Associations among parent technology use, locus of control, and child problem behaviors

• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Jodi Dworkin,Xiaoran Sun,Samantha LeBouef,Angela Keyzers
• Date: 01 April 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12811

RESEARCH

Associations among parent technology use, locus of

control, and child problem behaviors

Jodi Dworkin

1

|Xiaoran Sun

1

|Samantha LeBouef

1

|

Angela Keyzers

2

1

Department of Family Social Science,

University of Minnesota–Twin Cities,

St. Paul, MN

2

Centerstone, Nashville, TN

Correspondence

Jodi Dworkin, Department of Family Social

Science, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities,

1985 Buford Avenue, 290 McNeal Hall, Saint

Paul, MN 55108 USA.

Email: jdworkin@umn.edu

Abstract

Objective: The current study had two objectives:

(a) describe demographic differences in parent technology

use and (b) explore how parent technology use contributes

to parent locus of control and how locus of control is asso-

ciated with child problem behaviors.

Background: The ubiquitous use of technology is likely to

influence parenting and, in turn, children’s outcomes. This

study was designed to test the pathway from parents’tech-

nology use to children’s problem behaviors through their

locus of control for parenting.

Method: Participants were316 U.S. parents(36% fathers;

M

age

=41.93 years), recruited through AmazonMechani-

cal Turk, with at least one child aged 10 to 18 years. Struc-

tural equation models were estimated to test the

hypothesized paths.

Results and Conclusion: Fathers and lower income parents

reported significantly less frequent online information

gathering and parents of color reported significantly more

frequent calling and texting and social networking than

White parents. Parents’texting and calling was positively,

and online information gathering negatively, linked to

child problem behaviors through parental locus of control.

Implications: Understanding how diverse parents are using

technology for parenting, and which online tools are effec-

tive for supporting parents is essential to developing online

resources to support families.

KEYWORDS

locus of control, online information gathering, parenting, problem

behaviors, social networking, texting

Received:2June2022 Revised:13October2022 Accepted:13November2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12811

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2022 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:443–457. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 443