A Review of Literature Relevant to the Experiences of Irish Parents in the Mediation of their Children’s use of Internet Connected Devices

Abstract

This review sets out to explore the relatively new and unique parental experience of mediating children's use of Internet connected devices (ICDs) in Ireland. A coherent understanding of the core concepts that emerged from the literature is presented in a way that connects broad theoretical concepts to specific contexts. An overview of parental experience and the relationship between parental experience and the theoretical aspects of psychology, counselling and psychotherapy is presented. ICDs are briefly explained and a working definition is established for the purpose of this review. The literature on parental mediation of children's use of ICDs is explored and segmented into risks and benefits. Literature on parental strategies for mediation of children's use of ICDs is reviewed. The relationship between trust, parenting styles and the concept of child self-regulation is explored. Literature is reviewed to place an Irish context on the parental experience in the mediation of ICDs. The review concludes with a discussion and summary conclusions based on the literature reviewed that creates a chain of evidence in support of additional research.

The Experiences of Irish Parents in the Mediation of Their Children’s Use of Internet Connected Devices

“…The narrative of the literature reviewed by Meehan and Hickey [2] however did not infer that parental reaction to child behaviour was a key element of parental mediation strategy. Interestingly, this suggests a connection between the work of Bernstein [24] and Gamble and Gamble [25] in understanding cues or triggers of deception and the wider literature on parental mediation.…”

“…The literature reviewed by Meehan and Hickey [2] identified that Nauert [28] and Livingston and Haddon [1] should be acknowledged for how their work helps to create an understanding of parental mediation of online activities. However, the tone of both Nauert's [1] and Livingston and Haddon's [1] work seems to imply that risk should be associated with negative consequences.…”

“…The literature reviewed built a chain of evidence that supports the importance of additional research being completed in the area of Irish parents experience of mediating children's use of ICD's [2]. The literature review identified gaps where the parental experience of mediation was understood primarily as binary responses to questionnaires or scores on a scale [1,6,7].…”

“…Literature reviewed by Meehan and Hickey [2] established links between the experience of parents in the mediation of their children's use of ICDs and the general theories of psychology, counselling and psychotherapy approaches [3][4][5]. The literature reviewed built a chain of evidence that supports the importance of additional research being completed in the area of Irish parents experience of mediating children's use of ICD's [2].…”

Child online safety and parental intervention: a study of Sri Lankan internet users

“…There is a direct relationship between the parenting styles and trust (Meyers and Gilbert, 2012; Meehan and Hickey, 2015), and in the context of parenting mediations we draw upon the conceptualizations of sociological trust: “[…] of technically competent performance and … of fiduciary obligation and responsibility” (Barber, 1983, p. 165). Here, trust is a process that evolves over time as it is dynamic, context-dependent and conditional (Gubbins and MacCurtain, 2008; Castelfranchi and Falcone, 2010).…”