Linking Adolescents’ Exposure to and Identification With Reality TV to Materialism, Narcissism, and Entitlement

According to previous research, there is a cross-sectional link between adolescents’ reality TV viewing on the one hand, and their level of materialism, narcissism, and entitlement on the other hand. The current study was set out to determine whether there is a longitudinal link, and whether the effect of reality TV viewing could potentially be attributed to adolescents’ identification with reality TV cast members. A twowave panel study was conducted among 392 adolescents. Importantly, the cross-sectional patterns from previous research could be replicated, but they did not stand the test of time: Reality TV viewing in Wave 1 was longitudinally related with materialism and identification, but not with narcissism and entitlement in Wave 2. Notably, the longitudinal relation between reality TV viewing on adolescents’ materialism disappeared once adolescents’ identification was controlled for. This demonstrates the importance of viewer experiences in assessing media effects. The difference in findings between materialism and entitlement and narcissism were explained by theorizing that reality TV mainly portrays negative consequences of entitled and narcissistic behavior, causing viewers to refrain from copying this behavior. Future research could test this hypothesis and investigate how consequences of certain behaviors are portrayed in reality TV and how these consequences are perceived by reality TV viewers.</p

Reliability and validity of children’s advertising exposure measures

Purpose: First, three levels of content specificity for assessing children’s exposure to advertising were distinguished as follows: exposure to the medium, exposure to broad content and exposure to specific (i.e. commercial) content. Second, using longitudinal data from 165 children between 8 and 11 years old, the test-retest reliability and content validity of survey measures from all three levels were examined. Design/methodology/approach: Due to societal concerns about the effects of advertising on children’s well-being, research into this topic is expanding. To enhance knowledge accumulation and bring uniformity to the field, a validated standard survey measure of advertising exposure is needed. The aim of this study is to provide such measures for television and internet advertising. Findings: The findings suggest that all measures provided solid estimates for children’s television and internet advertising exposure. Yet, due to minor differences in reliability and validity, it may be concluded that television advertising exposure can best be measured by asking children how often they watch certain popular (commercial) television networks, either weighting or not weighting for advertising density. Internet advertising exposure can best be measured by asking children how often they use the internet or how often they visit certain popular websites, weighting for advertising density. Originality/value: The current measures for children’s advertising exposure through traditional media can easily be adapted to fit new media