Counteracting the Effects of Female Stereotypes on Television via Active Mediation

This article reports results of an experiment with 83 kindergarten through 6th-grade children conducted to determine the effectiveness of a theoretically based active mediation strategy for reducing the harmful effects of gender-stereotyped television. The researchers found that a mediation strategy derived from gender-schema theory led to less favorable evaluations of stereotyped television characters. It also led to (a) less positive evaluations of the program among children whose parents do not monitor their viewing, and (b) less endorsement of stereotyped attitudes among younger children. This suggests that mediation is successful among children who may be especially vulnerable to media effects, or those who need it the most.