Digital Parenting: A Study on Parenting Styles in the Digital Age in West Sumatra

Abstract

The development of digital technology seems to be unstoppable. Research data shows that from 400 respondents, almost 90% claimed to have digital technology devices, either in the form of computers, laptops, notebooks, and smartphones. However, it is known that only around 30.6% of respondents claim to understand the usefulness of various applications available in their digital technology (smartphones), and even then they do not fully understand how to operate. The data of this study also shows that parents (64.2%) have a good understanding of the negative impacts of using digital media for their children. Therefore, around 63.2% of respondents admitted that they do not use digital media as a way to calm the fussiness of children that interfere with their work. However, only about 29% of the responses implemented a digital mentoring parenting strategy. This data shows that in general respondents have not accompanied, monitored, discussed and guided children in using digital media. This is due to their limited knowledge of various parenting styles in the digital age.