Parents’ individual and social coping with personalized social media advertising targeting children: The role of threat appraisal and self-efficacy

This study examines how threat appraisal and self-efficacy affect parents’ coping with personalized social media advertising (PSMA) targeting children. A survey of 576 parents of young social media users aged 10 to 17 in Australia reveals that parents are more likely to explain PSMA to their children (individual coping) and support external socialization agents’ initiatives to address the potential risks of PSMA (social coping) when they perceive social media platforms’ data collection practices as significantly harmful. While the extent to which parents believe that their children are vulnerable to harm is positively associated with social coping, it does not influence individual coping. The results also show that parents’ confidence in their ability to carry out parental mediation is positively related to both individual and social coping. However, parents’ confidence in their general parenting ability does not impact PSMA coping strategies.