Feasibility and Early Outcomes of a Parent Training Intervention to Engage Parents in Children’s Media Education

Abstract

The importance of parents in mediating adolescents’ Internet use is documented by many studies in the literature. Very few, however, regard interventions to support parents in this role. We wanted to assess the feasibility and the early outcomes of an Internet-based parent educational group course aimed to support parents in adolescents’ media education. The intervention was conducted with two different groups of parents (N = 20, 75% women; mean age = 46.9 y; SD = 6.3) at different time-points. The intervention included five sessions, during which information about parental mediation strategies was provided and practical exercises based on the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) approach were proposed. The intervention generated greater awareness, openness and flexibility and increased parental familiarity with technological devices. Overall, the proposed web-based and group-based parent training model has shown good feasibility and promising early outcomes in supporting parents as Internet mediators.

Keywords

• mediation strategies
• parenting course
• online risks
• parent training
• youths’ Internet use