Digital Parenting Behavior and Awareness of Parents with Elementary School Pupils

Introduction

Children born in the 21st century arrive and soon adapt into a digitally interconnected

world, eventually considering digital devices and the Internet to be indispensable for their lives.

In spite of the positive contribution of ICT to the psychomotor, social, linguistic, and cognitive

development in children, risks and problems associated with excessive, inconsiderate, and

uncontrolled ICT use is also highly pronounced. Moreover, it was these so-called digital natives,

and the need for protecting them against such risks and problems, that necessitated the notion of

digital parenting (Tosun and Mihci, 2020). Parenting has never been easy. But the widespread

adoption of smartphones and the rise of social media has introduced a new wrinkle to the

challenges of parenthood. In fact, a majority of parents in the United States (66%) – who include

those who have at least one child under the age of 18, but who may also have an adult child or

children – say that parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago, with many in this group

citing technology as a reason why (Auxier, Anderson, Perrin, and Turner, 2020). Digital

parenting is a popular yet polysemic concept that refers both to how parents are increasingly

engaged in regulating their children’s relationships with digital media (parental mediation), and

how parents themselves incorporate digital media in their daily activities and parenting practices,

and, in so doing, develop emergent forms of parenting.

Parenting is a behaviour that is warm, accepting, reciprocal, understanding and sensitive

to what children need (Andayani & Koentjoro, 2004 in Yusuf, Witro, Diana, et al., 2020). With

these characteristics, parenting can be characterized by the ability to understand the conditions

and needs of children and the ability to choose how to respond well to the requests of children
(Putra et al., 2019 in Yusuf, Witro, Diana, et al., 2020). while digital care means child care in the

digital age. The digital age is an era of development and technological progress. In this digital

age, the use of the internet in various lines of life has changed into basic human needs. This is

proven by being used as an internal reference for everything (Rahmatullah, 2017 in Yusuf,

Witro, Diana, et al., 2020). Thus, the internet with positive impacts and negative impacts caused,

makes the internet can not be abandoned and abandoned by humans in their lives.

As children enter elementary school, they become more independent. Increasingly,

elementary school aged children carry their own mobile phones, ofen purchased by parents for

the purposes of micro-coordination and safety concerns. Equipped with their own devices, these

children may use their mobile phones to engage in shared media use with their peers such as

watching a video on a phone or playing tablet games together. Even though such shared media

use is likely to be innocuous, exposure to age-inappropriate content may occur. Parents thus have

to be proactive and inculcate in their children skills of discernment and establish a relationship of

trust so that their children will turn to them if they encounter media content that is disturbing or

confusing.

In the Philippines, The Department of Social Welfare and Development is pushing for

“digital parenting,” a scheme where parents can supervise and caution their children for the

responsible use of cyberspace. “It is important that digital parents guide their children when

browsing online. We are teaching them how to regulate their children’s use of gadgets,” said

Rosan Pelariza, focal person of the DSWD-Family Development Session. “Nowadays, children

are using the internet for communicating with others, for recreation, or for online learning. Now

that they have the time and the luxury to use their gadgets, and engage on social media, they are

at a great risk of cyberbullying or other cyber abuses,” said Pelariza. She said most of our
children gave more time on their gadgets, increasing the threats on their safety, health and

security while browsing the internet. Pelariza said the lengthy quarantine period due to

coronavirus pandemic contributed to addiction of children to social media including Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram and most especially TikTok (Malabanan, 2021).

The researchers as social studies students have observed that because of COVID-19

pandemic, blended learning which includes online classes entails close monitoring of students in

various levels of education. From pre-school, elementary, high school and tertiary levels, the

internet is the main source of information nowadays.

The gap that this study would like to address is to look into the digital parenting

behaviour mothers of elementary school pupils as there is notably limited studies in the local

context. There are some related studies done in the world perspective. Huang et al. (2018)

establishes the tenets of digital parenting as protection, social media monitoring, finding of

information, and resources and building relationships with the child, Yaman (2018) breaks down

skills involved in digital parenting into the categories of digital literacy, digital safety, and digital

communication. Manap (2020) on the other hand, explains five dimensions to digital parenting

as efficient use, risk aversion, being a role model, digital non-neglect, and open-mindedness.

However there is a dearth on local studies regarding this construct, the void of which this study

would like to fill in.

The descriptive qualitative study would like to focus on the insight and challenges of

parents of a public elementary school as this would bring about perspective on how parents deal

with their school children who are taking online classes.

Purpose Statement of the Study.

This study will explore the lived experiences and challenges of parents with elementary

school children,

Significance of the Study

The results of the study may be beneficial to parents with school children as this will

make them aware of how best they can help their children’s online needs. The may also be an

advantage to school administrators as well as teachers as this may be a basis for cooperative

endeavors in maximizing the learning process of the school children. Future researchers may

come up with similar or parallel studies and the results may be made as reference materials for

other researches.

Scope of the study

This descriptive qualitative phenomenological study will look into the lived experiences

and challenges in digital parenting of parents with elementary school pupils studying in a public

school in a component city schools division in Negros Occidental. An unstructured interview

guide will be used ot gather pertinent data as to the insights and challenges of the parents. cases

where face to face is possible. Health protocols will be observed in the collection of data

although online data collection is preferred.

Theoretical Framework

This study is anchored on the parental mediation theory which has evolved through the

years. This theory can best explain the digital parenting behavior of parents.
 The parental mediation theory was originated to examine the effects of TV on children

and teenagers in media and communication. Initially, researchers coined three dimensions of

parental mediation, i.e., active, restrictive, and co-view mediation (Nathanson, 1999, 2002;

Martins et al., 2015 cited in Iqbal, Zakar and Fischer, 2021), which were, later on, applied to

video games, the internet, and smartphones. St. Peters et al. (1992 cited in Iqbal, Zakar and

Fischer, 2021) expanded the parental mediation theory in four dimensions, which are

distinguished according to the type (active vs. regulated) and level (high vs. low) of mediation.

High levels of active and regulative mediation are referred to as selective mediation, whereas

low levels of both are called as Laisses Faire (or unmediated). Highly active and low regulated

mediation is promotive and highly regulated but low active is labeled as restrictive mediation

(Wright et al., 1990; St. Peters et al., 1991; Truglio et al., 1996; Livingstone and Helsper, 2008

cited in Iqbal, Zakar and Fischer, 2021).

In addition, Clark (2011 cited in Iqbal, Zakar and Fischer, 2021) adopted a critical stance

for the parental mediation theory and employed participatory learning as a further dimension of

parental mediation, highlighting the role of communication between the parents and their

children for being active participants. However, Clark (2011 cited in Iqbal, Zakar and Fischer,

2021) identified gaps in the existing parental mediation theory in relation to digital and mobile

media. Nikken and Jansz (2014 cited in Iqbal, Zakar and Fischer, 2021) addressed this gap and

introduced five dimensions of parental mediation to regulate online behavior in view of digital

media: active, restrictive, co-use mediation on access, content, and supervision. Livingstone et al.

(2015) adopted a holistic approach and acknowledged the complexity of online digital and

portable devices, specifically for parents to manage. Livingstone et al. (2015b) also categorized

five dimensions of parental internet mediation, which are more comprehensive and widely
adopted: active co-use or instructive, restrictive, monitoring, technical, and active internet safety

mediation. Later, Livingstone et al. (2017) defined two broader dimensions of parental internet

mediation, i.e., enabling and restrictive mediation, which provides a reorganization of the

dimensions and underlines the interactive nature of mediation. Enabling mediation encompasses

active mediation in coupling with safety and technical mediation and monitoring. Although the

abovementioned five dimensions are very pertinent in the present digital media-rich

environment; however, we believe that Laissez Faire or unmediated dimension is also essential

and must be included as the sixth dimension of parental internet mediation, as few parents either

mediate less or remain unmediated according to their cultural practices (Iqbal, 2019; Iqbal et al.,

2021), which may affect the positive outcomes of children/teenagers.

Methodology

Research Design

This study will employ the descriptive qualitative phenomenological approach as this will

on the insights and challenges of parents with elementary school children. Phenomenological

research is a design of inquiry coming from philosophy and psychology in which the researcher

describes the lived experiences of individuals about a phenomenon as described by participants.

This description culminates in the essence of the experiences for several individuals who have all

experienced the phenomenon (Creswell and Creswell, 2018)

Research instrument

An unstructured interview guide will be used to gather data as to the lived experiences of

parents. To facilitate the data gathering process an interview protocol will be crafted.
 Philosophical assumption. This research will use a social constructivist worldview

which is commonly used in qualitative research. Researchers with this perspective believe that

individuals seek understanding of the world where they develop subjective meanings of their

experiences, directed toward particular objects or things (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).

Ontological (worldview) assumption. Reality in the point of view of the researches is

that online learning is now the preferred learning modality in the new normal classrooms and

that parents are into the digital era. There are challenges on the part of the parents to be updated

with their children on using technology as a part of their learning in school.

Epistemological (truthfulness of experience) assumption. For the researcher the truth of

the matter is that digital parenting is the new style of parenting and that awareness should be

inculcated among them as how best they can manage monitoring their children’s digital use.

Axiological (values) assumption. The researcher vlues positive parenting. The reasonwhy

they would like to look into this study as they would like parents to be more aware of their

responsibilities towards their children.

Methodological (method) assumption. Inductive method will be used to look into the

lived experiences of parents with regards to digital parenting. Inductive reasoning begins with

detailed observations of the world, which moves towards more abstract generalizations and ideas

(Neuman, 2003).

Participants

The participant of the study will be parents of elementary pupils studying in a public

school in a component city of Negros Occidental. According to Crossman (2018), a purposive

example is a non-likelihood test that is chosen in view of attributes of a populace and the target
of the investigation. Inclusion Criteria will include: male of female parents, of diverse ages, and

profession. Children are using either blended or online learning platform An unstructured in-

depth interview guide composed of series of open-ended questions will be formulated. The

questions will start from easier ones used mostly to gather information for each participant's

profiles and be followed by questions focusing on their experiences during the pandemic.

Follow-up questions that are not part of the script may come up depending on the need to follow

through on a participant's reply. When the interview is done, the researcher will thank the

participants and remind them that the researcher may follow up to clarify some points in the

future.

Data Collection

As soon as participants are identified, the researchers will invite them for an orientation.

rapport will be established. Upon consent of the participant, he/she will be asked to sign an

inform consent. The purpose of the study will be explained and the researcher will asked

participants to raise some issues they may want to clarify before the actual data gathering

process.

The researcher will set a data for the initial interview. In the course of the interview, the

researcher will have to reach out to the participants through an online communication platform

available. Follow-up questions will be used on times when clarification would be needed and

draw out more information. Participants' non-verbal cues will be observed throughout the

interview. Bracketing will be observed and as such the researchers will put aside their own

perspective of knowledge, beliefs, values and experiences in order to accurately describe

participants’ life experiences. A follow interview will be made until saturation of data or no new

experiences from the participants will be shared.

Data analysis procedure.

Thematic analysis will be employed to analyze, classify, and present themes or patterns

relating to the data gathered.

The first step is the initial coding, which starts with a careful reading of responses and

then summarizing these ideas in one's own words, phrases, or codes. After summarizing or

coding each response, the next step is revisiting the initial coding to remove redundant codes,

rename synonyms, and make the codes consistent. The third step is developing an initial list of

categories to find sets and subsets of similar codes and to define a suitable category for each

subset. Modifying the initial list based on additional rereading is the fourth step wherein the task

is to revisit the categories identified under step 3 and explore the possibility of combining similar

categories into one set or subset. In this step, categories can also be ranked per the importance of

each category per the number of occurrences in responses. The fifth step is revisiting the

categories and subcategories. This step involves the removal of redundant categories and

identifying critical factors per the purpose of the research. The last task in the process is moving

from categories to concepts. This final step of thematic analysis involves identifying key

concepts that reflect the meaning of collected data (Litchman, 2014).

Trustworthiness of Data

Guba and Lincoln (1985 cited in Bryman, 2015) proposed four criteria for evaluating

qualitative findings and enhancing trustworthiness. While each criterion has an analogous

quantitative criterion, the list better reflects the assumptions underlying qualitative research.
These criteria are credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability, which can be

incorporated into research design and used to assess qualitative data. These criteria will be used

in determining the validity of the instrument.

Ethical Consideration

In conducting research, the following ethical considerations must be accounted for,

namely: voluntary participation, informed consent, avoidance of risk of harm, and

confidentiality. The participants can withdraw anytime they wish to do so. Informed consent will

be asked from each of the participants and confidentiality of shared responses will be observed.

Fair selection will be done though purposive sampling. In cases where respondents need

assistance, the researches will try their very best to address these needs, Health protocols will be

ensured for the safety of bothe researches and respondents.