Parental Digital Mediation and Its Association with the Psychological Well-Being in School-Age Children

Abstract

Digital parental mediation has emerged as a result of the increasing popularity of electronic technologies and their active use in the education of children. Recent research on digital parental mediation highlights the various characteristics that define parental support and control over a child’s digital activity. This study is aimed at determining the relationship between digital parental mediation (parental control and parental support) and the psychological well-being (self-satisfaction and subjective happiness) of adolescents. The characteristics of digital mediation (control and support) are assumed to have opposing effects on the psychological well-being of schoolchildren. The study sample consisted of 4,011 teenagers aged 13 to 15 (M = 14.07, SD = 0.76), 42% of whom were male. In the course of the study, the Digital Parental Mediation Questionnaire, the I myself scale from the questionnaire, the Multidimensional Scale of Student Life Satisfaction, and the Scale of Subjective Happiness were utilized. Statistical processing involved exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, correlation and regression analyses. As a result, it was confirmed that parental control and support of a child’s digital activity are related, but their effects on psychological well-being vary. Thus, parental support increases a teenager’s satisfaction and happiness, whereas parental control decreases them. This effect is more pronounced in younger adolescents.