Parental bonding and problematic internet or social media use among adolescents.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Parental bonding is regarded as one of the risk factors of problematic internet use among adolescents and young adults; however, only few studies have examined the association between problematic social media use and parental bonding among adolescents. The aim of this study is to investigate the difference between problematic internet use and problematic social media use in terms of their associations with parental bonding among secondary school students. METHOD: With a cross-sectional design and convenience sampling, 2035 self-reported questionnaires were collected in a paper-pencil survey (54.2% females, mean age=16.97, SD=1.61). Problematic internet use, problematic social media use and parental bonding with both mother and father were measured. The predictors of problematic internet use and social media use were tested simultaneously with structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Problematic internet use and social media use correlate significantly (r=0.57). Girls reported more symptoms in problematic use of internet and social media. Maternal and paternal overprotection were significantly associated with problematic social media use. Paternal care decreased and maternal overprotection significantly increased the problematic internet use. However, the model only explains a small part of the variance of both types of problematic use (10% and 7%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Parental overprotection may be a small but significant risk factor for developing problematic internet uses. Problematic internet use and problematic social media use are not the same; they are slightly different in their associations with parental bonding dimensions.