Parents' concerns over internet use, their engagement in interaction restrictions, and adolescents' behavior on social networking sites

Little is known about parents motivations to engage in Internet mediation nor about how parents may influence each others Internet mediation practices. The present study uses triadic data, with reports from the mother, the father, and the adolescent child from the same family (N = 357). Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied for testing the relationship between parents concerns over Internet risks, parents engagement in mediation practices, and the adolescents engagement in risk behavior on social network sites (SNSs). Parents risk perception was not related to mediation practices, but the mothers risk perception had a positive effect on the fathers engagement in parental mediation. Parental mediation predicted less online contact with strangers by the adolescent. The results show that both parents contribute individually to their adolescent childs safe Internet use, which stresses the importance of involving both parents in parental mediation research.

Publication year:2020

Keywords:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:2

CSS-citation score:2

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open