Gender and parent–adolescent differences in perceived media parenting: Evidence from a Chinese validation study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Parents and children often have different perceptions of parenting practices and we have limited knowledge on this issue regarding the media parenting practices. In this study, we aimed to examine the gender (male vs. female) and parent-adolescent differences in perceived media parenting in Chinese society. Adolescents (N = 737, Mean age = 14.71, SD = 1.40; 56.3% girls) and their parents (N = 702, 62.5% mothers) were sampled and invited to complete a newly developed Media Parenting Practices Scale (MPPS), resulting in a total of 486 matched families (with 272 girls and 293 mothers). The results confirmed the five latent constructs of MPPS with appropriate psychometric evidence: restriction, involvement, modeling, supervision, and reward. The between-group analysis identified significant gender differences in perceived media parenting between fathers and mothers and between boys and girls. The paired-sample t-test revealed significant parent – adolescent differences, with parents reporting significantly higher levels of media parenting practices than their adolescents. Impact Summary Prior State of Knowledge: Parents often use different strategies to mediate and mitigate the negative effects of the media in their children’s lives. However, there is still a lack of common terminologies to describe media parenting practices that address the recent media prevalence among adolescents. Moreover, it is also unknown whether there are significant gender differences (i.e., father-mother, boy-girl) and parent-adolescent regarding the media parenting practices. Novel Contributions: This study contributes a newly developed five-dimensional media parenting practices scale (MPPS), which includes restriction, involvement, modeling, supervision, and reward, and further reveals the differences in each sub-dimension between gender and parent-adolescent within the Chinese context. Practical Implications:This study has implications for scholars, parents, and their adolescents. On the one hand, the five-dimensional scale offers a new framework for them to examine media parenting behaviors. On the other hand, the differences found between gender and parent-adolescent called for further attention to the potential consequences.