skip to main content


Title: Digital parenting divides: the role of parental capital and digital parenting readiness in parental digital mediation
Abstract

This study investigates digital parenting divides, or how parents' strategies for regulating their children’s online activities differ based on their available resources and digital parenting readiness (i.e., digital parenting self-efficacy, attitudes, and knowledge). We conducted a survey of 530 parents that reflected the composition of the U.S. population to explore how parents’ resources and digital parenting readiness predict their digital mediation strategies. The results indicate that parents’ economic, social, and cultural resources, as well as their digital parenting readiness, play a significant role in how they approach digital mediation. Furthermore, digital parenting readiness has emerged as an underlying mechanism explaining the relationship between parental resources and parental mediation strategies. The presence of digital parenting divides highlights the need for tailored interventions to support parents in effectively using digital mediation strategies based on their family’s circumstances.

 
more » « less
NSF-PAR ID:
10445323
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Oxford University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume:
28
Issue:
5
ISSN:
1083-6101
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Parental mediation is a key factor that influences adolescents’ exposure to online risk. Yet, research on this topic has mostly been cross-sectional and correlative, not exploring whether the relationship between parental mediation and adolescent online risk exposure could be bi-directional, where teens’ risk exposure influences parenting practices. To address this gap, we conducted an eight week, repeated measures web-based diary study with 68 adolescents (aged 13–17) and their parents to examine the relationships between three parental mediation strategies (active mediation, monitoring, and restriction) and three adolescent online risk types (explicit content, sexual solicitations, and online harassment) teens reported encountering online. 
    more » « less
  2. Objectives: Recognizing that immigrant parents socialize their children in specific ways, the current study examines Mexican-origin families’ parental socialization profiles using both parental cultural socialization and general parenting dimensions. We seek to understand how these dimensions interact to form culturally grounded parental socialization profiles in a sample of Mexican-origin parents and adolescents. Method: There were 604 adolescents, 595 mothers, and 293 fathers within Mexican-origin families self-reporting on 2 cultural socialization dimensions (respeto, independence) and 4 general parenting dimensions (warmth, hostility, monitoring, reasoning). Adolescent outcomes were assessed 1 year later. Results: Latent profile analysis revealed eight parental socialization profiles representing distinct combinations of cultural socialization and parenting dimensions. Relative to other profiles, the Integrative-Authoritative profile (high on socialization toward respeto and independence; high on warmth, monitoring, and reasoning; and relatively low on hostility) was the most common parenting pattern and was also associated with more optimal adolescent outcomes. Conclusion: Examining cultural socialization alongside general parenting dimensions can better capture parental socialization strategies among Mexican-origin parents. The various parental socialization profiles that characterize Mexican-origin parents have important implications for adolescent outcomes. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract Objective

    The study explored the mediating role of Chinese American parents' ethnic–racial identity (ERI) in linking their discrimination experiences, ethnic–racial socialization (ERS), and their children's mental health, testing whether neighborhood racial diversity and perceived Chinese density moderated these mediation paths.

    Background

    During COVID‐19, Chinese American families faced increased discrimination, impacting their mental well‐being. However, few studies have examined how parents' discrimination experiences influence their ERI, ERS practice, and ultimately their children's mental health difficulties.

    Method

    Data from 294 Chinese immigrant parents (Mage = 44.28, 79% female) were collected in two waves, 2020 and 2021. Path analysis tested if parental discrimination affects their ERI and ERS, and children's mental health. Multigroup analysis assessed if mediation models varied for families living in communities with low versus high racial diversity or Chinese density.

    Results

    Parental racism‐related stress at T1 had significant indirect effects on parental ERS practices (higher use of maintenance of heritage culture and lower use of avoidance of outgroups practice) at T2 via parental ERI (greater private regard) at T2. Parental racial discrimination (perceived sinophobia in the media and racism‐related stress) at T1 had significant indirect effects on children's mental health difficulties at T2 via parental ERS practices (use of maintenance of heritage culture and avoidance of outgroups practices) at T2. The neighborhood racial diversity moderated the mediation model.

    Conclusion

    These findings advance the understanding of both individual (i.e., parental ERI) and contextual factors (i.e., neighborhood racial diversity) in the complex associations between parents' discrimination experiences and children's mental health difficulties.

     
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Objective

    Our goal was to illuminate associations between specific characteristics of under‐resourced neighborhoods (i.e., socioeconomic deprivation, danger) and specific aspects of parenting (e.g., parental praise, parental nurturance, harsh parenting, and parental control).

    Background

    Prior work has highlighted associations between level of neighborhood disadvantage and the parenting of its residents. However, this work has yet to clarify the specific characteristics of the neighborhood or the types of parenting involved.

    Method

    Exhaustive modeling analyses were conducted in a sample of 1030 families of twins (average age 8 years; 51% male, 49% female; the racial composition was 82% White, 10% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Indigenous, 6% multiracial) from the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development in Children. Neighborhood and parenting were assessed using multiple informants and assessment strategies (neighborhood informants, family informants, administrative data, and videotaped parent–child interactions).

    Results

    Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation (i.e., limited institutional and economic structural resources) demonstrated small but consistent negative associations with positive parenting behaviors and maternal control, but not with negative parenting behaviors. Neighborhood danger (i.e., recorded crime, fear of crime, exposure to community violence), by contrast, demonstrated weaker associations with parenting that dissipated once we controlled for overlap with socioeconomic deprivation.

    Conclusion

    Danger and socioeconomic deprivation do not function as interchangeable characteristics of under‐resourced neighborhoods, at least in terms of their association with positive parenting. Future studies should identify the specific mechanisms through which neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated with less nurturing parenting.

     
    more » « less
  5. null (Ed.)
    The current study investigates how and under what conditions family obligation benefits Mexican American adolescents’ adjustment. The study used two waves of data from 604 Mexican American adolescents (54.3% female, Mage.wave1 = 12.41 years, SD = 0.97) and their parents. Structural equation modeling revealed that both adolescents’ and parents’ sense of family obligation related to more supportive parenting (i.e., parental monitoring, warmth, and inductive reasoning), which linked to better adolescent adjustment (i.e., sense of life meaning, resilience, and grades). There were parent gender differences: Adolescents’ family obligation was more strongly related to their reports of maternal (vs. paternal) parenting. The links also varied across informants for parenting: (a) individuals’ sense of family obligation related only to their own perceptions of parenting and (b) there were more evident associations between adolescent-reported (vs. parent-reported) parenting and adolescent outcomes. 
    more » « less