PARENTING STYLE AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION AMONG KASHMIRI ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Adolescence is the most vulnerable stage of life, and children at this age require greater parental attention, care, love, and support. In today's world, young minds spend a lot of time on the internet. One of the simplest approaches is to use social media, which incorporates media and social connectivity sites. Social networking has become an important element of many young people's life nowadays. The majority of people use social media without thinking about the influence it has on their lives, whether positive or negative. We are more concerned with our virtual friends than the folks with whom we interact on a daily basis in today's techno-culture. Parenting is a complex and diverse task that entails a number of different behaviors that interact to influence children's prospects both individually and collectively (Darling, 1999). The current study aimed to examine parenting style and adolescent social media addiction. According to the findings, Kashmiri adolescents are subjected to authoritarian parenting approaches and are moderately addicted to social media. Male and female adolesc ents were found equally addicted to social media but the difference on the basis of locale (urban vs rural) and type of family (joint vs nuclear) was found to be significant.