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Family Dynamics in Digital Homes: The Role Played by Parental Mediation in Young Children’s Digital Practices Around 14 European Countries

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Abstract

In contemporary society, digital media are fully integrated in our daily lives, indispensable for our routines, always connected and at-hand. Our research thus explores the parental mediation of portable digital devices in families with young children, addressing the following questions: (a) which are the most common parental mediation styles adopted towards young children; and (b) which individual features of the parents or contextual factors influence the parental mediation style adopted. Our methodology is exploratory and qualitative, considering as empirical corpus 14 national reports from the European-scale study “Young Children (0–8) and Digital Technologies” for a comparative thematic analysis. The authoritative style was the most common parental mediation style related to technology use. In general, there are transversal rules to all parental mediation styles (except laissez-faire style), such as withdraw or give devices to children according to their behavior, control (inappropriate) content and control the time of use. Also, parental perceptions and attitudes about the technologies played a heavier weight on the parental mediation style adopted, and consequently influenced the relationship of the children with digital media. Some implications for future studies, preventive actions, and family therapy are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UIDEF – Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rita Brito

  2. Faculdade de Ciências Humanas, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Palma de Cima, 1649-023, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rita Francisco & Patrícia Dias

  3. Research Center for Psychological Science (CICPSI), Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rita Francisco

  4. Research Centre for Communication and Culture, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Patrícia Dias

  5. Joint Research Center, European Commission, Ispra, Italy

    Stephane Chaudron

Authors
  1. Rita Brito
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  2. Rita Francisco
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  3. Patrícia Dias
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  4. Stephane Chaudron
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Correspondence to Patrícia Dias.

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Brito, R., Francisco, R., Dias, P. et al. Family Dynamics in Digital Homes: The Role Played by Parental Mediation in Young Children’s Digital Practices Around 14 European Countries. Contemp Fam Ther 39, 271–280 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-017-9431-0

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