“I Don’t Think They Even Knew What to Tell Me:” Social Media Mediation and Emerging Adult Social Media Outcomes

Parenting styles are known to be associated with parental media mediation styles, but no research has demonstrated associations between social media mediation styles and social media outcomes that emerging adults report are important to them. In this exploratory mixed-methods study, emerging adults recalled their parents’ parenting styles, their parents’ social media mediation styles, and their social media outcomes as emerging adults. Parenting styles in general did not always influence social media mediation styles, with qualitative participants often reporting their authoritative parents used restrictive social media mediation. This was supported quantitatively as emerging adults reported their parents’ styles were not associated with their parents’ social media mediation styles. Emerging adults reported their parents’ efforts to use active mediation centered around safety and self-presentation, but emerging adults never reported these as concerns of their current social media use. Rather, they reported struggling with social media outcomes of self-control failure, fear of missing out, social media social comparison, and amplification of emotions. Parenting styles were not associated with these outcomes except for a positive relationship between permissive parenting and fear of missing out. Furthermore, parental social media mediation styles were not associated with any of the social media outcomes that emerging adults reported as concerns. Parents and counselors can use these findings to focus their active mediation of social media use on cognitive and emotional outcomes that emerging adults identify as important, negative outcomes.