Guidance Misaligned? The Moderating Role of Perceptual Discrepancies in Parental Mediation Effects

Drawing upon parental mediation theory, this study investigates how different parental mediation strategies affect both negative (content risks) and positive (learning and cognitive development) outcomes of adolescents’ digital media use while examining how parent-adolescent absolute and directional perceptual discrepancies moderate these relationships. Using survey data collected from 492 parent-adolescent dyads in China, the study found that active mediation was negatively associated with content risks and positively associated with learning and cognitive development. Results demonstrated that absolute parent-adolescent perceptual discrepancies moderated the effects of active mediation and parental supervision on content risks, as well as the effects of active mediation and parental supervision on learning and cognitive development. However, directional parent-adolescent perceptual discrepancies did not show a significant moderating effect. This study advances parental mediation theory by integrating risk and benefit outcomes and highlighting the moderating role of parent-adolescent perceptual discrepancies, thereby providing practical guidance for parents to optimize adolescents’ digital media experiences and future parental mediation.