Poster Presentation 30 — Parental Perceptions of Giftedness and Media Literacy — Shannon McDonald & Julie Delgado
Monday, May 20, 2024, 5:00 – 7:00 pm, Student Union Ballroom, Rooms 330/331
Digital media technologies pose both potential benefit and risk to children’s development, and, as a result, parents face pressure to adhere to opposing tensions (Jeffery, 2021). Currently, little is known about the specific ways in which children’s advanced cognitive development factors into parental choices about media. However, in May of 2023, the Surgeon General published a report calling for “a substantial investment in research” relating to the positive and negative effects of media on childhood development (American Psychological Association, 2023, p. 8). This poster presents the findings of an exploratory study aimed at investigating parent perceptions of giftedness in relation to media literacy. Parent participants, who identified as guardians of a gifted child between the ages of 9 to 12, responded to a set of qualitative survey questions. The questions were designed to elicit descriptions about common topics and conversational practices between parent and child when discussing media messaging. Parents also provided descriptions of perceived influence of giftedness on their child’s media literacy skills. Patterns were identified across responses.