Over the past few decades, the internet has become an inseparable part of many people’s lives. The internet has become an integral part of our daily activities, including social, economic, educational, and lifestyle. The internet is a technology that can facilitate people to access a wide variety of sources of information easily. Regarding its beneficial use, excessive use of the internet can cause the disturbance of social, health, and academic in children and adolescents. Adolescents are considered vulnerable and at-risk to become internet addicts due to immature self-control, easy access, and flexible schedule. Adolescents use the internet to perform their school tasks, entertainment, recreation, social media, etc. A previous meta-analysis study among 31 nations, get results of 6.0% global prevalence of internet addiction. The highest prevalence was in the Middle East, while the lowest was in Northern and Western Europe. Internet addiction is commonly higher in Asian adolescents than in the US and Europe. Internet usage penetration rate in Indonesia increases from year to year. In 2017 the increase of internet users was 8% to 143.26 million people that equivalent to 54.68% of the total population.
Previous studies have highlighted the dangers of excessive use of the internet against adolescents associated with other psychiatric disorders. Internet addiction can cause damage in a series of social, physical, and mental complications and inversely associated with quality of life. It’s important to identify the risk and protective factors against internet addiction to support the growth and development of children and adolescents. During adolescence, parents have an important role in supervising and managing children’s free time to avoid internet addiction. Quality communication between parents-children on internet usage can significantly reduce the compulsive internet use in a child. The quality of communication can be affected by parenting style.
Parenting style is one of the dominant factors that can affect the habits, lifestyle, and behavior of the children. There are three types of parenting styles (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive). The positive indicators of parenting style are negatively correlated with internet addiction and vice versa. Previous studies still have shown the variation and inconsistent result of the relationship between parenting style and internet addiction. Most studies showed that authoritarian and permissive parenting style are positively correlated with compulsive internet use. Although there were several studies have been conducted on parenting styles toward internet addiction of adolescents, there are still very few studies that different parenting styles from both father and mother’s perspective toward internet addiction level of the adolescents. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between paternal and maternal parenting styles within adolescents’ internet addiction.
This research was an analytic observational study with a cross-sectional through the filling of a self-report questionnaire conducted at one of the junior high schools in Surabaya. The study subjects are students who meet the sample admission and rejection criteria. Large samples were taken stratified random sampling and after checking the completeness of questionnaire filling by the study subjects obtained the results of a number of 114 questionnaires that will be processed data. The questionnaires included the identities of the study subjects, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) questionnaire, and the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) questionnaire. The IAT questionnaire consisted of 20 questions with a 0-5 answer choice scale to measure the degree of internet addiction of study subjects based on 4 symptoms of internet addiction: preoccupation, low self-control, neglect of work, and rejection in social life. Determination of the degree of internet addiction of the study subjects was obtained by summing the total score of the answers of 20 questions available into the specified category. The PAQ questionnaire consisted of 30 questions assessed to measure parenting in two points of view (father and mother) with a 1-5 answer choice scale. Each type of parenting was measured by ten question items. The determination of parenting scores is measured by summing the total score of each question. After calculating the internet addiction score and each type of parenting from two points of view (father and mother) analysis was conducted between the two.
The study found that 77.2% of the study subjects experienced internet addiction and the majority experienced mild degrees of 52.60%. The results of the analysis showed that there was a significantly positive association between permissive and authoritarian parenting of fathers and the degree of adolescent internet addiction. This shows that the stronger the permissive or authoritarian parenting applied by fathers, the higher the internet addiction experienced by teenagers. The strongest significantly positive relationship was shown between father’s permissive parenting and teen’s degree of internet addiction. Therefore it can be concluded if parenting style plays a significant role in adolescents’ internet addiction. These studies highlight the importance of fathers not using permissive and authoritarian parenting styles to prevent internet addiction among their children. Applied the effective parenting style and increased the quality of interaction between parents-adolescents is the best way to create welfare of adolescents mental health also to prevent adolescents developed internet addiction.
Author: Dr. Yunias Setiawati, dr.,Sp.K.J(K)
Detailed information from this research can be seen in the author’s writing at https://ijps.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijps/article/view/2326/1026
https://ijps.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijps/article/view/2326/1026
Setiawati Y, Hartanti D, Husada D, Irwanto I, Ardani IGAI, Nazmuddin M. Relationship between Paternal and Maternal Parenting Style with Internet Addiction Level of Adolescents. Iran J Psychiatry. 2021;16(4):438-443.
