http://citers2014.cite.hku.hk/the-relative-importance-of-paternal-and-maternal-involvement-as-predictors-of-adolescents-home-internet-use-and-usage/ Author LAU, Wilfred W.F. (HKU); YUEN, Allan H.K. (HKU) Abstract This study examined three parenting variables (parental education, parental ICT literacy, and parenting style) predicting adolescents’ home internet use and usage using relative importance analysis. Design. Participants were 807 Secondary 1 (Grade 7) students who completed independent paper-based surveys in Hong Kong. Results. Irrespective of adolescent gender, maternal education, parental monitoring style, and parental worry style were the three most important predictors for learning-related internet usage. Male adolescents were highly influenced by maternal education and paternal parenting style whereas female adolescents were highly influenced by maternal parenting style and paternal education. For leisure-related internet usage, the three most important predictors were maternal permission style, paternal permission style, and paternal monitoring style. Maternal permission style and paternal permission style showed the highest importance for male adolescents. Maternal permission style, paternal ICT literacy, paternal monitoring style, and maternal worry style were the most important predictors for female adolescents. Conclusions. We discerned some generic parenting patterns and some specific parenting patterns with respect to adolescent gender. Mothers are relatively more important in the supervision of adolescents’ internet use and usage at home than are fathers.

1. The relative importance of paternal
and maternal involvement as
predictors of adolescents’ home
internet use and usage
Dr. Wilfred W.F. Lau
Faculty of Education,
University of Hong Kong
13 June 2014

2. Outline of the presentation
Introduction
Literature
Method
Results
Discussion
Conclusion

3. Introduction
Within the family environment, parents are believed to be the media gatekeepers
of youth’s internet use and usage. Parental mediation is one of the parenting
practices used to interact with children about media use (Eastin, Greenberg, &
Hofschire, 2006; Nathanson & Botta, 2003).
Emphasis on parental involvement was still placed on the participation in the
education matters and school life of children (DCSF, 2008; Harris & Goodall,
2007). This study intended to investigate beyond research about parental
mediation and to explore parental involvement on youth’s internet use and
usage.
Although fathers and mothers play primary socialisation roles regarding internet
use and usage at home, in some studies, they showed a moderate to high
degree of congruence in parenting behaviours (Davidov & Grusec, 2006;
Verhoeven, Junger, van Aken, Dekovic, & van Aken, 2007) but other studies
indicate that their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours are rather different in certain
facets of parenting (Adamsons & Buehler, 2007; Rhoades & O'Leary, 2007). It is
thus imperative to understand the similarities and differences of fathering and
mothering when it comes to youth’s internet use and usage.

4. Literature review
Parental roles in domestic ICT use and usage
of adolescents
From the perspective of the family systems theory, children in a family constantly
shaped and are shaped by other subsystems including parents, siblings, and the
surrounding environmental context in a holistic manner (White & Klein, 2008).
Parents as paramount socialisation agents in a family have a major influence on
children’s physical, psychological, emotional, and social well-being.
The differentiated roles played by fathers and mothers have undergone changes
over the past two decades. Earlier studies showed that mothers were mostly
portrayed as caregivers who provided warmth and nurturance whereas fathers
usually played a more instrumental role in disciplining, financing, and protecting
their offspring (Mackey, 1996; Stern, 1995).
However, more recently, Phares, Fields, and Kamboukos (2009) found that
mothers significantly spent more time with their adolescents than did fathers.
Mothers were more responsible for adolescents’ discipline, daily care, and
recreational activities than were fathers.

5. Literature review
Parental roles in domestic ICT use and usage
of adolescents
From the perspective of the family systems theory, children in a family constantly
shaped and are shaped by other subsystems including parents, siblings, and the
surrounding environmental context in a holistic manner (White & Klein, 2008).
Parents as paramount socialisation agents in a family have a major influence on
children’s physical, psychological, emotional, and social well-being.
The differentiated roles played by fathers and mothers have undergone changes
over the past two decades. Earlier studies showed that mothers were mostly
portrayed as caregivers who provided warmth and nurturance whereas fathers
usually played a more instrumental role in disciplining, financing, and protecting
their offspring (Mackey, 1996; Stern, 1995).
However, more recently, Phares, Fields, and Kamboukos (2009) found that
mothers significantly spent more time with their adolescents than did fathers.
Mothers were more responsible for adolescents’ discipline, daily care, and
recreational activities than were fathers.

6. Literature Review
Parental roles in domestic ICT use and usage
of adolescents
Chinese and Korean mothers were more engaged in the mediation and
regulation of their children’s home ICT use compared with fathers under the
influence of cultural conceptions and social expectations of motherhood and
maternal responsibility in the two societies (Lim & Soon, 2010). Similar studies
from other cultural contexts such as Australia (Singh, 2001), the US (Dholakia,
2006), and Israel (Ribak, 2001) also showed the dominant role of mothers in
domestic ICT use and deployment to fulfil household obligations and duties.
Therefore, we propose that the following hypothesis:
 Hypothesis 1 (H1): Mothers are more influential in the supervision of children’s ICT use at home than
are fathers.

7. Literature Review
Parenting influence in domestic ICT use and
usage of adolescents
This study focused on three important parenting variables that influence youth
socialisation of internet use and usage at home: parental education, parental
ICT literacy, and parenting style.
Parental education was included as a parenting variable because it is
conceptually related to cultural capital, which allows individuals to thrive in
society (Bourdieu, 1977). Sun et al. (2005) showed a positive association
between parental education level and home internet usage among adolescents.
We therefore proposed the following hypothesis:
 Hypothesis 2 (H2): Parental education level is positively associated with the level of internet use and
usage at home.

8. Literature Review
Parenting influence in domestic ICT use and
usage of adolescents
Nikken and Jansz (2013) reported that parents who possessed more computer
or internet skills were more likely to practice technical mediation on computers
for online safety. Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig, and Ólafsson (2011) showed that
children and parents had high agreement over parents’ use of technical
measures to mediate their children’s internet use. From these findings, technical
mediation is possibly associated with reduced internet use and usage, especially
for highly ICT literate parents.
On the other hand, Dincer (2012) found significant positive correlation between
students’ and parents’ computer literacy. Appel (2012) illustrated that students’
computer literacy was related to more time spent on playing computer games.
The more computer literate students were also frequent users of social media.
These findings seem to infer that parental ICT literacy is linked with more
internet use and usage among adolescents. In view of these inconclusive
findings, we proposed the following hypothesis:
 Hypothesis 3 (H3): Parental ICT literacy level is positively or negatively associated with the level of
internet use and usage at home.

9. Literature Review
Parenting influence in domestic ICT use and
usage of adolescents
Parental warmth caused more use of the internet for educational purposes and
more positive internet behaviours (Lee & Chae, 2007). Lau and Yuen (in
preparation) found that learning-related and leisure-related internet usages were
positively related to parental warmth and parental control respectively. These
formed our next two hypotheses:
 Hypothesis 4 (H4): Parental warmth is positively associated with the level of learning-related internet
usage at home.
 Hypothesis 5 (H5): Parental control is positively associated with the level of leisure-related internet
usage at home.

10. Literature Review
Gender differences in parenting influence
Tucker, McHale, and Crouter (2003) examined fathers’ and mothers’ differential
treatment of their sons and daughters in five domains (privileges, chores,
affection, discipline, and temporal involvement). There was only gender
difference in parents’ differential temporal involvement. Mothers tended to spend
significantly more time with first- and second-born girls whereas fathers tended
to spend significantly more time with first- and second-born boys. The authors
explained that “parents’ sex-typed involvement with their offspring may be linked
to parents’ beliefs that they have more in common with or are more responsible
for the socialization of their same-sex children. Offspring also may be more
inclined to seek out their same-sex parents” (p. 87).
We thus proposed the following hypotheses accordingly:
 Hypothesis 6 (H6): Fathers are more involved in the supervision of their son’s ICT use and usage at
home than are mothers.
 Hypothesis 7 (H7): Mothers are more involved in the supervision of their daughter’s ICT use and
usage at home than are fathers.

11. Literature Review
As a result of the above review, the following research question was posed:
 Research Question 1 (RQ1): What are the differences in paternal and maternal involvement in
predicting adolescents’ home internet use and usage as expressed in terms of parental education,
parental ICT literacy, and parenting style?

12. Method
Sample and procedure
A convenient sample was collected from six secondary schools in Hong Kong.
Students completed a self-reported paper-based survey, which required about
10 minutes. The sample size was 807. There were 46.7% males and 46.3%
females. Their ages ranged from 11 to 16 (mean = 12.81, SD = .908). Some
students (6.9%) did not report their gender in the survey.
Measures
Internet use (INTU) was measured by a single item: “In the past two weeks, how
many hours on average do you spend on computers / the internet at home every
day?” The scale had range from 1 to 7 (1 = less than 1 hour, 2 = about 1 hour, 3
= about 2 hours, 4 = about 3 hours, 5 = about 4 hours, 6 = about 5 hours, 7 =
more than 5 hours).
Home internet usage was measured with respect to two dimensions, namely
learning and leisure. The first variable called learning-related internet usage
(LRIU1) contained 5 items while the second variable called leisure-related
internet usage (LRIU2) contained 6 items. All the items were rated on a 5-point
Likert scale (1: never to 5: always).

13. Method
Measures
Parental education was measured with two items. The two items asked the
highest education level of fathers and mothers: 1 = completed primary school, 2
= completed secondary school, 3 = completed postsecondary college, 4 =
completed university or above. Responses from the two items were collected in
two variables, which were paternal education level (PEDU) and maternal
education level (MEDU) respectively.
Two items were developed to elicit perceived parental ICT literacy from
adolescents’ perspective. The two items asked the ICT literacy of fathers and
mothers: 1 = beginner, 2 = fair, 3 = good, 4 = very good, 5 = expert. The two
corresponding variables for the item responses were paternal ICT literacy level
(PLIT) and maternal ICT literacy level (MLIT) respectively.

14. Method
Measures
We used a parenting style scale that was developed and validated with parents
from Hong Kong and Shenzhen (Lau & Yuen, 2013). The scale contains four
subscales (encouragement, worry, monitoring, permission) and has
demonstrated good reliability and validity. A 5-point Likert scale (1: strongly
disagree to 5: strongly agree) was used for all the items in the instrument.
For fathers, the four parenting style variables were paternal encouragement
(PENC), paternal worry (PWOR), paternal monitoring (PMON), and paternal
permission (PPER). For mothers, similar variables were created (maternal
encouragement (MENC), maternal worry (MWOR), maternal monitoring
(MMON), maternal permission (MPER)).

15. Method
Analysis strategy
It is anticipated that the parenting variables of fathers and mothers could be
moderately to highly correlated. Other analytic approaches such as dominance
analysis have been suggested to deal with the situation of multicollinearity so
that the genuine importance pattern of a set of predictors can be restored (Azen
& Budescu, 2003; Budescu, 1993).
This study examined relative importance of the aforementioned parenting
variables in predicting home internet use and usage of adolescents. Relative
importance of a predictor is defined as its contribution to the overall model R2
after accounting for its unique and shared contributions with other predictors
(Kraha, Turner, Nimon, Zientek, & Henson, 2012). Relative importance analysis
adopts the variable transformation method to address the issue of
multicollinearity among predictors (J.W. Johnson & LeBreton, 2004).
In order to calculate estimates of relative importance (relative weight) in multiple
linear regression, this study used an interactive online tool
(http://relativeimportance.davidson.edu/multipleregression.html) provided by
Tonidandel and LeBreton (2011).

16. Results
Table 1 presents the correlation matrix of all the variables involved in this study.
Whereas there existed significant but small positive correlations among the
parenting style subscales for fathers and mothers respectively, the correlations
between corresponding subscales of parenting style between fathers and mothers
were very high and significant, ranging from .714 to .830. This justified the use of
relative importance analysis in the current study.
In the past two weeks at the time of survey, on average, students spent 2 to 3
hours on computers / the internet at home every day. They engaged in more
leisure-related internet usage than learning-related internet usage.
Fathers and mothers attained postsecondary education level. Fathers were more
ICT literate compared with mothers. Fathers’ ICT literacy level was considered to
be good while for mothers, their level was only fair. For both fathers and mothers,
a clear pattern emerged in which the dominant parenting style was permission,
which was followed by worry, monitoring, and encouragement.

17. Results
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
1. INTU -
2. LRIU1 -.083* -
3. LRIU2 .374** .245** -
4. PEDU .004 -.097** -.069 -
5. MEDU -.009 -.164** -.078* .633** -
6. PLIT .006 -.008 -.029 .276** .198** -
7. MLIT .008 -.033 -.009 .179** .237** .456** -
8. PENC -.036 .144** -.015 .025 .019 .108** .097** -
9. PWOR .024 .178** .127** -.039 -.020 -.071 -.049 .119** -
10. PMON -.035 .186** .160** -.067 -.041 -.067 -.033 .115** .479** -
11. PPER .089* .093* .207** -.081* -.036 -.065 -.061 .281** .145** .079* -
12. MENC -.004 .140** -.024 -.030 .008 .025 .154** .714** .113** .076* .123** -
13. MWOR .024 .173** .149** -.067 -.069 -.038 -.080* .058 .830** .385** .116** .079* -
14. MMON -.042 .187** .156** -.061 -.086* -.038 -.047 .071 .367** .738** .119** .040 .486** -
15. MPER .060 .084* .232** -.119** -.073* -.119** -.068 .115** .109** .044 .740** .232** .133** .095* -
Mean 3.432 2.704 2.951 3.121 2.923 2.974 2.401 2.710 3.229 3.148 3.501 2.647 3.315 3.314 3.459
SD 1.979 0.710 0.825 1.442 1.441 1.631 1.513 0.801 0.871 1.009 0.850 0.795 0.862 1.043 0.853
Table 1. Zero-order Correlations between Variables
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

18. Results
The predictors did not significantly predicted the criterion internet use (F(12, 679)
= 1.093, p > .05).
The results of the relative importance analysis for the influence of paternal and
maternal parenting variables on learning-related internet usage are reported in
Table 2.
The predictors significantly predicted the criterion (F(12, 682) = 5.749, p < .001)
and explained 9.187% of its variance. As the sum of the importance weights
should be equal to the R2
of the model, predictors with higher importance weights
contribute more to the R2
than those with lower importance weights. The rescaled
importance weights are another measures obtained by dividing the importance
weights by R2
.
Using these measures, the most important predictor in explaining learning-related
internet usage for the whole sample was maternal education level (19.854%),
which was followed by paternal monitoring style (15.253%), maternal monitoring
style (12.781%), paternal worry style (10.406%), and maternal worry style
(10.363%).

19. Results
Predictors Measures of predictor importance
All Males Females
Standardized
regression
Coefficient (β)
Importance
weight
Rescaled
importance
weight
Standardized
regression
coefficient (β)
Importance
weight
Rescaled
importance
weight
Standardized
regression
coefficient (β)
Importance
weight
Rescaled
importance
weight
PEDU 0.011 0.004 4.300 0.138 0.006 4.480 -0.121 0.009 15.213
MEDU -0.156 0.018 19.854 -0.268 0.034 24.822 -0.019 0.003 5.274
PLIT 0.064 0.003 2.869 0.022 0.001 0.382 0.099 0.007 11.618
MLIT -0.027 0.001 1.629 -0.018 0.002 1.577 -0.055 0.002 2.983
PENC 0.051 0.007 7.834 0.127 0.015 11.213 -0.035 0.003 4.392
PWOR 0.048 0.009 10.406 0.053 0.017 12.645 0.080 0.003 4.633
PMON 0.102 0.014 15.253 0.192 0.020 14.562 0.020 0.005 8.968
PPER 0.033 0.003 2.830 -0.045 0.003 2.331 0.098 0.003 5.235
MENC 0.077 0.009 9.969 0.021 0.009 6.728 0.142 0.011 17.819
MWOR 0.062 0.009 10.363 0.118 0.016 12.088 -0.044 0.002 2.837
MMON 0.036 0.012 12.781 -0.099 0.007 5.026 0.105 0.011 17.226
MPER 0.005 0.002 1.913 0.121 0.006 4.145 -0.118 0.002 3.802
Table 2. Relative Importance of Paternal and Maternal Parenting Variables on Learning-Related Internet Usage (LRIU1)

20. Results
With the same criterion, further relative importance analyses were conducted for
males and females separately. For males, the most important predictor in
explaining learning-related internet usage was maternal education level
(24.822%), which was followed by paternal monitoring style (14.562%), paternal
worry style (12.645%), maternal worry style (12.088%), and paternal
encouragement style (11.213%). For females, the most important predictor in
explaining learning-related internet usage was maternal encouragement
(17.819%), which was followed by maternal monitoring style (17.226%), paternal
education level (15.213%), and paternal ICT literacy (11.618%).
Similarly, the results of the relative importance analysis for the influence of
paternal and maternal parenting variables on leisure-related internet usage are
reported in Table 3. The predictors significantly predicted the criterion (F(12, 682)
= 6.081, p < .001) and explained 9.667% of its variance.
With reference to the rescaled importance weights, it is clear that the most
important predictor in explaining leisure-related internet usage for the whole
sample was maternal permission style (34.900%), which was followed by paternal
permission style (21.291%), and paternal monitoring style (12.212%).

21. Results
Predictors Measures of predictor importance
All Males Females
Standardized
regression
coefficient (β)
Importance
weight
Rescaled
importance
weight
Standardized
regression
coefficient (β)
Importance
weight
Rescaled
importance
weight
Standardized
regression
coefficient (β)
Importance
weight
Rescaled
importance
weight
PEDU 0.020 0.001 1.003 0.083 0.002 1.522 -0.029 0.002 1.767
MEDU -0.072 0.003 3.279 -0.130 0.008 7.829 -0.019 0.001 0.789
PLIT 0.052 0.002 1.627 -0.047 0.006 5.613 0.133 0.016 13.039
MLIT 0.020 0.000 0.365 0.020 0.001 0.515 0.023 0.002 1.495
PENC -0.006 0.002 1.897 -0.016 0.002 2.008 -0.007 0.003 2.403
PWOR -0.032 0.005 4.614 0.010 0.002 2.433 -0.095 0.006 4.863
PMON 0.144 0.012 12.212 0.087 0.008 8.099 0.188 0.015 11.955
PPER 0.052 0.021 21.291 0.107 0.029 28.816 -0.047 0.012 9.530
MENC -0.104 0.004 4.310 -0.092 0.004 3.766 -0.119 0.005 4.316
MWOR 0.110 0.007 7.301 0.012 0.002 2.201 0.204 0.013 10.510
MMON -0.020 0.007 7.201 0.036 0.006 6.302 -0.078 0.005 4.511
MPER 0.203 0.035 34.900 0.164 0.031 30.897 0.270 0.042 34.822
Table 3. Relative Importance of Paternal and Maternal Parenting Variables on Leisure-Related Internet Usage (LRIU2)

22. Results
For males, the most important predictor in explaining leisure-related internet
usage was maternal permission style (30.897%), which was followed by paternal
permission style (28.816%). For females, the most important predictor in
explaining leisure-related internet usage was maternal permission style
(34.822%), which was followed by paternal ICT literacy (13.039 %), paternal
monitoring style (11.955%), and maternal worry style (10.510%).

23. Discussion
Irrespective of adolescent gender, maternal education level, parental monitoring
style, and parental worry style were found to be the three most important
predictors of learning-related internet usage in descending order of importance.
For leisure-related internet usage, the three most important predictors in ranked
order were maternal permission style, paternal permission style, and paternal
monitoring style. H1 was supported.
These findings highlight the relative important role of mothers in the supervision
of children’s ICT use at home (Lim & Soon, 2010) and are consistent with other
related studies conducted in different cultures (Dholakia, 2006; Ribak, 2001;
Singh, 2001).
With regard to learning-related internet usage, some gendered-based parenting
influence seemed to affect usage. Male adolescents tended to be influenced
more by maternal education and paternal parenting style. Female adolescents
tended to be influenced more by maternal parenting style and paternal
education. These provided some evidence to support H2, H4, H6, and H7.

24. Discussion
As far as leisure-related internet usage was concerned, maternal permission
style and paternal permission style showed the highest importance for male
adolescents. Maternal permission style, paternal ICT literacy, paternal
monitoring style, and maternal worry style were highly important predictors for
female adolescents. H5 was supported. H3 was supported for female
adolescents in which paternal ICT literacy level was positively associated with
leisure-related internet usage.
More importantly, it is imperative to understand the influence of cultural
conceptions and social expectations of motherhood and maternal responsibility
in the current context (Lim & Soon, 2010). Lim and Soon revealed that in
Chinese and Korean societies, mothers participated more in the mediation and
regulation of their children’s home ICT use than did fathers.

25. Discussion
In general, Chinese families emphasise mothers’ responsibility and moral
obligation to nurture their children as caregivers (Leung & Shek, 2012). Mothers
are usually self-sacrificial and even forego their personal needs in order to
satisfy their children’s desires.
They are more concerned about the educational performance of their children.
They realise that ICT use at home can enhance academic and social
competence among children and yet express worry over their internet-related
misbehaviours. Increasingly, mothers like fathers have to work outside the home
to support family financial well-being.
This socio-cultural context places mothers in Hong Kong in a very challenging
position in contemporary family environment where technologies are heavily
domesticated.

26. Conclusion
This study investigated three crucial parenting variables that predicted youth
socialisation of internet use and usage at home: parental education, parental
ICT literacy, and parenting style. We further distinguished between paternal and
maternal parenting styles to examine their differential effects on adolescents’
home internet use and usage. We discerned some generic parenting patterns
and some specific parenting patterns with respect to adolescent gender.
The onus for establishing a positive ICT use at home lies on the mutual
endeavour of parents and children to appropriate, objectify, incorporate, and
convert (Silverstone et al., 1992) technological artefacts into socio-cultural
products for harmonious integration into household practices.

27. Q & A Session
Thank
you
very
much