Author:

Keywords:

Parental mediation, Internet use, Adolescents, Multi-actor, Social Sciences, Psychology, Multidisciplinary, Psychology, internet use, adolescents, multi-actor, RESTRICTIVE MEDIATION, CHILDREN, STYLES, ONLINE, DETERMINANTS, AWARENESS, STRESS, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Experimental Psychology, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

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.