Reflections of the digital environment on family Education - the need for parent empowerment

Abstract

The intensive use of digital technology by children affected already complicated parenting roles, resulting in new responsibilities and particularities in parent-child interaction. In contemporary literature, this is conceptualized through the phenomenon of digital parenting. With this research, we aimed to examine parents’ perception of their empowerment to engage in digital parenting and mediate their children’s use of digital technology. We examined parents’ attitudes towards technology and the risks and potentials of using technology by children; how parents perceive children’s digital literacy; and whether they recognize their role in the process of children’s digital literacy development. Our focus was on their empowerment to “be parents” to children in the digital age, and how confident they feel to deal with the challenges brought by the digital environment. The findings indicate that while the majority of parents estimate that they are empowered enough to monitor and regulate their children’s interactions with digital technology, some parents claim that they need additional support or training to manage and control their children’s digital activities.

Intenzivna upotreba digitalnih tehnologija od strane dece dovela je do usložnjavanja roditeljskih uloga i proizvela nove odgovornosti i specifičnosti u interakciji roditelja i deteta. U savremenoj literaturi, to je konceptualizovano kroz fenomen digitalnog roditeljstva. Ovim istraživanjem imali smo za cilj da ispitamo percepcije roditelja o sopstvenoj osnaženosti da se uključe u digitalno roditeljstvo i posreduju u korišćenju digitalne tehnologije od strane dece. Ispitivali smo stavove roditelja prema tehnologiji uopšte, kao i rizicima i potencijalima korišćenja tehnologije od strane dece; kako roditelji vide digitalnu pismenost dece i da li prepoznaju sopstvenu ulogu u procesu razvijanja digitalne pismenosti kod dece. Akcenat smo stavili na saznanje o percepcijama roditelja o njihovoj osnaženosti da „budu roditelji“ deci u digitalnom dobu i koliko se osećaju sigurnim da se izbore sa izazovima koje donosi digitalno okruženje. Dobijeni podaci ukazuju na to da iako većina roditelja procenjuje da su dovoljno osnaženi da prate i regulišu interakcije svoje dece sa digitalnom tehnologijom, postoje i oni kojima je potrebna dodatna podrška ili obuka u vezi sa načinima regulisanja i usmeravanja dečjih digitalnih aktivnosti.