chair, NCA Conference, San Antonio
2005 Manuscript Reviewer, Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships (1 manuscript)
Event photographer, Arizona Communication Association
2000
CERTIFICATES
Certificate in Professional Program Development & Grant
2007
Communication
- Completed coursework through The Grant Institute on grant
writing, grant research, program development and evaluation, and
advanced communication strategies

ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIPS
National Communication Association
Western States Communication Association
International Association of Relationship Research
Action for Media Education
National Association for Media Literacy Education
Action Coalition for Media Education
 189

COMMUNITY WORK AND ACTIVITIES

Summer 2008 Urban League of Seattle Summer U media literacy instructor and
volunteer
- Co-taught two media literacy courses to K-5th graders and 6-8th
graders
August 2007 Board Member of Action for Media Education (AME) Committee
- present - Committee of teachers, media literacy advocates, and other media
professionals
- Meet once a month to discuss media literacy issues and ways to
raise awareness about media literacy in the community and
schools
November 2008 AME Health and Media Show Committee member
present - Subcommittee of AME that is working on the development of a
traveling media literacy program on healthy eating/activity and
teaching elementary students to be critical media users
- Currently working on obtaining funding for the program through
researching and writing grant proposals
August 2007 AME Youth Film Festival Committee member
- April 2008 - Subcommittee of AME that organizes and runs an annual
youth film festival in April; Entries were from young people
around Washington and focused on important issues faced by
youth today (e.g. body image, bullying, etc.)
- Meet bi-monthly to organize the film festival
- Participated in subcommittee that viewed all festival entries;
participated in the judging of all entries to film festival;
determined the films that would be viewed at the festival
August 2007 The Vera Project volunteer
- present - Organization run by youth and dedicated to providing youth with
an alcohol and drug-free environment to see live music
- Work as a volunteer at music events/concerts sponsored by the
organization
March 2007 Urban League of Seattle volunteer
- present - Volunteer in an after school program with children and
adolescents from South Seattle doing various activities.
- Activities include: tutoring students, running reading groups,
reading independently with children, working on art projects
together and playing educational games
Summer 2007 Urban League of Seattle Summer U volunteer
- Assisted a lead teacher in a media literacy course for 6-8 graders
in a 7 week long program.
2000-2004 Make a Difference volunteer, Phoenix AZ