Television Exposure, Parents' Precautionary Warnings, and Young Adults' Perceptions of Crime
- 1 October 2003
- journal article
- other
- Published by SAGE Publications in Communication Research
- Vol. 30 (5), 530-556
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650203256360
Abstract
Crime-related television viewing may influence not only the viewer but also individuals with whom the viewer communicates. A matched sample of parents and their first semester college-age children were surveyed independently (N = 178 pairs)to test a model linking parents' crime-related television viewing with their college-age children's perceptions of crime prevalence. The model identifies parents' precautionary warnings as influenced by their own crime viewing and as influencing their college-age children's crime-prevalence estimates. Results indicate the relationship between parents' crime viewing and their issuance of precautionary warnings is mediated by their own estimates of crime prevalence and that parents' precautionary warnings influence young adults' perceptions of crime prevalence. Young adults' gender influences both the frequency of parental warnings and young adults' perceptions of how frequently they were warned by parents but appears not to influence perceptions of crime directly.Keywords
This publication has 54 references indexed in Scilit:
- Social Psychology and the Fear of CrimeThe British Journal of Criminology, 2000
- The Relationship Between Parent-Adolescent Communication and Safer Sex Behaviors in College StudentsJournal of Family Nursing, 2000
- The Role of Television in the Construction of Consumer RealityJournal of Consumer Research, 1997
- Women's Fear of Victimization: Shadow of Sexual Assault?Social Forces, 1996
- Perceived Risk versus Fear of Crime: Empirical Evidence of Conceptually Distinct Reactions in Survey DataSocial Forces, 1996
- Perceived Risk and Fear of Crime: Role of Social and Physical IncivilitiesJournal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 1992
- Perceived vulnerability to crime, criminal victimization experience, and television viewingJournal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 1986
- The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- Victimization Rates, Exposure to Risk, and Fear of CrimeCriminology, 1984
- Fear of Victimization: A Look at the Proximate CausesSocial Forces, 1983