The Moderating Effects of Internet Parenting Styles on the Relationship Between Internet Parenting Behavior, Internet Expectancy, and Internet Addiction Tendency

Abstract

This study investigated the moderating effect of children’s perceived Internet parenting styles (IPS) on the relationship among their perceived Internet parenting behaviors (operationalized as warmth and control on Internet use from their parents), Internet expectancy (IE), and Internet addiction tendency (IAT). Participants were 3169 Taiwanese junior high school students ages 13–16. Results exhibited a dominance of both authoritative and authoritarian IPSs. Boys tended to perceive a permissive or neglectful IPS from their parents, while girls tended to perceive an authoritarian or authoritative IPS. IE and control had a consistent positive direct relationship with IAT across all IPS models. The hypothesized indirect effect was significant for the authoritarian parenting model from control to IAT and for the neglectful parenting model from both warmth and control to IAT. The study result implied that the quality of Internet parenting behaviors as demonstrated by different IPSs may be related with changes in students’ IE and IAT. Evidence from children’s amount of Internet use, their gender, and parental education level provided additional support on the study findings. The study results would shed light on the role of family function on students’ Internet use and provide suggestions on Internet parenting to reduce possible IAT.