Conceptualization, measurement, predictors, outcomes, and interventions in digital parenting research: A comprehensive umbrella review

Abstract

Digital parenting is being enacted in a rapidly digitalized context and it impacts different children's outcomes. The present study employs an umbrella review involving 31 reviews to derive insights on different aspects of relationships between digital parenting and child development. Results showed that digital parenting had been conceptualized as comprising three dimensions (parental mediation, parents' use of digital technologies, and parents' role-modeling the use of digital technologies) that encompassed what parents did at home and for supporting their children's school learning. Parents and children's media-related variables (e.g., attitudes, technological access and skills) predicted the enactment of digital parenting. Digital parenting was inextricably related to general parenting in that it extended general parenting in the digital environment and it facilitated general parenting. Research was characterized by the use of cross-sectional designs, examination of either a single or multiple aspects of digital parenting, the use of parent or child self-reported perceptions, and the application of exploratory factor analytical approaches. Digital parenting impacted children's online behaviors, exposure to online risks, psychological and emotional wellbeing, digital literacy, and privacy protection. The present study contributes to the scholarship by providing a comprehensive conceptualization of digital parenting, underscoring the protective and promotive functions of digital parenting in child development, and highlighting the need for methodological enhancements in the measurement of digital parenting. It also identifies areas in digital parenting research where the evidence has been mixed or inadequate and therefore, points the way forward for future research.