Quality Parent–Child Relationships: The Role of Parenting Style and Online Relational Maintenance Behaviors

Abstract

This study examined the quality of parent–child relationships as a function of both parenting style and online relational maintenance behaviors. Five hundred and four parents completed measures of relationship quality (parental support, relational depth, parent–child conflict), parenting style (authoritarian, permissive, authoritative), and online relational maintenance behaviors (planning behaviors, comforting messages, material sharing); paired adolescents also assessed the quality of their parent–child relationships. A structural equation analysis evaluated a model in which parenting style predicted online relational maintenance behaviors that, in turn, predicted the quality of parent–child relationships. Results indicated partial support for our hypotheses.