Exploration of Parents’ Digital Parenting Efficacy through Several Demographic Variables
Publication details
| Year: | 2019 |
| DOI: | 10.15390/eb.2019.7897 |
| Issued: | 2019 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 44 |
| Start Page: | 149 |
| End Page: | 172 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Yaman F.; Dönmez O.; Akbulut Y.; Kabakçı Yurdakul I.; Çoklar A.; Güyer T. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | TED EĞİTİM VE BİLİM |
| Publisher: | Turkish Education Association |
| Topics: | Literacy and skills; Social mediation |
| Sample: | In each phase of the study, the data were collected from different participant groups. In the first phase, a workshop was organized to determine what efficacies parents need to foster digital citizens. From government and non-profit organizations, a group of officials advocating online safety for kids were invited to the workshop. The information regarding the workshop participants’ institutions and areas of expertise is listed below: - Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication (1 participant) - Ministry of Family and Social Policies (1 participant) - Child and Information Security Association (1 participant) - Cyber Crime Enforcement Department Office (2 participants) - Guidance and Research Center (1 participant) - Anadolu University, Faculty of Law (1 participant) The data for the EFA phase were collected from the parents who resided in the main district of Eskisehir province, had children in secondary school, and had Internet access at home. The rationale for choosing the parents of middle school student was that middle school students are more likely to encounter risks as their access to digital technologies increase during middle school years and they reach puberty (RTÜK, 2013). In doing so, six schools from different educational regions of the main district were identified. A total of 1200 copies of the draft scale were distributed to the parents and 587 forms were returned. During the initial screening of the forms, 67 forms were excluded from analysis due to validity issues such as monotonous responding (responding to all items with the same answer, e.g. marking only 1, 3 or 5), providing multiple answers for a single item, pattern coding, missing answers, and not using the Internet. Remaining 520 forms were used in the EFA. Considering the indirect way of reaching out to parents (counselor teachers and information technology teachers gave the forms to students, the students then gave the forms to their parents, and finally students returned the forms on behalf of their parents), the response rate was regarded as normal. Küçük, Aydemir, Yıldırım, Arpacık, and Göktaş (2013) reported that the overall response rate was around 13% for survey studies with more than 300 participants. Besides, the proportion of empirical studies in the field was about 1% when parents were the main participant group (Baydas, Kucuk, Yilmaz, Aydemir, & Goktas, 2015; Küçük et al., 2013). Considering such trends in the relevant literature, the response rate of the current study (43.3%) was considered plausible. |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Researchers; Industry |
Abstract
As digital technologies develop, they provide individuals with new opportunities in various areas of daily life. However, these technologies also bring about some potential risks. Through digital technologies, several risks including but not limited to malicious content, cyberbullying, pornography, and sexually-explicit messages can easily reach out to households. The most vulnerable group for such risks is the children. As parents are primarily responsible for the well-being of their children, they have an important role in protecting the children in the digital environment. Parents need to get acquainted with the digital age so that they could protect their children from the risks pertaining to the use of digital technologies. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to identify digital parenting efficacy domains and their indicators, and (b) to examine parents’ efficacy levels in terms of some demographic variables through a measure based on the identified indicators. The study was survey research with two phases. In the first phase, based on a literature review and a focus group interview with experts, digital parenting efficacy fields and their indicators were identified. In the second phase, a digital parenting self-efficacy scale was developed and administered to 576 parents in Eskişehir region to explore the participants’ self-efficacy levels based on parenting roles, internet use, income level, occupation, and educational level. The digital parenting competencies and their indicators used in the scale development process consisted of seven dimensions. Through the participation of separate samples of parents, the factorial structure of the scale was examined through exploratory (n=520) and confirmatory factor analyses (n=556). After construct validity steps, indicators were gathered under three factors as digital literacy, digital safety, and digital communication. These indicators did not differ based on parents’ role in the process, internet use, socio-economic status, occupation, and level of education.
Outcome
"The parents’ perceived level of digital parenting self-efficacy was examined in terms of parenting role, internet use experience, income, occupation, and educational level. Results indicated that parenting role did not have a significant effect on any one of the digital parenting dimensions." (Yaman et al., 2019, p.168)