A Factorial Validation of Parental Mediation Strategies with Regard to Internet Use

Abstract

This study investigated the strategies which parents employ in order to mediate their adolescent child’s internet use, thereby including the perspectives from the mother, the father and an adolescent child aged 13 to 18. Data from 357 families (n = 1071) were analyzed. Parental mediation strategies were inductively derived from a wide range of concrete mediation practices. Factor analysis yielded the same six factor solution for each informant, resulting in the identification of six distinct parental mediation strategies. Differences occurred between the three informants in terms of the quantity of mediation taking place. Parental mediation was predicted by the child’s age, but less by the parents’ age and the child’s gender.

Mediating social media use: Connecting parents’ mediation strategies and social media literacy

“…The interviewed parents mostly used the same parental mediation strategies to moderate their adolescents' social media use as mentioned in previous research on digital media and internet use of adolescents and children (Livingstone et al, 2011;Symons et al, 2017;Zaman et al, 2016). Active or interpretative mediation with regard to risks and safety on social media platforms is used most often.…”

“…Previous research within the field of parental mediation has determined different strategies parents use to mediate children and adolescents television (Warren, 2001), internet Symons et al, 2017), digital game (Nikken & Jansz, 2006) and digital media use (Zaman et al, 2016). As a first objective, the current study investigated how parents engage in parental mediation regarding their adolescents' social media use, and whether they corresponded with mediation strategies used with other types of media.…”

“…Likewise, previous research posited several factors influencing the decision of which mediation strategies to use, including gender and age of the children (Nikken & Jansz, 2014;Symons et al, 2017), general media use and attitudes towards media (Nikken & Jansz, 2006), and contextual factors (Zaman et al, 2016). As a second goal, the present study explored how parents' social media literacy (i.e., the technical and cognitive competencies needed to efficiently use social media; see Vanwynsberghe et al, 2015) relates to the decision for a certain mediation strategy.…”

“…We assumed that some of the strategies from previous research Symons et al, 2017;Zaman et al, 2016) could also be used for adolescents' social media use. For instance, as communication through social media is deinstitutionalized and interactive (Bechmann & Lomborg, 2013), distant mediation and especially supervision would be a good fit to mediate social media use because of the agency and freedom adolescents experience while using social media.…”

“…Sociodemographic factors for instance can impact that choice (Livingstone & Helsper, 2008). Age of the child is a very important factor, with young children tending to be more on the receiving end of restrictive mediation than older ones (Nikken & Jansz, 2014;Symons et al, 2017). Gender of the child sometimes has an effect on the choice of mediation, for instance with girls often being more restricted in their media use than boys .…”