University of Twente Student Theses
Parenting Style as a Moderator in the Relationship between Problematic Internet Use and Loneliness among Adolescents in Ankara, Turkey
Kravcenko, Berta (2024) Parenting Style as a Moderator in the Relationship between Problematic Internet Use and Loneliness among Adolescents in Ankara, Turkey.
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| Abstract: | The rising presence of the internet, especially among adolescents, has raised concerns about Problematic Internet Use (PIU), characterised by excessive online behaviour that can, for example, result in loneliness in adolescents. Typically, studies propose that loneliness is the root cause of PIU (Davis, 2001), however, recent studies suggest a cyclical relationship, where PIU leads to loneliness and loneliness increases PIU (Moretta & Buodo, 2020). This thesis offers a novel perspective by proposing that PIU leads to loneliness in adolescents. Overall, the thesis investigates the moderating role of maternal and paternal controlling and accepting parenting styles in the relationship between PIU and loneliness among adolescents. Utilising a cross-sectional study design, secondary data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The final sample comprises 1582 high school students (F = 853, M = 718, 11 unidentified) between the ages 14 and 17 (M = 15.11, SD = .9) from Ankara, Turkey, who completed self-report questionnaires measuring loneliness, maternal and paternal controlling and accepting parenting styles, and PIU. Findings indicate that high loneliness scores significantly predict high PIU scores. Moreover, findings suggest that a maternal and paternal accepting parenting style significantly reduces loneliness scores. Similarly, a maternal controlling parenting style significantly increases loneliness scores. Additionally, the findings show that a paternal controlling parenting style is not significantly associated with higher loneliness scores. However, the results also found a significant correlation between paternal controlling parenting style and increasing loneliness scores, which indicates the influence of additional factors that need to be considered in future research. Neither accepting nor controlling maternal or paternal parenting styles significantly moderated the relationship between PIU and loneliness. Concludingly, this thesis adds to the existing body of literature by investigating a new direction of relationship between PIU and loneliness in adolescents. Additionally, the results suggest the need for future research to investigate the interplay between PIU, loneliness, and parenting styles more clearly. For instance, this study proposes to investigate PIU and loneliness in a longitudinal study design in future studies to explicate the direction of relationship between PIU and loneliness. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/99580 |
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