Online Parental Mediation: Associations of Family Members’ Characteristics to Individual Engagement in Active Mediation and Monitoring

Abstract

This study focuses on two strategies for online parental mediation: active mediation (sharing and discussing activities with children) and monitoring (checking the children’s internet activity after use). Previous studies have shown the importance of respondents’ and children’s characteristics regarding mediation strategies. Using a socioecological model of parenting, this study also considers the characteristics of the other parent in the family. An online survey was conducted of Czech parents of children who are 5 to 17 years old. The results for active meditation show that respondents’ and partners’ characteristics (gender, internet skills, and ability to help children with online problems) play a role, while the children’s characteristics (age, gender and online activities) do not. A different pattern was found for monitoring: the children’s and the respondents’ characteristics predicted monitoring, but the partners’ characteristics did not. The study shows that the socioecological perspective can be effectively applied to online mediation.