Parent versus child report of young children’s parasocial relationships in the United States

Richards, Melissa N.; Calvert, Sandra L.

doi:10.1080/17482798.2016.1157502

Cited by 19 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…One strength is that the character was age appropriate and generally well liked by young children, 19 which is important when using media characters to market healthier snacks. 6 Another strength is that we tested snack choices that resulted in actual consumption of snacks, not hypothetical choices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study examined if young children's snack choices and consumption patterns could be influenced by exposure to a popular media character, Dora the Explorer ™, 19 an animated Hispanic 7-year-old girl from a Nickelodeon educational cartoon. In two treatment conditions, Dora™ was depicted holding snacks that were either healthier or unhealthy in an advergame-app.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Character Apps for Children's Snacks: Effects of Character Awareness on Snack Selection and Consumption Patterns

Putnam

Cotto

Calvert

2018

Games for Health Journal

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Objective: Media characters are used to market snacks that are typically of poor nutritional value, which has been linked to childhood obesity. This study examines whether children's snack selections and consumption patterns are influenced by an app depicting a popular children's media character, as well as the role that children's awareness of the character plays. The results can increase our understanding of how to encourage healthier snack selection and consumption in newer game-based marketing venues, such as apps.Materials and Methods: Four- and 5-year-old children (N = 132) played a bowling game on an iPad with no character or with a character holding either healthier or unhealthy snacks. After app-play, children selected and consumed healthier or unhealthy snacks. Children's awareness of the character was measured by children's verbalizations of the character's name during or after app-play.Results: An ordered logistic regression found no significant effect of treatment conditions compared with the control group. Within treatment conditions, awareness of the character led to selection and consumption of more healthy snacks in the healthier condition (odds ratio β = 10.340, P = 0.008), and of unhealthy snacks in the unhealthy condition (odds ratio β = 0.228, P = 0.033), but children were unaware that the character influenced their decisions.Conclusions: Results suggest that young children will choose and consume healthier, not just unhealthy, products when they are aware that a popular character in an app is associated with the snack, potentially leading to healthier eating patterns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Character Apps for Children's Snacks: Effects of Character Awareness on Snack Selection and Consumption Patterns

Putnam

Cotto

Calvert

2018

Games for Health Journal

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“…Using parent surveys to assess the attributes of their child’s favorite character, parent responses yielded three factors: attachment and character personification, social realism, and human‐like needs (Richards & Calvert, ). Factor analyses of 3‐to‐6‐year‐old children’s reports about their favorite characters yielded similar dimensions as those of their parents (Richards & Calvert, ). For children, the only factor with acceptable levels of internal consistency was attachment and friendship , which consisted of a favorite character who was a trustworthy, safe, cute, friend , with Dora the Explorer emerging as the most frequent favorite character (Richards & Calvert, ).…”

Section: Social Meaningfulness Parasocial Relationships and Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young Children’s Mathematical Learning From Intelligent Characters

et al. 2019

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Children’s math learning (N = 217; Mage = 4.87 years; 63% European American, 96% college‐educated families) from an intelligent character game was examined via social meaningfulness (parasocial relationships [PSRs]) and social contingency (parasocial interactions, e.g., math talk). In three studies (data collected in the DC area: 12/2015–10/2017), children’s parasocial relationships and math talk with the intelligent character predicted quicker, more accurate math responses during virtual game play. Children performed better on a math transfer task with physical objects when exposed to an embodied character (Study 2), and when the character used socially contingent replies, which was mediated by math talk (Study 3). Results suggest that children’s parasocial relationships and parasocial interactions with intelligent characters provide new frontiers for 21st century learning.

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“…Recent findings indicate that parents also may be instrumental, particularly during early childhood, in fostering children's relationships with media characters that may affect what children will learn from these characters (Richards & Calvert, ). These “parasocial” relationships refer to children's emotionally tinged relationship with a character (Horton & Wohl, ).…”

Section: Media Use Among Young Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The emerging research on parasocial relationships and children's early STEM learning indicates that certain characters can serve as effective social partners (see Richert, Robb, & Smith, ) and a potential resource of trusted “teachers” that traverse home and school settings (see Brunick, Putnam, McGarry, Richards, & Calvert, ), and different media platforms (Richards & Calvert, ). At present, these kinds of emotional relationships with media characters, including those found in interactive games, have untapped potential as sources of learning for children during early through middle childhood.…”

Section: Media Use Among Young Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Games as a Context for Children's Cognitive Development: Research Recommendations and Policy Considerations

Blumberg

Deater‐Deckard

Calvert

et al. 2019

Social Policy Report

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We document the need to examine digital game play and app use as a context for cognitive development, particularly during middle childhood. We highlight this developmental period as 6‐ through 12‐year olds comprise a large swath of the preadult population that plays and uses these media forms. Surprisingly, this age range remains understudied with regard to the impact of their interactive media use as compared to young children and adolescents. This gap in knowledge about middle childhood may reflect strong and widely held concerns about the effects of digital games and apps before and after this period. These concerns include concurrent and subsequent influences of game use on very young children's and adolescents’ cognitive and socioemotional functioning. We highlight here what is currently known about the impact of media on young children and adolescents and what is not known about this impact in middle childhood. We then offer recommendations for the types of research that developmental scientists can undertake to examine the efficacy of digital games within the rapidly changing media ecology in which children live. We conclude with a discussion of media policies that we believe can help children benefit from their media use. Our hope is that this review will foster greater investigation of the cognitive socialization, as raised over 20 years ago by developmental psychologist and early games researcher Patricia Greenfield, that digital games serve during the middle childhood period, and childhood more generally.

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Parent versus child report of young children’s parasocial relationships in the United States

Cited by 19 publications

References 31 publications

Character Apps for Children's Snacks: Effects of Character Awareness on Snack Selection and Consumption Patterns

Character Apps for Children's Snacks: Effects of Character Awareness on Snack Selection and Consumption Patterns

Young Children’s Mathematical Learning From Intelligent Characters

Digital Games as a Context for Children's Cognitive Development: Research Recommendations and Policy Considerations

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