Maham Ayesha (MSc, 2016-2018) Supervisor: Saima Ghazal, PhD
University: Institute of Applied Psychology, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan
Corresponding Address: Department of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Email: chairperson@appsy.pu.edu.pk, Phone: 92-42-9231245
Abstract:
Research was conducted to investigate the social media usage among mothers and impact on child rearing practices. It was hypothesized that there would be a relationship between social media usage and child rearing practices. The sample for current research comprised of N = 100 working and non-working mothers from different areas of Lahore city. Social media usage was assessed by the Social Media Usage Scale (Contreras, 2016), child rearing practices were assessed using Allabama Parenting Questionnaire-Revised, Parent Version (APQ; Frick, 1991). This questionnaire comprised of 5 subscales: Positive Parenting, Parental Involvement, Poor Parental monitoring, Inconsistent discipline, and Corporal punishment. The results showed that there is positive relationship between social media usage, and child rearing practices. Results also showed social media usage is found to be the significant predictor of child rearing practices indicating that the mothers who spend more time on social media exercise more poor parental practices as indicated by the subscales of inconsistent discipline, corporal punishment, and poor parental monitoring. Implications of the study are important, particularly in Pakistani perspective, where mothers need education and training on healthy and productive usage of social media that enhances child rearing practices in a positive way.
Keywords: Social media, child rearing practices, mothers.
