Date

8-29-2025

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Nathan Borrett

Keywords

Parent-child Internet use, parental style and parental internet mediation, parental mediation, parent-children digital use, Parental skills Internet and Christian advice

Disciplines

Psychology

Abstract

Parental Internet mediation, which is the strategies parents use to control and supervise online content for children, has been transformed into a critical role due to the mixed outcomes of digital use. Baumrind's parental styles and Bandura's Social frameworks guide this study for its connection with parental mediation and children's learning. This qualitative research aimed to explore and describe how parents mediate and use the Internet concerning kids' development. Eleven mothers were interviewed with at least one student enrolled in kindergarten through 5th grade at an elementary school in Killeen, Texas. The data was analyzed using Moustakas's (1994) modification of Van Kaam's procedures. The phenomenological descriptive approach explored parents' Internet mediation (ex., restrictive or flexible) and how parents experience Internet use with their children. The analyzed data revealed three themes: (1) Parental Internet Mediation Time Variation, (2) Parental Internet Mediation Motives, and (3) Parental-Child Internet Uses. The results revealed restrictive Internet mediation during weekdays, flexible mediation on weekends, and parental awareness of negative children's digital usage as a parental mediation motive. The most common parent-child Internet use reported was watching streaming apps. The study advises parents to reflect on Christian beliefs, as a foundation for practicing effective Internet mediation. The study suggests considering parental culture type to extend understanding of parental Internet mediation in future research.

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