Adolescents’ Social Media Use in Relation to Parenting Stress and the Role of Internet-Specific Parental Self-Efficacy

Abstract

An important factor contributing to parenting stress nowadays is adolescents’ social media use. However, to what extent and under what circumstances is still unknown. The aim of this study is trying to understand the relationship between adolescents’ social media use (intensity and problematic use) and parenting stress and the buffering role of parents’ Internet-specific self-efficacy. Data from the first wave of the Digital Family Project was used. The sample consisted of 397 parents (M = 46.6 years, SD = 5.3) and 396 adolescents (M = 14.4 years, SD = 2.0). The results show that there is no main effect of intensity of social media use on parenting stress. However, higher levels of problematic social media use among adolescents are related to more parenting stress among parents. No moderation by parental self-efficacy is found. It seems that focussing on problematic social media use is important in reducing parenting stress. All in all, this study contributes to the existing literature by showing that problematic social media use is an important factor in understanding parenting stress.