Images of Couples and Families in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films
Abstract
Media have the potential to serve as sources of information regarding couples and families for many children. One of the more popular forms of children's media is the Disney animated featurelength movie. To date, no research has examined images of couples and families in a wide sampling of Disney feature-length animated films. This study was designed to identify themes about couples and families portrayed in 26 Disney animated classics and recently released movies. In general, four overarching themes were identified: (a) family relationships are a strong priority, (b) families are diverse, but the diversity is often simplified, (c) fathers are elevated, while mothers are marginalized, and (d) couple relationships are created by “love at first sight,” are easily maintained, and are often characterized by gender-based power differentials. Clinical implications for family professionals are addressed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Romantic beliefs are developed during childhood and adolescence through socialization and are strongly internalized when adolescents begin their first dating relationships.
“These romantic beliefs are developed during childhood and adolescence, through the socialization process, and they are strongly internalized when adolescents begin their first dating relationships (Hefner et al., 2017; Lamy, 2016; Tanner et al., 2003).”
From Romantic myths and cyber dating violence victimization in Spanish adolescents: A moderated mediation model (2023) · cites this paper as Tanner et al., 2003
Romantic myths include viewing jealousy and control as a sign of love, believing in the omnipotence of love, and associating love with suffering.
“Because these romantic myths include viewing jealousy and control as a sign of love, believing in the omnipotence of love, and associating love with suffering (Rodríguez-Castro et al., 2013; Ruiz-Palomino et al., 2021a, 2021b; Tanner et al., 2003)”
From Romantic myths and cyber dating violence victimization in Spanish adolescents: A moderated mediation model (2023) · cites this paper as Tanner et al., 2003
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 21 · Cited by 132
- Authors
- Tanner, L. R., Haddock, S. A., Zimmerman, T. S., & Lund, L. K.
- Affiliations
- a Private practice
- Colorado State University (US)
- Venue
- The American Journal of Family Therapy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2003-10
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 355-373
- ISSN
- 0192-6187 (ISSN-L)
- 1521-0383
- OpenAlex
- W1990424249
- Cited by
- 132
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 3.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Family Therapy (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Media, Gender, and Advertising
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Film in Education and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- Disney animated films, couples, family relationships, media representation, gender stereotypes, fatherhood, motherhood, love at first sight, family diversity, children's media
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
