The Relationship between Perceived Parental Control and Internet Addiction: A Cross-sectional study among Adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental psychological andbehavioral control which the adolescents perceived from their parents and internetaddiction. It employed relational survey model and was carried out with the participationof a total of 356 students (female=205, male=151) aged 14-18. Correlation and regressionanalyses were utilized to determine the level and direction of the relationship between theirperceived parental psychological and behavioral control, and internet addiction. The resultsyielded a positive, medium-level and meaningful relation between them. It was found thatparental psychological control explained nearly 18% of the total variance in internetaddiction and mothers are perceived as significantly more psychologically controlling ininternet addiction than fathers. Also, the relationship between parental behavioral controland the level of adolescents’ internet addiction was found negative and non-significant.Consequently, it was noted that perceived parental psychological control was effective inadolescents’ internet addiction tendencies, whereas behavioral control did not producesuch effect.