Active and restrictive parental mediation as the predictors of adolescents’ excessive Internet use

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relevance of parents’ active and restrictive mediation of children’s online behaviour. The data collected in 2018 in the EU Kids Online survey in Serbia on a nationally representative sample of children aged 9 to 17 years (N = 1,150) were used. The SEM model is used to test the possible relationships between parental strategies and excessive internet use (EIU) by examining the paths from active/restrictive practices to EIU (1) through limiting the time spent online and (2) through increasing digital skills. The analysis has shown that both active and restrictive parenting lowers EIU by reducing the time spent online. Restrictive mediation is more strongly related to lowering the time spent online, but, unlike active parenting, it decreases children’s digital skills as well