Effects of Parenting Styles on Different Addictions-Online Gaming Addiction and Online Shopping Addiction in the Digital Era

The study explores the effects of different parenting styles on online gaming addiction (OGA) and online shopping addiction (OSA) in this digital age. The objective of this study is to investigate other parenting issues that may affect these addictions besides parenting styles and examine the correlations among different parenting styles on these addictions which go viral under the prevalence of digital lifestyle. Based on the four Baumrind parenting styles, this study reviewed a number of research on the effects of OGA and OSA and revealed that there are more parenting styles identified as times change. It also found that positive parenting style is not always significant and may act as negative factor to induce smartphone addiction while acting as a positive factor against OGA. Furthermore, children with special needs like autism should be considered when evaluating the significance of the effects of different parenting styles. This study contributed to the available literature by adding three variables: parenting stress, hours spent online and the gender differences in perceiving different internet parenting styles which may affect the tendency of the onset of OGA and OSA and their interventions.