Children's participation in household tasks as portrayed by national television advertisements in the U.S.A.

This paper provides a content analysis of portrayals of children's participation in household tasks in national television advertisements within the U.S.A. The analysis indicates that children are rarely shown working in the home, even when they could help. Furthermore, parents are shown routinely performing tasks children could have done for themselves. The resulting stereotypes are clearly drawn: children are shown to be non-productive and parents are portrayed as servants. Such portrayals may be counter-productive in the context of growing time pressures in the household and the potential benefits that families might realize by working together towards common goals.