Abstract
This study analyses the intergenerational transmission of book reading and television viewing preferences. Central are the long-term effects of the parental media example and parental media guidance activities during one's childhood on adult highbrow and lowbrow media preferences. We used information from the Family Survey of the Dutch Population (FSDP 2003, 2009) on 2,539 men and women born between 1955 and 1984. Estimating structural equation models provided insights into the lasting effects of parental reading and television socialization. Disentangling direct and indirect effects of parental media socialization showed that both imitation and guidance are important in the intergenerational transmission of media preferences. Our results suggest that imitation is the main mechanism underlying the media socialization process. Yet, parental media guidance and a child’s school success partly mediate the imitation process. Foremost, this study demonstrates that parental media socialization activities during childhood have lasting effects on a person’s current media preferences.
