Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Mar 24, 2024
Date Accepted: Oct 29, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Parental Information-Use Strategies in a Digital Parenting Environment: Associations with Social Support and Parental Self-Efficacy
ABSTRACT
Background:
In today’s digital society, the acquisition of parenting information through online platforms such as social networking sites (SNS) has become widespread. Amid the mix of online and offline information sources, there is a need to discover effective information-seeking methods for solving parenting problems.
Objective:
This study aimed to identify patterns of information use among parents of young children in the digital age and elucidate the characteristics of these patterns through a comparative analysis of social support and parental self-efficacy.
Methods:
An online survey was administered with fathers and mothers of children aged 03 years. Convenience sampling, facilitated by an online survey company, was adopted, and data from 227 fathers and 206 mothers were analyzed. The survey included questions on personal characteristics; frequency of use of different sources of parenting information (websites, SNSs, parenting apps, family, friends, and professionals); perceived social support; and parental self-efficacy. K-means cluster analysis was used to extract the patterns of parenting information use, followed by covariance analysis.
Results:
Eight clusters were identified. Three clusters presented patterns with a combination of online and face-to-face information sources. Results from the analysis of covariance constructed with clusters and covariates revealed significant explanatory models for family support (F(17, 380)=5.98, P<.001), friend support (F(17, 380)=6.49, P<.001), and parenting self-efficacy (F(17, 379)=6.14, P<.001). Compared to Hybrid / Multichannel clusters, clusters with patterns with a relatively greater reliance on online information compared to face-to-face sources, a bias toward information from family sources, and a low frequency of information use across all sources were characterized by lower levels of social support and parental self-efficacy.
Conclusions:
This study adds to the evidence that online information can effectively supplement offline information in addressing parenting challenges, albeit with limited functionality as a substitute. These findings suggest the importance for parenting support professionals to simultaneously enhance information literacy and strengthen social relationships among parents, tailored to their information use patterns.
Citation
