Roadblocks and resistance: Digital mediation as a process of calibration among U.S. parents of adolescents

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research in parental mediation often focuses on how parents’ practices for managing digital media are aligned with normative expectations. However, there is less research that explores parental mediation as a process, with practices changing over time in response to barriers and challenges. To address this gap, the goal of the current study is to examine parents’ decisions around not monitoring or limiting adolescents’ media use. Based on focus group discussions and interviews with predominantly female (77%) and White (92%) parents living in five communities in the Midwestern United States, we explore parental mediation as a process in which decisions about children’s media use reflect competing individual, ideological, and structural factors. In eight focus groups (n = 48) and 13 follow-up interviews, we ask parents to narrate barriers to commonly suggested mediation strategies to examine how parents’ navigate factors such as efficacy, conflict, or adolescent autonomy in managing digital media use. Based on the findings, we propose that looking at barriers illustrates mediation as a process of calibration, a decision that is made and re-made as parents navigate complex and sometimes contradictory situations and expectations. IMPACT SUMMARY Prior State of Knowledge: Past studies on parental mediation of digital technology define a range of strategies like restriction or monitoring and explore factors predicting whether parents use these strategies. Less research examines how parents arrive at the decision to implement normative mediation strategies. Novel Contributions: We propose the term calibration to explain how barriers and challenges prompt shifts in parental mediation over time. Calibration captures how parents balance competing internal and external factors, like efficacy or norms, in engaging with adolescents about digital media use. Practical Implications: Conceptualizing mediation as calibration may help parents develop a toolbox of strategies that can shift as needed. In addition, focusing on values like autonomy helps parents choose which mediation strategies work for their family context and which may not.