Gender, race, nostalgia, and fanship: factors affecting parental mediation of Disney animated films

Abstract

This dissertation explored several gaps in the literature related to parental perceptions of Disney animated films and parental mediation of those films including how willing parents are to use Disney animated films to talk with their children about social issues, such as gender and racial representation, as well as what themes exist within parent-child communication about those films. Specifically, this research focused on parents' and children's perceptions of race and gender stereotypes in the films, how willing they were to communicate about these issues, and how various social identities affected these communicative exchanges. Using a mixed-methods approach, the author conducted two studies to explore this topic. In Study 1, 20 parent-child dyads were interviewed. These interviews explored how the parents and children had previously communicated about Disney animated films. Then, the dyads were asked to have conversations together about race and gender after watching two Disney animated film clips. Seven distinct themes from those parent-child interactions are identified and discussed in this dissertation. While dyads seemed to agree that Disney has made attempts to be more inclusive, communication about race and gender was distinct with dyads tending to focus on positive aspects of gender representation as opposed to more negative aspects of racial representation. The prevalence of these themes also varied based on the demographics of the parent-child dyads. Specifically, dyads with non-White parents were much more likely to have engaged in communication about race prior to the interview than in dyads with White parents. Study 2 built upon the first study by examining whether specific characteristics of parents and social identities of parents and children predicted the willingness of parents to have conversations with their children about media representation. Specifically, 190 parents were surveyed to assess their willingness to have conversations with their children about Disney, gender, and race. Parents were also asked about their parental mediation techniques, Disney fanship, and personal nostalgia for Disney animated films. Overall, this study indicated that active mediation, fanship, and nostalgia for Disney films were often significant predictors of parental willingness to engage in any type of conversation about Disney animated films with their children. Overall, the results of this research increase understanding of parental mediation theorizing, and whether media fanship and nostalgia for media predict the parent-childmedia relationship, regarding sense-making of messages in family films. Specifically, results illustrated that parents are willing to have conversations about popular films important to their identity and sensitive topics such as race and gender representation despite their race, age, gender, fanship of Disney animated films, and personal nostalgia for Disney animated films. Moreover, this study showed that parents and children were aware of many of the stereotypes that exist within these films. Given the impact that parental mediation can have on child behavioral and attitudinal outcomes, it is imperative that future research continue to bridge the gap between parental willingness to communicate and their communicative efficacy.