Longitudinal association of adolescents’ perceptions of parental mediations and compulsive Internet use

Abstract

Today's adolescents do not know a life without the Internet, which is here to stay. Much of adolescents' Internet consumption takes place at home. Accordingly, it is imperative that parents are centrally positioned to aid adolescents to maximize the opportunities it presents while also minimizing the associated risks. This 2-year, four-wave longitudinal study involved 1983 middle school adolescents (Mage = 13.01, SD = 0.70; Grade seven at Time 1; 46.9% female) to examine the relationship between adolescents' perceived parental mediation styles, including encouragement, worry, monitoring, and permission, and compulsive Internet use (CIU). Autoregressive cross lag panel analyses showed that the mediation styles functioned differently and interacted with CIU at different time periods. Parental encouragement was the only mediation that reduced adolescents' CIU, and it only worked during a school year, but not across school years. CIU was a constant trigger of parental worry in all time periods. CIU predicted parental monitoring across school years but not within a school year. It also prompted parental permission during a school year. Parents exhibited more than one parental mediation style at any given time period. Steps to elevate parental encouragement should be put in place so as to reduce adolescents' CIU.