Parents vs peers’ influence on teenagers’ Internet addiction and risky online activities

• Published in: Telematics and informatics Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 225 - 236
• Main Authors: Soh, Patrick Chin-Hooi, Chew, Kok Wai, Koay, Kian Yeik, Ang, Peng Hwa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-04-2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Addictions; Adolescents; Children; Continuity (mathematics); Digital media; Internet; Internet addiction; Malaysia; Parent attachment; Parental mediation; Parents; Parents & parenting; Peer attachment; Risky online activities; Teenagers; Virtual environments; Young people; Malaysia; Parent attachment; Risky online activities; Malaysia; Parental mediation; Peer attachment; Internet addiction
• ISSN: 0736-5853; 1879-324X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tele.2017.11.003

•Supports Compensatory–Competition model, but not Continuity-Cognitive model.•Parents are competing with peers to influence teenagers’ Internet addiction.•Peers encourage youths’ Internet addiction, while parents counteracts against it.•Parent-child attachment does not influence children’s risky online activities.•Parents need to play an active role in mediating their teenagers’ online activitie.•Parents’ mediation counteracts Internet addiction and risky online activities.
An integral part of the daily lives of adolescents revolves around the Internet. Adolescents are vulnerable online because of a combination of their natural innocence, sensation-seeking drive coupled with the current digital media landscape and its manifold affordances for interactivity, immersive virtual environments and social networking. Adolescence is a time of transition in which youths progressively venture from the safety of the home to explore new opportunities. In this phase of life, both parents and peers play a critical role in either instigating or mitigating risky and dangerous activities. This study examines in the context of youth’s online risky activities, whether the compensatory-competition model or the continuity-cognitive model prevails. This study also explores whether the engagement of parental mediation activities mitigates or compounds the situation. A Partial Least Squares Equation analysis of a stratified random survey of 2000 Malaysian school children between 13 and 15-year-old controlling for age and gender, found that peer-attachment competes with parent attachment for the influence of teenagers’ risky online activities and Internet addiction. Parental influence is stronger when parents actively engage in mediating the online activities of their teenagers. On balance, parents can have more influence on teenagers than their peers.