Adolescent problematic Internet use and parental involvement: The chain mediating effects of parenting stress and parental expectations across early, middle, and late adolescence

Problematic Internet use (PIU), a common phenomenon, has negative effects on adolescents, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents with PIU pose great challenges to parenting. However, little is known about the mediating mechanisms underlying this relationship. The study examines the chain mediating roles of parenting stress and parental expectations between PIU and parental involvement across early, middle, and late adolescence. Families (N = 1206) that included fathers, mothers, and adolescents (48.9% females, Mage = 13.86 ± 2.48) participated in the study. Adolescents provided a rating of PIU, and fathers and mothers reported their own parenting stress, parental expectations, and parental involvement. The results showed that paternal parenting stress and then expectations mediated the association between PIU and paternal involvement, and maternal parenting stress and then expectations mediated the association between PIU and maternal involvement, indicating a spillover effect. By contrast, the crossover effect was established only in that maternal parenting stress was negatively related to paternal expectations in middle adolescents. Moreover, maternal expectations showed the strongest association with maternal involvement in middle adolescents, whereas paternal expectations were most associated with paternal involvement in late adolescents. These findings underline the necessity of understanding parenting by assessing adolescent developmental stages and paternal and maternal parenting separately. Furthermore, the mediators of parenting stress and parental expectations can be the focus on facilitating parental involvement; the effect of maternal parenting stress on paternal expectations may suggest that intervention programs for fathers should consider more contextual factors.问题互联网的使用(PIU)是一种常见现象，对青少年有负面影响，特别是在COVID-19大流行期间。患有PIU的青少年给父母带来了巨大的挑战。然而，人们对这种关系背后调节机制知之甚少。该研究调查了在青少年早期、中期和后期父母压力和父母期望在PIU和父母参与之间的连锁中介作用。包括父亲、母亲和青少年(女性48.9%，Mage = 13.86±2.48)的家庭(N = 1206)参与了研究。青少年提供了PIU评分，父亲和母亲报告了他们自己教育孩子的压力，父母的期望和父母的参与。结果表明，父亲教养压力和期望在PIU与父亲参与的关系中起调和引发作用，母亲教养压力和期望在PIU与母亲参与的关系中起调和影响作用，存在溢出效应。相比之下，交叉效应仅在母亲养育压力与父亲期望之间存在负相关。此外，在青少年中期，母亲期望与母亲参与的关系最为密切，而在青少年晚期，父亲期望与父亲参与的关系最为密切。这些发现强调有必要通过分别评估青少年发展阶段和父母和母亲的养育来理解养育。此外，父母压力和父母期望的中介可以是促进父母参与的焦点;母亲教养压力对父亲期望的影响可能暗示父亲的干预计划应该考虑更多的情境因素。.