Research on the Joint Effects of Parental Protection Motivation and Mediation Strategies on Parent-Child Conflict

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_43How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Protection Motivation Theory (PMT); Parent-Child Conflict; Smartphone Usage; Parental Mediation Strategies

Abstract

With the popularization of smartphones among minors, parent-child conflict arising from children’s use of smartphones within the family has gradually become a core issue in contemporary family education. This study uses Rogers’ Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) as its theoretical framework, aiming to systematically examine how parents’ cognitive appraisal of children’s smartphone usage risks influences the level of parent-child conflict through different types of mediation strategies. A questionnaire survey method was employed, and an empirical investigation was conducted with 236 parents of children aged 2 to 18. The results showed that: there was a significant positive correlation between children’s smartphone usage time and parent-child conflict; threat appraisal positively predicted the adoption of restrictive mediation strategies by parents, whereas coping appraisal positively predicted the adoption of co-use strategies; restrictive mediation significantly exacerbated parent-child conflict, while the relationship between co-use and parent-child conflict showed complex patterns across different models; mediation effect analysis further indicated that “restrictive mediation” played a fully mediating role between “threat appraisal” and parent-child conflict, whereas “co-use” played a partially mediating role between “coping appraisal” and “parent-child conflict,” but its indirect effect was positive, overall manifesting as a suppression effect. From the perspective of PMT, this study illustrates psychological motivations behind the different strategies parents use to manage their children’s smartphone use. It aims to help parents rationally understand their own management motivations to alleviate parent-child conflict in the digital era, providing valuable theoretical reference and practical insights for parents and educators in addressing new-era parent-child issues.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Junlin Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - Research on the Joint Effects of Parental Protection Motivation and Mediation Strategies on Parent-Child Conflict
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 414
EP  - 425
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_43
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_43
ID  - Wang2026
ER  -