Parental mediation of mobile/digital devices and children’s consumer behavior: examining the role of parental understanding of mobile/digital advertising

Purpose This study aims to explore how American parents’ familiarity and knowledge of mobile advertising are linked to mediational tactics across three mobile media devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones). This study further tests whether advertising knowledge, familiarity and parental media mediation are associated with children’s consumer behavior. Design/methodology/approach The approach adopted was a cross-sectional survey of 500 American parents with at least one child between the ages of 5 to 14 who were recruited via Qualtrics. Parents were asked about their familiarity with mobile/digital advertising and their knowledge of such material. They were also asked how they mediated their children’s media experience on the three mobile devices, how often their children asked for consumer goods and how often they argued with their children over the purchase of consumer goods. Findings Results showed differences regarding how parents’ advertising knowledge and familiarity were linked to their mediational practices and their child’s consumer behavior. Specifically, advertising familiarity was associated with increased mediation across devices and increased purchase requests/conflict. Conversely, advertising knowledge was only associated with couse/viewing mediation, but this relationship was negative; moreover, knowledge was negatively associated with children’s consumer behavior. Originality/value The results of this study offer insights into how knowledge and familiarity with mobile advertising shape parents’ mediational approaches to children. This study provides crucial data linking mediational approaches with children’s consumer behavior.