Bidirectional Socialization: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model of Internet Self-Efficacy and digital Media Influence Between Parents and Children

Abstract

Media researchers have studied how parents and children influence and guide each other’s media use. Although parent and child socialization and influence are thought to be bidirectional, they are usually studied separately, with an emphasis on parental socialization, influence, and guidance of the child’s media use. In this article, we present results from a study that investigates perceived bidirectional digital media socialization between parents and children from the same household ( N = 204 parent-child dyads). This study simultaneously tested parent-to-child and child-to-parent influence using the actor-partner interdependence model to examine the association between perceived Internet self-efficacy and perceived digital media influence. Although the results showed significant cross-sectional actor and partner effects for Internet self-efficacy and perceived digital media influence, these effects largely disappeared in a longitudinal setting.