Abstract
This study investigated the strategies which parents employ in order to mediate their adolescent child’s internet use, thereby including the perspectives from the mother, the father and an adolescent child aged 13 to 18. Data from 357 families (n = 1071) were analyzed. Parental mediation strategies were inductively derived from a wide range of concrete mediation practices. Factor analysis yielded the same six factor solution for each informant, resulting in the identification of six distinct parental mediation strategies. Differences occurred between the three informants in terms of the quantity of mediation taking place. Parental mediation was predicted by the child’s age, but less by the parents’ age and the child’s gender.
Highlights
It can be expected that parents have adapted their Internet parenting practices so new research into parental mediation strategies that apply to Internet use is warranted
To achieve an unambiguous identification of the styles or strategies that make up parental mediation, an inductive research approach is required whereby a wide range of possible mediation behaviors are grouped into a smaller number of internally consistent categories
In order to come to an unambiguous understanding of the parental mediation strategies that apply to Internet use, an inductive research approach is required
Summary
To achieve an unambiguous identification of the styles or strategies that make up parental mediation, an inductive research approach is required whereby a wide range of possible mediation behaviors are grouped into a smaller number of internally consistent categories. Following such an approach, Valkenburg, Krcmar, Peeters, and Marseille (1999) achieved a classification of parental mediation styles in the area of television viewing.
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