Developing scales to measure parental mediation of young children's internet use
Keywords
young children
internet
parental mediation
social networking
casual gaming
Publication details
| Year: | 2014 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/17439884.2013.782038 |
| Issued: | 2013 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 39 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page: | 250 |
| End Page: | 266 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Nikken P.; Jansz J. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Learning, Media and Technology |
| Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
| Topics: | Social mediation |
| Sample: | " Overall, 3675 parents agreed to cooperate, of whom 1079 fell within our criteria as they had at least one child aged between 2 and 12. These 1097 parents all responded, although 287 (26.6%) had children who never used the internet. The other 792 parents (73.4%) reported that their children are online on a regular basis and make up the representative sample of parents in this study. The sample included slightly more mothers (53.2%) than fathers. The average age was 40.1 varying from 20 up to 55 years. The parents reported slightly more often about their daughters (51.1%) than their sons. The average age of the children was 8.8 years (SD ¼ 2.7). " (Nikken & Janz, 2014, p. 255) |
Abstract
With children using digital media at ever younger ages, media-education becomes a pressing issue for parents. As there is hardly any research on how parents guide the online activities of toddlers and young children an internet-survey was held among 792 Dutch parents of children aged between 2 and 12 years. Factor analysis revealed that for the internet, parents partly use the same strategies they also apply for television and video games: ‘co-use’, ‘active mediation’, and ‘restrictive mediation’. In addition, they also utilise new strategies: ‘supervision’ and ‘technical safety guidance’. Mediation was mainly predicted by the child’s age and online behaviour (e.g., gaming, social networking), as well as by the
number of computers in the home and the parents’ gender, education and computer/internet skills. Finally, parents also use more mediation when they expect that the internet has a positive effect and particularly when they believe that it has a negative impact.
Outcome
Factor analysis revealed that for the internet, parents partly use the same strategies they also apply for television and video games: ‘co-use’, ‘active mediation’, and ‘restrictive mediation’. In addition, they also utilise new strategies: ‘supervision’ and ‘technical
safety guidance’. Mediation was mainly predicted by the child’s age and online behaviour (e.g., gaming, social networking), as well as by the number of computers in the home and the parents’ gender, education and computer/internet skills. Finally, parents also use more mediation when they expect that the internet has a positive effect and particularly when
they believe that it has a negative impact.