Digitally Mediated Parenting: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

The field of digital parenting is an emergent and dynamic area of research. This paper presents a structured literature review of research papers published between 2016 and 2021 which report empirical studies of parenting in the online space. Studies were sourced from Scopus and Web of Science using combinations of parent*/father/mother AND engage*/involve*/participat* AND online/digital*/virtual. A corpus of 144 papers were subjected to a first round of analysis, which resulted in the identification of two main clusters: Digital Parenting (Digi-P) and Digital Parental Involvement in Schooling (Digi-S). The first of these, constituting 92 papers, was the focus of a thematic analysis which is reported in this review. This review analysis is informed by theories of mediation in general, and parental mediation specifically. It finds that restrictive mediation was the most commonly reported parental approach to managing children’s online activities; that child age, gender, and vulnerability and parents’ ICT knowledge and experience impact on parents’ mediation practices; that children and parents have different perspectives and knowledge about children’s online activities; that parents’ online activities also impact on their children; and that parenting at a distance is supported by digital tools.