'Just-In-Time' Parenting: A Two-Month Examination Of The Bi-Directional Influences Between Parental Mediation And Adolescent Online Risk Exposure

Parental mediation is a key factor that influences adolescents' exposure to online risk. Yet, research on this topic has mostly been cross-sectional and correlative, not exploring whether the relationship between parental mediation and adolescent online risk exposure could be bi-directional, where teens' risk exposure influences parenting practices. To address this gap, we conducted an eight week, repeated measures web-based diary study with 68 adolescents (aged 13-17) and their parents to examine the relationships between three parental mediation strategies (active mediation, monitoring, and restriction) and three adolescent online risk types (explicit content, sexual solicitations, and online harassment) teens reported encountering online. Overall, parents and teens had significantly different perceptions regarding parental mediation, which yielded some consistent and conflicting results. Parents and teens agreed that parental restriction significantly increased the week in which the teen encountered all three risk types, and active mediation increased during the week in which the teen encountered online harassment. Parents and teens also consistently reported that restriction significantly decreased the week after an online harassment incident. Overall, we found that parental mediation and teen online risk exposure were most often significantly correlated in the same week, suggesting parenting occurred 'just-in-time,' rather than parents and teens' behaviors bi-directionally influencing one another significantly from week-to-week. Our findings provide new insights into parent-teen perspectives on parental mediation and highlight the bi-directional relationship of parental mediation and online risk. We offer recommendations to facilitate 'just in time' parenting and provide teens with the necessary support to help keep them safe online.