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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Media parenting practices
• gender differences
• parent–adolescent differences
• validation study
• Chinese

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jiutong Luo

Jiutong Luo is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education and Center for Educational Science and Technology, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, China. He received his PhD in Education from the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include educational technology and psychology, children and youth studies, and developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Pui-Sze Yeung

Pui-sze Yeung is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the links between cognitive-linguistic skills and reading and writing development among Chinese children with and without developmental dyslexia. Her research also examines reading and writing motivation in Chinese children and adolescents.

Hui Li

Hui Li is Dean and Chair Professor of Shanghai Institute of Early Childhood, Shanghai Normal University, and Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Macquarie University. His research interests include (but are not limited to) developmental cognitive neuroscience, developmental psycholinguistics, early literacy and bilingualism, curriculum and pedagogy, policy, school leadership, and teacher education.