Associations between parental mediation and adolescents' internet addiction: The role of parent–child relationship and adolescents' grades

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Xiaojing Li¹  Ying Ding²  Xianchun Bai¹  Lisha Liu³ 

[1] Chinese Academy of Disability Data Science, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education;Bio-X Institutes, Key Laboratory for the Genetics of Development and Neuropsychiatric Disorders ,(Ministry of Education), Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science and Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University;Center for Teacher Education Research, Beijing Normal University, Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences in Universities, Ministry of Education of China

关键词: adolescents;    Internet addiction;    parental mediation;    Father-child relationship;    Mother-Child Relationship;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1061631

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Family factors such as parental mediation on Internet use and parent-child relationships had been shown to play a crucial role in preventing adolescents’ Internet addiction. Previous studies have shown change in characteristics of online risk during adolescents’ development. However, it is still of great interest whether such difference applied in the relationship among parent-child relationship, different types of parental mediation and adolescents’ Internet addiction level. In this study, we investigated the associations between different types of parental mediation and adolescents’ Internet addiction level and how the association was mediated by father- and mother-child relationship. We further investigated whether mediating effect differ between primary and middle school children. Results from a sample of 3026 school children aged 9-14 years (M = 11.56, SD = 0.71; 55.25% primary school adolescents, 44.75% secondary school adolescents) showed that (1) The Internet addiction level and intensity of parental mediation was higher among primary school adolescents than secondary school adolescents. (2) Parental active mediation and monitoring on Internet use was associated with reduced and increased adolescents’ Internet addiction. (3) Father-child relationship had stronger partial mediating effects on the relationships between parental mediation and adolescents’ Internet addiction than mother-child relationship. (4) The relationships among parental mediation, parent-child relationship and Internet addiction were more pronounced among primary school adolescents than secondary school adolescents. These findings suggest that good father-child relationship and adequate parental mediation approach, such as active mediation, may contribute to reduction of Internet addiction risk in adolescents, especially in primary school adolescents.

【 授权许可】

CC BY