Children’s Media Use, Family Psychological Functioning, and Parental Media-Based Racial Socialization during the Dual COVID-19 and Whiteness Pandemics

Abstract

The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and Whiteness have been jointly affecting numerous families’ lives since 2020 around the world, particularly in the United States. The Whiteness pandemic (Ferguson et al., 2021) has existed long before 2020, but its existence was highlighted in May 2020 following the murder of Mr. George Floyd. This dissertation includes three mixed methods studies that addressed various consequences of these dual pandemics, including child screen media use behaviors, family resilience, and media-based White racial socialization. The data from these studies come from online survey data collected with parents (mostly mothers) living in, primarily, the Twin Cities, MN metro region from 2019 to 2021, and individual interview data collected in 2022. Study 1 assessed screen media (i.e., screen time) and problematic media use (addictive-like screen behaviors) from 2019 to 2021, and found an inverted U-shape for both, peaking in 2020. Some parents reported returning to “normal” in 2021, while others reported continued struggles with media use. Study 2 assessed family functioning and resilience from 2020 to 2021, and found that families, children, and parents were still exhibiting resilience ~15 months post-COVID-19 pandemic onset. Finally, Study 3 assessed how White mothers were using media to talk to their children about race using a mixed methods collective case study. Active race-related media mediation was related to lower ethnic protection. Mothers across multiple White racial identity development groups were not using media to talk to their children about race, often citing their child’s age and emotions as reasons to not engage in that conversation. Findings from these studies can be used by researchers and interventionists to improve child and parent mental health, family resilience, and parental racial socialization during the dual pandemics.