Perceived parenting styles and levels of internet usage

Abstract

This study was designed to demonstrate how children and parents perceive parenting styles concerning Internet use and how these styles affect children's Internet use as they grow up. The researchers use the quantitative data-collection technique. The present research was conducted to determine whether there is a significant relationship between the perceived parenting styles of college students on their level of Internet usage. Also, as well as identifying if there are significant differences in the level of Internet use when analyzed by sex and time spent online. The study found out that there is no significant relationship between the perceived parenting style and levels of Internet usage; that is, no specific style of parenting promotes or discourages Internet use. Also, upon gathering the data, it appeared that young adults mostly perceived their parents as having the style of both authoritarian and authoritative parenting. Also, there was no significant difference in the level of Internet users when analyzed by sex, which means that males or females cannot determine the level of an individual's Internet use. In general, our findings should be interpreted with caution, since only university students were included in the sample. More researches are needed to establish the structural validity of the instrument with more substantial and diverse samples of the participants.