U of A researchers discover screen time surprise under grandparents' care

When Grandma and Grandpa are in charge, the children are likely staring at a screen – a long-standing parental complaint now supported by University of Arizona research. 

Previous studies have examined how grandparents from other countries oversee children's screen time, but new research published in the Journal of Children and Media found that nearly half of the time American children spend with their grandparents involves interacting with or watching media on a screen.

By focusing on the unique and expanding role of grandparents as caregivers, a growing interpersonal dynamic that can influence media habits and family relationships is uncovered, said lead study author Cecilia Sada Garibay.

"I am the mother of four kids, and my mother has always helped me take care of them," said Sada Garibay, a graduate student studying communication in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. "I noticed that my children used media differently when they were with her than when they were with me, and my friends with children noticed the same thing. Through our research, we discovered that media consumption is not only important for grandchildren, but that understanding media is just as important for grandparents. Grandparents may want to watch along with their grandchildren or just want to understand what the children are watching."

Alongside Matthew Lapierre, associate professor of communication, Sada Garibay surveyed 350 grandparents living in the U.S. about the time they spend with their grandchildren and the strategies they use to manage media consumption. 

Participants were grandparents – but not the primary caregivers – of children between 2 and 10 years old, who they supervised at least three times a month. Of the 350 participants, 178 grandfathers and 172 grandmothers were selected, with an average age of 55. The average age of the 350 corresponding grandchildren was 5 years old. 

Survey participants also reported on their living situations: roughly 35% never live with their grandchild and family, 25% live with family a few weeks a year, 6% reported fewer than six month a year, while 8% lived with their family at least half the year – and 10% for the entire year.

Participants were asked about the last time they cared for their grandchild, and how many hours the child spent using media. That included watching TV, movies or other videos on a television set, using computers or handheld devices, playing video games or using the internet or apps on a device.

The grandparents were also asked what strategies they used to oversee their grandchildren when using media: supervisory, instructive, restrictive or co-using.

"Supervision involves keeping an eye on what your grandchild is doing, and the media they watch," Sada Garibay said. "Being instructive means explaining the content of something to your grandchild, while restrictive actions involve limiting the amount of time a child can use technology – or what content they are allowed to view. Co-using means watching media alongside your grandchild."

In addition to examining children's media consumption and grandparents' mediation strategies, Sada Garibay and Lapierre asked participants to rate their digital skills on a four-point scale. Participants also shared their perspectives on what they believe are the positive and negative impacts of media consumption and described the severity of any media-related disagreements they have with their grandchild's parents.

Digital divide

When the participants last cared for their grandchild, they reported spending an average of seven hours with that child – who in turn spent nearly half that time consuming media. The study found that children spend about two hours watching TV, and another hour playing videogames or using the internet on a device.

The survey participants employ a variety of mediation techniques, Sada Garibay said. Monitoring what their grandchildren watch was most common, followed by restricting media time or engaging in deeper discussion. Grandparents least often participated in viewing or playing alongside their grandchildren.

The study results showed that grandparents were more likely to use or watch media alongside younger grandchildren, if they themselves were younger or better understood technology. Grandparents less familiar with technology were more likely to restrict what their grandchild could watch, while younger or more technologically savvy grandparents were more likely to instead talk with their grandchild about the dangers of media and what to watch. 

The results also indicated that grandfathers are less likely to supervise their grandchildren than grandmothers, though technological know-how led to increased supervision for all grandparents.

Sada Garibay and Lapierre also found that grandparents with negative beliefs about media were significantly more likely to disagree with their adult child about media use – while positive beliefs about media were not significantly related to media disagreements with their adult child. Positive attitudes toward media were associated with higher relationship satisfaction, while increased media-related disagreement was associated with lower relationship satisfaction.

Overall, Sada Garibay said the study showed that consuming media is not only a significant part of American children's daily routines, but that grandparents approach handling these situations differently for a variety of reasons. 

"I think our most significant result was that a grandparent's level of confidence with technology was a significant predictor of the kinds of mediation strategies they use," Sada Garibay said. "The more confident a grandparent felt about media and technology, the more they were able to interact with their grandchildren's media. Grandparents with more of those skills were able to do significantly better with their grandchildren than those who don't have those skills. If grandparents can gain those technological skills, then they have better tools to manage their grandchildren's media use."