A generally held hypothesis is that greater family interaction will increase agreement between mother and child on reports of television viewing habits. This initial study sought to determine the extent of such agreement between mother and child, and to analyze the role of frequency of family interaction in their coorientation toward television and toward the use of violence. Interviews were conducted with 85 fourth and fifth grade children and their mothers about the child's exposure to television in general and to violence on television in particular, context of viewing, program selection, perceived reality of television, rules about television watching, perceptions about the amount of violence on television, family interaction, violence justification, and probable behavior in frustrating situations. Results showed that there was relatively strong agreement on only three aspects of the child's television habits--the nonviolent shows he watched and his frequency of watching with either his parents or his friends. Also, there was more viewing of programs considered violent among children who did a significant amount of television watching with one or both of their parents present, and the child more often finds the use of violence justified when the parents watched a substantial frequency of violent programs. (SH)