Citation

Álvarez-García D, Núñez JC, González-Castro P, Rodríguez C, Cerezo R. Front. Psychol. 2019; 10: e1159.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01159

PMID

31178790

PMCID

PMC6538814

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the relationship between parental control and cyber-victimization in adolescence, considering the possible mediating effect of impulsivity, and high-risk internet behavior. To that end we analyzed the responses of 3360 adolescents aged between 11 and 18 (M = 14.02; SD = 1.40), from Asturias (Spain), to four previously validated questionnaires in order to measure the level of parental control over the use of the internet (restriction and supervision), along with high-risk internet behaviors, impulsivity, and cyber-victimization in the adolescents. The results show that parental control tends to have a protective effect on the likelihood of the children being victims of cyber-aggression, with impulsivity, and high-risk internet behaviors as mediating variables. More specifically, parental restriction and supervision are positively related to each other; both forms of parental control are negatively related with the adolescent's engaging in high-risk internet behaviors; supervision is negatively related with impulsivity; impulsivity is positively related with high-risk internet behaviors; and both impulsivity and high-risk internet behaviors are positively related to being a victim of cyber-aggression. The practical implications of these results are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescence; cyber-victimization; high-risk internet behaviors; impulsivity; parental control