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Parents’ Internet Use, Communication Style Influences Teens’ Use
Limiting an adolescent’s screen time may not deter problematic internet usage (PIU), a recent study found. Rather, teens’ internet use is influenced by parents’ own habits and an open parent-child dialogue.
PIU is defined as having excessive, impulsive or risky internet use that leads to negative physical and mental health consequences.
Researchers wanted to evaluate parents’ role in preventing PIU in their children. To do so, they analyzed surveys of 4,558 adolescents ages 12-18 years and 4,568 parents.
Teens and their parents completed a screening tool that measured PIU and reported parenting rules regarding internet content and time. Adolescents also completed a scale that measured the quality of communication with their parents/guardians regarding internet use.
Results showed nearly 70% of adolescents and 61.4% of parents met the criteria for PIU. In addition, 87% of parents with PIU had an adolescent with PIU compared to 42% of parents without PIU.
Questions regarding parenting practices found the combination of leniency on the content children were allowed to consume and stricter rules about screen time made it more likely adolescents had PIU. In addition, higher adolescent PIU was associated with lower quality of parent communication regarding the internet.
“Thus, findings support that simply advising parents to implement internet-specific time limitations or ‘screen time rules’ alone may not be as beneficial as focusing on parent-child relationships and high-quality communication around internet behavior,” the authors wrote.
They noted that the survey population may not be representative of low-frequency internet users, and the sample has a higher prevalence of PIU than similar studies.
“When providing internet-related anticipatory guidance and intervention for adolescent PIU, health providers should consider the potential impact of parent internet use habits and parent-child relationship and communication,” the researchers concluded.
Sources:
American Academy of Pediatrics
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