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Whether studies should rely on parent or child reports of parental mediation remains a much-debated question. We investigated the agreement between parent and adolescent reports of the frequency and style (autonomy-supportive, controlling, inconsistent) of restrictive and active mediation, and their relative validity. Results revealed perceptual differences, with parents reporting more autonomy-supportive mediation. With some exceptions, both parent and adolescent reports correlated with relevant criterion measures. Results suggest that parent and adolescent reports are equally valid to assess the frequency and style of mediation, and that both reports should be considered to obtain a complete understanding of parents’ mediation efforts.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of various types of parental mediation of 3 potentially undesired effects of television advertising. In a survey among 360 parent–child dyads with children in the 8 to 12 years age range, we investigated how different styles of advertising mediation (active vs. restrictive) and family consumer communication (concept-oriented vs. socio-oriented) moderated the relations between the children's advertising exposure and their materialism, purchase requests, and conflicts with their parents. Our results showed that active advertising mediation and concept-oriented consumer communication were most effective in reducing the effects of advertising.

In December 1997,250 children were asked to list their Christmas wishes. These requests were then compared to the commercials that were broadcast at the time of data collection. Sixty-seven percent of the seven- and eight-year-olds, 49% of the 9- and 10-year-olds, and 40% of the 11-and 72-year-olds asked for at least one advertised product. Children's gender and age, as well as their level of exposure to the network that aired the most commercials, were significant predictors of their requests for advertised products.

Telephone interviews from a random sample of Dutch parents (N = 123 for the pilot study, N = 519 for the main study), provided an opportunity to explore television mediation activities in which parents could engage. From principal components analysis, three reliable styles of television mediation emerged: restrictive mediation, instructive mediation, and social coviewing. In addition to a number of demographic variables, parental concerns about the negative effects of television were significant predictors of style of television mediation.

In this experiment, we investigated whether adult mediation during a cultural children's program stimulates children's knowledge of and attitudes towards opera. One hundred twenty four children were randomly assigned to one of two viewing conditions. In the mediation condition a coviewing adult provided children with additional comments and showed a positive attitude towards opera. In the non‐mediation condition a coviewing adult did not give comments and showed a neutral attitude towards the program watched. Children in the mediation condition recalled significantly more opera information. In both the mediation and the non‐mediation condition children's attitude towards opera was stimulated by the cultural children's program.