Grandparenting with media: patterns of mediating grandchildren's media use

Although many grandparents are involved in caring for their grandchildren, they were completely ignored in previous research on mediation of children's media use. Informed by the Grandfather Involvement Framework and the Process Model of the Determinants of Grandparenting, the present study aims at exploring variations among grandparents in mediation patterns. The study was based on a survey of 356 grandparents of young children, who reported taking care of their grandchildren at least once a week. Analysis identified three groups of grandparents according to their mediation patterns: Highly involved, non-restrictive and less involved. Mediation patterns correlated significantly with grandchildren's age, context of caregiving, motivations for media use while caregiving and its outcomes, and involvement in other leisure activities with the grandchildren. Furthermore, the less involved mediators reported significantly lower self-evaluation than did those in the other groups, even after controlling for all differentiating variables. Results suggest that mediation of grandchildren's media uses may be considered integral to grandparental involvement in general and may be beneficial to both generations.