Active and restrictive parental mediation over time: Effects on youths’ self-regulatory competencies and impulsivity

Abstract

This study investigates patterns of parental mediation on children's online activities and the effects of active and restrictive parental mediation on the self-regulatory competencies and impulsivity of youths with both cross-sectional and longitudinal data. A stratified two-stage cluster sampling method was used to randomly select 14 primary and 14 secondary schools to participate in an online survey for 3 consecutive years. Students' age range from 8 to 11 years old in the first year. The sample size started with 3079 in the first year and ended with 1086 in the third year. The analyses revealed that child-reported measures of parental use of active and restrictive mediation decreased over the three years. Initial levels of active and restrictive mediation were found to share a positive correlation. A significant positive correlation was also found between the decreasing rates of change in active and restrictive mediation across the three years. Additionally, the results showed that higher active mediation practiced by parents at time point 1 is correlated with a quicker decrease of restrictive mediation across time. However, initial level of restrictive mediation practiced at time point 1 did not affect the rate of decrease in active mediation over time. Both active and restrictive mediation were found to be positively predictive of youths' online self-regulation and emotion regulation at time point 3 while negatively predictive of impulsivity levels. Results also showed that a slower decrease in both parental mediation strategies is associated with higher self-regulation and lower impulsivity at time point 3. Research implications are discussed.