Partners' influence on each other's television exposure: Dominance or symmetry?

Abstract

In this study we analyzed to what extent partners who share the same household affect each other's exposure to television. With the use of linear structural equation modeling we analyzed data from a large scale representative survey in The Netherlands (n 697 couples).Results indicate that both men and women influence their partner's exposure to television.When people spend much time watching television, their partners are also likely to spend a lot of time in front of the television. These influences on each other's exposure were of equal magnitude for both men and women. Finally, we found a strong socialization effect of parental viewing in the family of origin.Keywords: media use, exposure to television, partners' influence, socialization effect, parental garden may be all you want to do after a hard day's work, but your neighbor may force you to come out of your chair and talk to him by just popping his head over the hedge and starting a conversation. Or worse, he could even have you help him push his broken car up his driveway. We know from Berger and Luckmann's (1966/1991) insight in the construction of social reality that your neighbor does not even have to pop his head over the hedge, or even be at home, to make you do things you would rather not do, such as mowing your lawn, because you vicariously observe and judge yourself for your neighbor. With television, this is no different. For instance, many people feel guilty after watching television at night, instead of doing something 'useful' (cf. Hagen, 1997;Höijer, 1999). We know that others, whether actu-ally present or not, judge our actions and do not always condone our wasting time on television.People's media use is constrained especially by members of their own households. For instance, based on their own research and research of many others, Webster and Wakshlag (1982;1983) and Mutsaers (1996) argue that people's program choices depend on the program preferences of the group of people with whom they watch. World wide, family members influence and constrain each other's television use (Lull, 1988).Among the specific others in people's households, partners play a special role.Partners tend to spend their leisure time together (Kalmijn and Bernasco, 2001), and they tend to watch television together as well (McDonald, 1985(McDonald, , 1986. If men and women engage in such shared leisure time activities, this creates mutual dependencies; the more they share activities together in their leisure time, the more their well-being depends on each other Partners and TV exposure 4 (Kalmijn and Bernasco, 2001). Simultaneously, they learn how their partners give meaning to these joint activities. All of this makes it likely that partners influence each other's definition of the situation concerning television viewing (cf. Gantz, 2001;Gunter and Svennevig, 1987;Renckstorf and Wester, 2004). Subsequently, partners mutually shape each other's decisions to watch television or not, and thus mutually influence the amount of time they spend watching television ...

Couples’ arts participation: assessing individual and joint time use

“…Kraaykamp et al (2007) have studied how the individual frequency of media use in Dutch couples is the result of both spouses' statuses. Similarly, Konig et al (2008) have looked at Dutch partners' reciprocal influence on average time spent watching TV. Finally, through a more qualitative-analysis approach, Silva and Le Roux (2011) have stressed different cultural capital and gender patterns in the cultural participation of British couples.…”

Explaining television choices: The influence of parents and partners

“…Although we have found a few studies supporting the argument that partners influence each other's media choices (Konig et al, 2008;Kraaykamp et al, 2007), we have found no studies that directly test the argument concerning the mediating role of household preferences in the correlation between partners' media choices. To fill this gap in knowledge, we have developed a number of hypotheses concerning the development of household television preferences and concerning the influence exerted by household television preferences on the viewing choices of household members.…”

“…A process of mutual influence may also be present in partners' choices for television genres; indeed, a few studies have provided support for the argument that partners influence each other's media choices. For instance, Konig et al (2008) and Kraaykamp et al (2007) both find negative effects of partner's educational level on the primary respondent's television consumption-with higher educational levels resulting in less TV consumption. Furthermore, Kraaykamp et al (2007) find positive effects of partner's educational level on primary respondent's literary book reading-with higher education resulting in more reading.…”

Parental Influence on Adolescent Preference for Television Public Affairs Content: A South Korean Panel Study

“…To be fair, treating parents as a single unit may be an acceptable practice because romantic partners exert influence on each other's media habits (e.g., Konig et al, 2008;Vettehen et al, 2012). However, previous studies on the development of reading habits have shown that fathers and mothers individually influenced their offspring's reading habits (e.g., Mullan, 2010;Wollscheid, 2013Wollscheid, , 2014.…”

“…People who prefer news are more likely to engage in politics than those who do not (Bakker & de Vreese, 2011;Quintelier & Hooghe, 2011;Rittenberg, Tewksubry, & Casey, 2012). More importantly, news preference developed at the adolescent stage tends to persist over time (e.g., Konig, Kraaykamp, & Westerik, 2008;Notten & Kraaykamp, 2009;York & Scholl, 2015) and potentially widen the knowledge gap between the politically engaged and disengaged (e.g., Moeller & de Vreese, 2015). Hence, the development of preference for TPAC is a key part of the political socialization process, which could promote political learning and participation during and after adolescence.…”