A Study On The Effects Of Parental Mediation Strategies On Children’s Internet Use Behavior In Chengdu

As the Internet has become an infrastructure of everyday life,the problem of family media education,characterised by children’s Internet use,has become increasingly prominent.This thesis focuses on the impact of parental intervention strategies on children’s Internet use behaviour and asks What are the effects of different parental intervention strategies on children’s Internet time,Internet addiction and digital skills?Does parental perception of the Internet play a moderating role in the effect of parental intervention strategies on children’s Internet use? This thesis uses the method of combining questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews to conduct research on the families of children in grades one to six in eight primary schools in Chengdu,and uses SPSS24.0 software to conduct statistical analysis of the collected data,such as correlation test and multiple linear regression,as follows research results.First,in terms of demographic differences in children’s Internet use behaviour:(1)school age positively affects children’s Internet use time,Internet addiction,and digital skills;(2)compared to urban children,township and rural children have higher Internet use time and Internet addiction on school weekends,holidays,and winter and summer vacations(hereafter referred to as “rest days”);(3)compared to children from nuclear families,children from single-parent families and reorganised families are more likely to use the Internet on rest days,and have longer use time and higher Internet addiction;(4)family socioeconomic status negatively affects children’s Internet use time and Internet addiction on rest days,and positively affects children’s digital skills.(4)Family socioeconomic status has a negative effect on children’s Internet use time and Internet addiction on days off,and a positive effect on children’s digital skills.Second,in terms of the direct effects of parental intervention strategies on children’s Internet use behaviour:(1)in terms of children’s Internet use time,co-use intervention strategies positively affect children’s Internet use time on rest days,positive intervention strategies,contentrestricted intervention strategies negatively affect children’s Internet use time on rest days;(2)in terms of children’s Internet addiction,co-use intervention strategies and supervisory intervention strategies positively affect children’s Internet addiction and positive intervention strategies,content-restricted intervention strategies negatively affect children’s Internet addiction;(3)in terms of children’s Internet use time,co-use intervention strategies positively affect children’s Internet use time on rest days,positive intervention strategies,content-restricted intervention strategies negatively affect children’s Internet addiction.Content-limited intervention strategies negatively affect children’s Internet addiction;(3)Regarding children’s digital skills,positive intervention strategies positively affect children’s digital skills,and supervisory intervention strategies negatively affect children’s digital skills.Finally,in terms of the moderating effect of parents’ Internet perceptions,parents’ Internet perceptions play a significant moderating role in the intervention strategy’s effect on children’s Internet use time,Internet addiction,and digital skills on children’s rest days.Based on the above research findings,this thesis finds that different parental intervention strategies lead to differences in children’s Internet use time,Internet addiction and digital skills.Given the urban-rural divide and the class divide in family media education,the differentiation in children’s online practices caused by parental intervention strategies needs urgent attention.