Cheung, Hoi Shan

Digital parenting is being enacted in a rapidly digitalized context and it impacts different children's outcomes. The present study employs an umbrella review involving 31 reviews to derive insights on different aspects of relationships between digital parenting and child development. Results showed that digital parenting had been conceptualized as comprising three dimensions (parental mediation, parents' use of digital technologies, and parents' role-modeling the use of digital technologies) that encompassed what parents did at home and for supporting their children's school learning. Parents and children's media-related variables (e.g., attitudes, technological access and skills) predicted the enactment of digital parenting. Digital parenting was inextricably related to general parenting in that it extended general parenting in the digital environment and it facilitated general parenting. Research was characterized by the use of cross-sectional designs, examination of either a single or multiple aspects of digital parenting, the use of parent or child self-reported perceptions, and the application of exploratory factor analytical approaches. Digital parenting impacted children's online behaviors, exposure to online risks, psychological and emotional wellbeing, digital literacy, and privacy protection. The present study contributes to the scholarship by providing a comprehensive conceptualization of digital parenting, underscoring the protective and promotive functions of digital parenting in child development, and highlighting the need for methodological enhancements in the measurement of digital parenting. It also identifies areas in digital parenting research where the evidence has been mixed or inadequate and therefore, points the way forward for future research.

Cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms are major concerns for children and adolescents worldwide. Despite the increasing number of longitudinal studies of cyberbullying and mental health among this demographic, the robustness of the causal associations between cyberbullying victimization and the magnitude of mental health symptoms remains unclear. This meta-analysis investigated the longitudinal impact of cyberbullying victimization on mental health symptoms among children and adolescents. A systematic search identified primary studies published in English between January 2010 and June 2021, yielding a sample of 27 studies encompassing 13,497 children and adolescents aged 8 to 19 years old. The longitudinal association between cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms among children and adolescents was found to be weakly positive and consistent across time and age. Three significant moderators were identified: the effect of cyberbullying victimization on mental health was larger among older children, groups with a higher proportion of males, and in more recent publications. No evidence of publication bias was detected. This study adds to the existing body of research by providing a new perspective on the long-term effects of cyberbullying victimization on the mental health of children and adolescents’ mental health. Furthermore, it underscores the necessity of developing effective cyberbullying prevention programs, interventions, and legal regulations to comprehensively address this issue.