Parental Supervision: Predictive Variables of Positive Involvement in Cyberbullying Prevention

Abstract

From an increasingly early age, parents face the challenge of educating their sons and daughters to act in the world of offline and online relationships. If for professional educators it is not proving easy, the involvement and guidance of parents in their children′s use of the internet seems to be a complex and unexplored challenge. This work aims to analyse the variables that influence digital education and determine a predictive model of positive parental involvement. This study was done with a representative sample consisting of five hundred and ninety-six families (596), representing the parents of children from schools with similar socio-cultural indexes. To do this, and using self-report instruments convertible into independent scales, four predictor variables were analysed: (1) parental knowledge of cyberbullying; (2) perception of parental competence in this regard; (3) parental perception of online risks; and (4) the attribution of parental responsibility in digital education. A structural equations model (SEM) examined the predictive value of these variables with respect to positive parental involvement. The structural equations model confirmed direct and mediated relationships between the independent and mediating variables on the dependent variable: parental supervision. The results indicate that positive parental involvement can be predicted from higher scores in parental knowledge of cyberbullying, perception of parental competence, risk adjustment, and attribution of parental responsibility.