Parental mediation and the relational practices of negotiation and resistance: Insights from a qualitative panel study from Germany

With the widespread use of digital media in our deeply mediatized society, parental mediation can be viewed as a dynamic and processual media practice that is integrated into everyday family life. We therefore advocate that parental mediation should be seen as part of the socialization that changes over time due to an ongoing stream of negotiations, instead of focusing purely on strategies. It is particularly important to us to show that this process is not only situational and procedural, but also relational. In the text, we present four case studies that illustrate how these aspects influence parental mediation. The cases were chosen from a longitudinal qualitative panel study with three survey waves. They were analyzed from the perspective of parents and children. The study itself focused on the process of socialization and its transformation through mediatization. On this basis we demonstrate that parental mediation is a relational process that is influenced by parents' own biography, by other parents, friends or the wider family context as well as by negotiations with the affected children and their media repertoires. Prior State of Knowledge: Although a majority of studies analyze parental mediation, literature lacks the perspective of children on the topic. Further, there are almost no longitudinal studies on the subject.Novel Contributions: The article shows that parental mediation can only be fully understood as an element of socialization that is situational, dynamic, processual and repeatedly negotiated. It emphasizes relationality, as parental mediation depends on the biographies of the parents, people outside the family and the children involved.Practical Implications: Since parental mediation is not trivial, parents should be encouraged to seek support in this task. In addition, practitioners should take into account the relationality of mediation practices rather than pointing to an ideal way of parental mediating.