Restrictive Parental Mediation Research Articles

The Association Between Family Socioeconomic Status and Children’s Digital Literacy: The Explanatory Role of Parental Mediation

In the current information society, digital literacy has become an indispensable part of individuals’ overall literacy. Thus, investigating the factors influencing digital literacy is of theoretical and practical significance, especially for developing children. Against this background, the present study examined the association between family socioeconomic status and children’s digital literacy and the mediating roles of active and restrictive parental internet mediation in this association. A total of 1050 Chinese students ranging from Grades 4 to 8 completed questionnaires in their classrooms. Regression-based analyses showed that (1) family socioeconomic status was positively associated with digital literacy and (2) active parental mediation could significantly mediate this relationship, but the mediating effect of restrictive parental mediation was insignificant. This research not only deepens our understanding of the factors affecting digital literacy but also provides an empirical reference point for interventions to improve children’s digital literacy.

The Role of Parental Mediation in the Associations Among Cyberbullying Bystanding, Depression, Subjective Health Complaints, and Self-Harm

The goal of this study was to investigate the moderating effect of parental mediation in the longitudinal associations among cyberbullying bystanding, depression, subjective health complaints, and self-harm. Participants were 1,067 seventh and eighth graders ( M age = 13.93; 50% female) from the suburbs of a large Midwestern city in the United States. Restrictive parental mediation and instructive parental mediation strategies moderated the relationships examined in this study. Increases in restrictive parental mediation strengthened the association between cyberbullying bystanding and depression, subjective health complaints, and self-harm. High instructive parental mediation weakened these associations. These findings underscore the importance of developing interventions that increase parents’ awareness of how to implement effective parental mediation strategies. Parental intervention programs that focus on parents’ role in mitigating their children’s exposure to cyberbullying and how they can help reduce the associated negative outcomes should be developed.

The Role of Self-Regulation in Internet Addiction during Adolescence

During adolescence, individuals experience a period of significant development of emotional control, self-regulation and decision-making skills. While this is a period of opportunity for adolescents to benefit from knowledge, social life, and physical activities, it is also a time where the excessive availability of information and internet usage can potentially have detrimental effects on their mental health, academic performance, and physiology. This study aims to discuss the potential relationship between low-level self-regulation and the development of internet addiction in adolescents. With the widespread use of smartphones among young people, internet addiction has become a severe problem. Adolescents who prioritize short-term goals and focus on immediate gratification or adopt competitive gamming style may exhibit low-level self-regulation, which is a risk factor for developing internet addiction. In addition, poor family functioning, low parent education, the presence of interparental conflict, and restrictive parental mediation may also be significant factors contributing to the onset of internet addiction. Furthermore, the co-occurrence of lower self-regulation and severe internet addiction may have a substantial negative impact on academic performance and quality of life. The previous studys findings demonstrate a causal relationship between self-regulation and internet addiction. However, applying voluntary sampling methods to collect data, social desirability biases, and cultural bias are some of the limitations of most research in this area. Future research should adopt stratified sampling methods, tailor their survey and instruments to be culturally sensitive to investigate the underlying mechanisms that give rise to this association.

Parental mediation of online interactions and its relation to adolescents’ contacts with new people online: the role of risk perception

ABSTRACT To ensure their children's safety online, parents can utilize number of strategies, including active and restrictive parental mediation. Active mediation encompasses parents discussing and advising children about safe usage of the internet, whereas restrictive mediation means limiting children's internet usage. Both strategies aim to affect children's online behavior, especially to minimize online risks. Using a sample of 1031 adolescents aged 11–17 (54% females) and structural equation modeling, we focused on the active and restrictive parental mediation of online interactions and their connections to adolescents’ potentially risky online contacts with new people. In addition, we considered the indirect effect of parental mediation on adolescents’ behavior through adolescents’ risk perception. In this way, we captured one of the potential explanatory mechanisms through which the parental mediation's effect occurs. The results showed that restrictive mediation decreased contacts with new people by increasing adolescents’ risk perception of this activity. In contrast, active mediation had neither a direct nor indirect effect on adolescents’ online contacts. The results enrich the theory of parental mediation by showing that risk perception is an important factor to consider when researchers examine the effects of parental mediation on children's potentially risky online behavior.

Predictors of children’s and young people’s digital engagement in informational, communication, and entertainment activities: findings from ten European countries

ABSTRACT Through a re-analysis of survey data collected with a sample of 9,731 youth aged 11–17 from 10 European countries, the article explores how some of the most popular online activities for children and young people (i.e., informational, social, and entertainment activities) relate to different types of perceived digital skills, as well as individual and social characteristics (such as age, gender, emotional problems, sensation seeking, parental mediation, and family environment). Furthermore, this paper looks at the moderating role of the family environment between enabling parental mediation and online activities. Using multi-group structural equation modeling we found that emotional problems, perceived informational and social digital skills, and enabling parental mediation were associated with informational online activities; sensation seeking, perceived informational digital skills, and enabling and restrictive parental mediation were associated with social online activities; and restrictive parental mediation was associated with entertainment online activities. Implications of these findings for educators, policy-makers, and parents are outlined, as well as limitations and future directions.

Exploring children’s TikTok cultures in India: Negotiating access, uses, and experiences under restrictive parental mediation

TikTok is a popular platform allowing users to view and make short videos. The platform's embeddedness among youth cultures is key to TikTok’s commercial success, to attract and sustain a diverse array of international users. The discourse around children and social media especially TikTok is laced with technopanics, as is the case in India. Although sparse, literature shows children in India want to explore social media but parental mediation usually follows a restrictive style. Using a qualitative approach and multimodal methods, we unpack how children (10–18 years) in a large Indian metropolitan city use TikTok for self-presentation and creative expression while navigating restrictive parental mediation. This article helps gain in-depth understanding of children’s TikTok cultures in India by foregrounding their voices and contributes to larger scholarship on youth digital cultures by focusing on their: (a) vernacular cultures on TikTok, (b) deliberations on safety and wellbeing, and (c) negotiations regarding agency and resistance.

Exposure to Sexually Explicit Materials and Feelings after Exposure among Adolescents in Nine European Countries: The Role of Individual Factors and Social Characteristics

Research on adolescents’ sexual exposure has mostly focused on negcative outcomes using a risk-based lens, and there is little work on the factors that may predict exposure, as well as youths’ emotional responses to sexual content. Using a cross-national sample, the present study examined the associations of individual (sensation seeking and emotional problems) and social characteristics (the quality of family environment, including active and restrictive parental mediation) with adolescents’ exposure to sexually explicit materials and their feelings after exposure. The survey included 8,820 11- to 16-year-olds (Mage = 13.36 years, SD = 1.62, 48.0% male) from nine European countries (Czech Republic, Finland, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland). The results revealed that although there were differences in the prevalence of youths’ sexual exposure by country, there were also similarities in the characteristics underlying exposure and subsequent feelings across different country contexts. No significant relationship was found between active parental mediation and exposure in most countries, and the findings regarding restrictive parental mediation were mixed. Although the majority of the participants reported neutral feelings, there were gender differences in feeling happy and upset after exposure. Overall, the results suggest that exposure may not be as distressing to youth as prevalent risk-focused narratives have suggested.

Sleeping with the smartphone: a panel study investigating parental mediation, adolescents’ tiredness, and physical well-being

ABSTRACT This article seeks to explain the longitudinal associations of taking the smartphone to bed on adolescents’ daytime tiredness and physical well-being. We examined whether parents’: (a) active mediation; and (b) restrictive mediation determines whether children and adolescents have their phones within reach in bed or not. We used longitudinal data from a two-wave panel survey (N Time2 = 384) of early adolescents (10–14 years, M Time2 = 12.37, SD = 1.48, 46.4% girls) and one of their parents (=parent–child dyads) in Germany. A polling company collected the data in a four-month interval in 2018 and 2019, using a quota-sample procedure based on parents’ age and gender. Structural equation modelling revealed that active but not restrictive parental mediation at Time 1 (baseline) negatively predicted adolescents having their smartphones in bed at Time 2 (follow-up). We found that having a smartphone in bed increased adolescents’ daytime tiredness. Daytime tiredness was associated with decreased physical well-being over time. The findings indicate that parents should use active mediation to reduce their children’s use of their smartphones at nighttime to protect their physical well-being from tiredness.

An examination of bedtime media and excessive screen time by Canadian preschoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundRisky media use in terms of accumulating too much time in front of screens and usage before bedtime in early childhood is linked to developmental delays, reduced sleep quality, and unhealthy media use in later childhood and adulthood. For this reason, we examine patterns of media use in pre-school children and the extent to which child and family characteristics contribute to media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA cross-sectional study of digital media use by Canadian preschool-aged children (mean age = 3.45, N = 316) was conducted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic between April and August of 2020. Parents completed a questionnaire and 24-h recall diary in the context of an ongoing study of child digital media use. From these responses we estimated hours of average daily screen time, screen time in the past 24 h, average daily mobile device use, and media use before bedtime. Parents also answered questions about their child (i.e., age, sex, temperament), family characteristics (parental mediation style, parental screen time, education, income), and contextual features of the pandemic (ex., remote work, shared childcare). Daycare closures were directly assessed using a government website.ResultsOur results indicate that 64% of preschoolers used more than 2 h of digital media hours/day on average during the pandemic. A majority (56%) of children were also exposed to media within the hour before bedtime. Logistic and multinomial regressions revealed that child age and temperament, restrictive parental mediation, as well as parent digital media use, education, satisfaction with the division of childcare, remote work, and number of siblings and family income were all correlates of risky digital media use by preschoolers.ConclusionsOur results suggest widespread risky media use by preschoolers during the pandemic. Parenting practices that include using more restrictive mediation strategies may foster benefits in regulating young children’s screen time.

Parental Mediation and Adolescents' Internet Use: The Moderating Role of Parenting Style.

Internet use can be distinguished into different uses (e.g., leisure-related, learning-related), yet comprehensive studies on how different uses are associated with everyday parenting situations are still lacking. This study attempts to locate parental mediation within broader family contexts and simultaneously considers the relationships among general parenting style, media-specific parenting practices, and adolescents’ amount and types of Internet use. Building on survey data collected from 1284 middle school students in China (mean age = 13, SD = 0.79, 48.60% girls), the Latent Profile Analysis identified three child-perceived profiles of general parenting style: slight-engaged, supportive, and rejecting-controller. The subsequent regressions suggested that adolescents with supportive parents reported lower levels of time spent online as well as leisure-related use; more restrictive parental mediation was associated with reduced leisure-related use while more active mediation was associated with more learning-related use. Notably, associations between parental use of active mediation and youth’s amount of Internet use and leisure-related use varied based on parenting style profiles. Only for the supportive parenting profile, more use of active mediation was associated with decreased amount of Internet use as well as leisure-related use. These findings have implications on how parents can be more effective in guiding youth’s Internet use.

Sponsored Influencer Vlogs and Young Viewers: When Sponsorship Disclosure Does not Enhance Advertising Literacy, and Parental Mediation Backfires

Using unique data from 609 parent–daughter (8–16 years of age) dyads, in an online experiment we studied two pivotal antecedents of young viewers’ cognitive advertising literacy: influencer-generated sponsorship disclosure (written and/or spoken) and parental mediation style (active or restrictive). A between-subjects, single-factor design was applied with three experimental conditions: written disclosure, spoken disclosure, and both written and spoken disclosure, and a control condition—no disclosure. Variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling in Smart-PLS 3.0 shows that policy makers’ and parental measures to safeguard young consumers from negative consequences of sponsored vlogs can lead to unanticipated effects. While the combination of written and spoken sponsorship disclosure information as well as an active parental mediation style increase cognitive advertising literacy, restrictive parental mediation negatively affects cognitive advertising literacy. In addition, cognitive advertising literacy negatively affects young viewers’ evaluation of the vlogger and positively affects the attitude toward the sponsored brand. Our findings provide important insights for parents, practitioners, and regulators and contribute to the discussion of how to make influencer marketing more effective and ethical.

Pediatric Media Guidance for Parents of Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Thematic Analysis

ABSTRACT Very little is known about pediatric media guidance, or the one-on-onse advice that medical and clinical professionals (MCPs) communicate to parents about their children’s recreational media and technology (RMT) use. One population that stands to benefit from a closer examination is children on the autism spectrum due to their behavior and communication challenges. We surveyed one group of pediatric autism MCPs, applied behavioral analysis (ABA) providers (N = 234), due to their proximity to families and conducted an applied thematic analysis of RMT advice they deliver. Providers reported primarily suggesting that caregivers employ restrictive parental mediation with their autistic child, that RMT should primarily be limited to use as a reward or reinforcement, and that parents should set time limits. Our findings offer new insights into the intersections of health communication theory and practice, while highlighting the need for greater research into RMT guidance for children with and without disabilities.

The SES-based difference of adolescents’ digital skills and usages: An explanation from family cultural capital

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's framework of cultural capital, the study explored whether family cultural capital contributed to adolescents' digital inequality regarding both digital skills and usages of digital media and could further explain the relationship between social origins and youth's digital diversity. Cultural capital was operationalized as family cultural resources, cultural practices and media-related parenting activities (i.e., active and restrictive mediation). We tested the proposed hypotheses using data collected from 1119 middle school students in China. The results showed that cultural resources, cultural practices and active parental mediation were significant predictors of adolescents' general digital skill, creative skill and educational use of Internet, whereas leisure use of Internet was not explained by family cultural capital. The results also suggested a relatively complex pattern of relationships between restrictive parental mediation and different dimensions of digital inequality. The path analysis further revealed that cultural resources, cultural practices and active mediation were mechanisms underlying the effects of family SES on adolescents' digital practices. The role of family cultural capital in teenagers' digital practices was discussed in the context of media education.

A vicious circle between children’s non-communicative smartphone use and loneliness: Parents cannot do much about it

Children are increasingly using their own smartphones for communicative and non-communicative purposes. In fact, studies showed that different ways of using the smartphone might influence loneliness, and as a consequence, loneliness might also enhance further engagement with the smartphone. In this context, parents play an important role because they can regulate children’s smartphone use. The present study tested the moderating role of active and restrictive parental mediation on the relations between different types of smartphone use and children’s loneliness. We conducted a two-wave panel survey among 10- to 14-year-old children and their parents, resulting in total of 384 parent–child pairs at Time 2. Our results revealed that non-communicative use at Time 1 increased loneliness at Time 2. We also found a reciprocal influence, that is, loneliness at Time 1 increased children’s non-communicative use at Time 2. We found no moderating influence of active and restrictive parental mediation on the relations between children’s smartphone use and loneliness. Our findings are discussed against the background of the poor-get-poorer effect regarding smartphone use.

Sharenting, parental mediation and privacy among Spanish children

The purpose of this article is to analyse sharenting, a relatively widespread practice among Spanish mothers and fathers that involves the publication of comments, images or videos of the lives of their children on social networks or blogs. Even when the actions of parents are well-intended, the information shared may not always set well with their children, and it could expose them to risks. Based on the results of a survey of 2900 Spanish schoolchildren (9–17 years old), their experiences of sharenting have been studied. Nearly one in five say that their parents have shared information about them online. This practice increases with age, affecting girls in particular. Approximately 12% of the children asked their parents to delete this shared information, and negative consequences resulting from this practice, whether direct or indirect, are not common (4%). The association between sharenting and the enabling and restrictive parental mediation strategies has also been analysed. The data show that parents who frequently mediate their children’s online activity share significantly less information. In any case, what stands out is the fact that parents post this information online, which indicates the need for parents to have a higher level of awareness about this issue.

Navigating children’s screen-time at home: narratives of childing and parenting within the familial generational structure

ABSTRACT This article draws upon my qualitative study with 8–12-year-old British Indian children and their professional middle-class parents, to demonstrate the ways in which parental mediation of children’s digital leisure play out within the home. Using the relational lens of ‘generational order’, I identify the ways in which children ‘navigate’ their way around restrictive parental mediation of digital technologies just as parents ‘navigate’ multiple moral discourses emerging from media and policy circles imploring them to curb children’s screen-time. Understanding these ‘navigation’ strategies around children’s digital media use at home throws fresh light on parent–child relations, children’s agency and their imbrications with wider generational structures. I conclude by arguing that greater empirical analyses of the relational aspects of parenting and childing are needed for Childhood Studies to fully appreciate the way generational structures inflect the lived geographies of childhood and parenthood in the context of children’s home-based digital leisure.

“DNT LET ’EM H8 U!”: Applying the routine activity framework to understand cyberhate victimization among adolescents across eight countries

Recent evidence shows that adolescents across the globe are increasingly encountering hateful material on the Internet. However, the factors that lead adolescents to fall victim to cyberhate are still not well understood. To address this gap in the literature and assist media education campaigns in developing theoretically-grounded prevention programs, the present study utilizes Routine Activity Theory to investigate whether witnessing cyberhate (exposure to motivated offenders), parental mediation of Internet use (capable guardianship), and adolescents' online disclosure of private information (target suitability) predict cyberhate victimization among adolescents. Participants consisted of 6829 adolescents ranging in age from 12 to 18 (Mage = 14.93; SD = 1.64) from Cyprus, Germany, Greece, India, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, and the United States. Results showed that witnessing cyberhate was positively correlated with cyberhate victimization. Further, instructive parental mediation was negatively associated with cyberhate victimization, while restrictive parental mediation demonstrated the opposite effect, suggesting that the form of parental mediation matters when attempting to reduce adolescents’ risk for cyberhate victimization. Finally, online disclosure was positively associated with cyberhate victimization. Consequently, the present investigation confirms the usefulness of applying Routine Activity Theory to cyberhate victimization. Furthermore, the findings highlight the need for effective prevention programs. Based on the findings of this study, media education training that equips adolescents with the skills they need to manage cyberhate experiences, increase their critical attitudes about private information they share online, and inform parents to use effective mediation strategies to diminish dangers associated with cyberhate is suggested.

Parenting in Digital Era: a Systematic Literature Review

Abstract Parental care has a significant influence on children’s digital technology use (Ozgur, 2016 ; Valcke, Bonte, De Wever & Rots, 2010). The purpose of this literature review is to know the characteristics of the participants of the articles, the type of measurement, the type of digital parenting and the digital parenting determinant factors. The method used is a systematic literature review. The article search was done online by using the keywords “digital parenting” and/or “parental mediation of internet use”. A total of 20 articles in the period of 2011-2020 were used to carry out this literature review taken from Sagehub, Science Direct, Ebscohost and Proquest Dissertation. The results of the literature review show that most of the participants in these articles are parents who have children from childhood to adolescence and come from Caucasian races. The measuring instrument used in the quantitative approach is a questionnaire on parental mediation of internet use from previous studies or a questionnaire that has been modified according to the research setting. Meanwhile, the interview method and focus group discussion were used for the qualitative approach. The types of parental mediation of internet use that appear are active parental mediation, restrictive parental mediation, monitoring parental mediation, supportive parental mediation, and co-use/co-viewing parental mediation. While the role of parental mediation of internet use is mostly a dependent variable, in several articles it acts as a predictor variable. This shows the existence of internal factors and external factors that affect parental mediation in parents. The results of this literature review can be a foothold for other researchers who are interested in conducting research on digital parenting of parents in children’s digital technology use. Keywords : digital parenting, parental mediation of internet use, parents, adolescence

The role of socialization agents in adolescents’ responses to app-based mobile advertising

This study examines how parents, peers, and media use affect adolescents’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to app-based mobile advertising. A survey conducted with 603 smartphone users aged between 12 and 19 in Singapore suggests that parental factors, particularly control-based restrictive parental mediation, are more influential on younger adolescents than older ones. Findings also demonstrate that adolescents’ susceptibility to normative peer influence makes them less critical about app-based mobile advertising, regardless of their age. Regarding the role of media use, adolescents’ responses to app-based mobile advertising are more a function of perceived smartphone competency than the amount of time spent on smartphones.

Does Parental Mediation Moderate the Longitudinal Association among Bystanders and Perpetrators and Victims of Cyberbullying?

The purpose of the present study was to examine the moderation of parental mediation in the longitudinal association between being a bystander of cyberbullying and cyberbullying perpetration and cyberbullying victimization. Participants were 1067 7th and 8th graders between 12 and 15 years old (51% female) from six middle schools in predominantly middle-class neighborhoods in the Midwestern United States. Increases in being bystanders of cyberbullying was related positively to restrictive and instructive parental mediation. Restrictive parental mediation was related positively to Time 2 (T2) cyberbullying victimization, while instructive parental mediation was negatively related to T2 cyberbullying perpetration and victimization. Restrictive parental mediation was a moderator in the association between bystanders of cyberbullying and T2 cyberbullying victimization. Increases in restrictive parental mediation strengthened the positive relationship between these variables. In addition, instructive mediation moderated the association between bystanders of cyberbullying and T2 cyberbullying victimization such that increases in this form of parental mediation strategy weakened the association between bystanders of cyberbullying and T2 cyberbullying victimization. The current findings indicate a need for parents to be aware of how they can impact adolescents’ involvement in cyberbullying as bullies and victims. In addition, greater attention should be given to developing parental intervention programs that focus on the role of parents in helping to mitigate adolescents’ likelihood of cyberbullying involvement.