Philippine E-Journals

Filipino Parents’ Attitudes towards TV Advertising and their Controls on Children’s TV Viewing

Mary Gretchen F. Chaves

Discipline: Social Science

 

Abstract:

Skepticism towards TV advertisements targeted at children may drive prudent parents to limit their children’s exposure to these commercials. Parental mediation strategies are among the approaches parents resort to in restricting their children’s TV viewing. This correlational study investigated Filipino parents’ attitudes towards TV advertising and the controls parents imposed on their children’s television viewing. The study hypothesized that parental attitudes towards TV advertising correlate with parental controls on their children’s TV viewing. Two hundred fifty parent-child dyads participated in a face-to-face survey conducted in early 2011 among urban middle-income households in Cebu City, Philippines. The results show that on average, parents maintained a moderately negative attitude towards TV advertising. Majority of the parents restricted their children’s TV viewing, mostly by scheduling and limiting the TV viewing times to prioritize study and sleeping hours. However, there are no significant correlations between the scores of parents’ attitudes towards TV advertising and the controls they impose on their children’s TV viewing. The study concludes that parental controls over their children’s TV viewing are not correlated with the parents’ evaluation of the undesirable impact of TV advertising. The results of this study identify implications to policy makers, marketers, advertisers, children’s advocacy groups, academicians and parents.