Parenting With Chinese Characteristics in the Digital Age: Chinese Parents’ Perspectives and Parental Mediation of Children’s Media Use

Abstract

This study explores parental views of early adolescents’ media use and parental mediation among urban middle-class families in mainland China through a sociocultural perspective. By interviewing 18 Chinese parents, this research found that parents’ concerns with media, such as children’s eyesight, Internet addiction, and learning outcomes, align with the public discourse, shaped by the parenting philosophy and sociocultural priorities in contemporary Chinese families. Chinese parents tend to develop mediation strategies related to these concerns and refer to restrictive mediation in the context of Chinese guan parenting, a combination of control/demand and warmth/sacrifice, which provides a more nuanced perspective on restrictive mediation in terms of its actual practices. The research adds to the theory of parental mediation and highlights the need to study culturally specific parental perspectives and mediation to understand children’s media experiences. Further implications are discussed.