Publicação
Technologies are coming over for dinner : do ritual participation and meaning mediate effects on family life?
| Resumo: | The current study investigated whether digital technology use during family mealtimes decreases levels of child participation in this ritual, and consequently of ritual meaning, which then affects couple satisfaction, family cohesion, parental satisfaction and self-efficacy. Variables were measured by self-reports completed by 72 Portuguese parents of 3-to-10-year-old children. Using structural equation modeling, we tested whether child participation during mealtimes mediated the link between parent/child technology use and dinnertime ritual meaning; and whether ritual meaning mediated the link between child participation and family outcomes. The model yielded an acceptable fit and hypotheses were supported, showing a significant effect of technology use by parents, but not children. Higher levels of technology use by parents seems to decrease child participation in dinner-related activities (-.32, p <.05), consequently affecting dinnertime ritual meaning (.70, p < .001) and, further, family cohesion (.39, p <.01), marital satisfaction (.25, p < .05) and parental satisfaction (.41, p < .01), but not parental efficacy. Results show modeling effects of technology use between marital partners (.76, p < .001) and between parent and child (.29, p < .05). These findings should encourage families to reduce technology use during mealtimes and promote child involvement to create more meaningful rituals and enhance family functioning and satisfaction. |
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| Autores principais: | Quaresma, Alexandra Urbano Magalhães |
| Assunto: | Tecnologias Rituais familiares Parentalidade Conjugalidade Teses de mestrado - 2017 |
| Ano: | 2017 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | The current study investigated whether digital technology use during family mealtimes decreases levels of child participation in this ritual, and consequently of ritual meaning, which then affects couple satisfaction, family cohesion, parental satisfaction and self-efficacy. Variables were measured by self-reports completed by 72 Portuguese parents of 3-to-10-year-old children. Using structural equation modeling, we tested whether child participation during mealtimes mediated the link between parent/child technology use and dinnertime ritual meaning; and whether ritual meaning mediated the link between child participation and family outcomes. The model yielded an acceptable fit and hypotheses were supported, showing a significant effect of technology use by parents, but not children. Higher levels of technology use by parents seems to decrease child participation in dinner-related activities (-.32, p <.05), consequently affecting dinnertime ritual meaning (.70, p < .001) and, further, family cohesion (.39, p <.01), marital satisfaction (.25, p < .05) and parental satisfaction (.41, p < .01), but not parental efficacy. Results show modeling effects of technology use between marital partners (.76, p < .001) and between parent and child (.29, p < .05). These findings should encourage families to reduce technology use during mealtimes and promote child involvement to create more meaningful rituals and enhance family functioning and satisfaction. |
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