JOSÉ RIZAL UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL

JOSE RIZAL UNIVERSITY

Graduate School

SOCIAL MEDIA IN DIGITAL AGE: AN APPROACH TO REINFORCE EFFECTIVE PARENTING

A Thesis Proposal
Presented to
The Faculty of the Graduate School of
Jose Rizal University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER of ARTS in EDUCATION
Major in Social Science
Name

Jesusa E. Ambrosio

May 2022

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, significance and scope and limitations of the study.

Background of the Study

Nowadays, social media has deeply penetrated in our daily life. People use social media for various purposes – for social networking, learning,

and entertainment interests and to express political views (Yu, 2016), among many other reasons. With the rise of smartphones and the

increase of WIFI access, adolescents can engage in social media use on a 24 hour basis (Van der Veer,et al., 2017). Social media cover the

use of different internet applications for example email, instant messaging (e.g. Whatsapp), and the use of social network sites (e.g. Facebook)

(Zhan, Sun, Wang, & Zhang, 2016). People rely on them for the use of news updates, entertainment, fashion trends, etc. They usually access

it via web page apps on smartphones, desktop, laptap or tablets. Such sites have grown rapidly in recent years. Far from being neutral for

everyone, social media have changed the conditions and rules of social interaction (Dijick, Poell, 2013).

According to VanMeter, Grisaffe, and Chonko (2015), social media is defined as multiway and immediate communication exchange among

social actors across an interactive platform.

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This study focuses on social media as a holistic phenomenon, rather than on any specific social media tool (e.g Facebook, Twitter or

Instagram). Furthermore, the literature provides evidence that students perform better when their parents are involved (Omstead,2013). Social

media helps connects parents with teachers who care about students’ success and want to develop positive, trusting and reliable relationships

which researchers identify as a significant component in student academic success (Barone 2012; Duggan, Lenhart, Lampe, & Ellison,2015).

Research conducted by Livingstone (2008) and Livingstone et al. (2011) shows that parents have an impact on adolescents’ positive or

negative engagements on the Internet. Social media has given teens the ability to instantly connect with others and share their lives through

photos, videos and status updates. Teens themselves describe these platforms as a key tool for connecting and maintaining relationships,

being creative and learning about the world (Andreson and Jiang, 2018). In general, people have the urge to create and maintain relationships

with other people (Verduyn et al. 2017). When using social media, people interact with others which contribute to the building and maintenance

of their relations with others. Furthermore, when people get a feeling of connectedness to others and gain support from their network, it has a

positive effect on their life satisfaction (Valenzuela et al., 2009; Utz & Breur, 2017). On the other side, it has also a negative effect. They are

also receptive to peer pressure, low self-esteem and mental ill health. Studies have found connection between the excessive use of social

media to depression, anxiety, sleep problems, eating concerns and suicide risk. Current US data suggest that 93% of adolescents and adults

between 12 and 29 years old go online and 25% of teens are constantly connected (Angelo and Moreno, 2020). However, excessive use of

social media has also shown to have effects on parenting; causing parental distraction, decreasing the level of everyday parental engagement,

and making a child more likely to be at risk for injury (Contreras, 2016). Social media are particularly likely to exacerbate feelings of envy

because most social media users only share positive things about themselves online. This can trigger the idea that others have a better life

and nicer life, which in turn can have a negative effect on people’s life satisfaction (Krasnova et al., 2013).

According to a study funded by Microsoft in 2014, people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the effects of an

increasingly digitized lifestyle on the brain. Attention span, as defined by Webster (2011) is the amount of concentrated time a person can

spend on a task without becoming distracted.

In the Philippines, there is still a limited number of literatures that directly links the use of social media to the attention span of

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students and their ability to maintain concentration. Furthermore, the international research conducted on this topic does not provide evidence

that the results transcend through different cultural backgrounds and age groups.

In the local context, the present study which will be conducted in Nova Schola Tanauan Batangas, depression is especially bad with students

due to the amount of stress and anxiety they have to go through. While depression is very difficult to identify and treat, excessive sadness, one

of the symptoms that may lead to depression can be identified early and appropriate action can be taken. In this current study the target

respondents are Grade 11 HUMSS students of Nova Schola, aiming at ascertaining perceived parental involvement of using social media of

their children.

Statement of the Problem

This study was conducted to reinforce effective parenting to their children in using social media.

Research Aim

The study aimed to determine the level of effectiveness of parenting and their involvement in using social media among their children. It is in

this light that the purpose of this study to determine whether social media usage possess any significant difference between the level of

involvement between the parents and their children in using social media.

Research Questions

Specifically, this study was conducted to answer the following questions:

1. What is the level of parents’ involvement in monitoring their children when using social media in terms of:

1.1 House rules on technology

1.2 Communication

2. How often is the usage of social media of the students in terms of:

2.1 forms of social media?

2.2 frequency of social media use?

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3. What is the perception of the parents and the students on the social media usage?

4. Is there significant difference between the level of involvement in monitoring their children when using social media and frequency of

social media use?

5. Is there significant difference between social media usage of student based from the perception of parents and the student themselves?

6. Based on the findings of the study, what recommendations can be proposed to the parent’s involvement in monitoring their children in using

social media?

Research Hypothesis
These are the hypothesis formulated that will be statistically tested in the study.
1. There is no significant difference between the level of involvement in monitoring their children when using social media and the

frequency of social media use.

2. There is no significant difference between social media usage of students based on the perception of parents and the student themselves.

Significance of the Study

The study is deemed beneficial to the following:

Parents – They will benefit from the results of this study by having children who have uncontrollable and devoting too much time to social

media that impairs other important life areas.

Children – They will benefit from the results of this study by being aware of some activities that can be discovered when they use social media

in proper way. They can enhance their other skills that can help them to boost their self-esteem.

School - They will benefit from the results of this study as the basis in formulating extension program which can help educate the parents on

effective parenting among their children in social media.

Community- They will benefit from the results of this study to the people in the community that creates a healthy environment and encourage

them to get involve in civic and community activities. This would also give them insights on the realities of effective parenting and can

contribute on the improvement of existing programs that they already have.

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Researcher- They will benefit from the results of this study to get the first-hand information about how to encourage parents in reinforcing

effective parenting among their children in using social media. It also helps the future researchers to serve as their reference for any related

researches in developing a structure for their study.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The study involves randomly sampled Grade 11 senior high school students enrolled in HUMSS track in Nova Schola, Tanauan. Perceived

parental involvement in using social media was in terms of house rules on technology and communication. The frequency of using social

media of the students in terms of forms and frequency of social media use. The researcher based her study on the data that was collected on

the Second Quarter of the Academic Year 2021 – 2022.The questionnaire had to be specific and therefore did not contain all potentially

relevant characteristics.

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the information gathered from published and unpublished materials as well as the studies conducted in the past that has

some bearing or similarity with the present study, which helped and guided the researcher.

Related Literature and Studies

Parenting in the Philippines

In most if not all cultures, parenting is seen as an integral social role with great influence on the lives of children and parents themselves

(Alampay, 2014;Bornstain, 2001). The importance of parenting is particularly highlighted in Philippine society in which the family is generally

seen as central to one’s social world (Jocano,1998). Local and cross cultural researchers have describe the Filipino family as characterized by

cohesiveness, respect for elders, deference to parental authority, ad fulfilment of mutual obligations (Chao&Cheng, 2002; Medina 2001).

Current State of Social Media in the Philippines

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According to (Sanchez, 2020), the Philippines have been called social media capital of the world, because most of the social media users have

an extraordinarily high usage time of about four hours per day. Additionally, they are known as early technology adopters s well as being highly

internet-savvy. Yet the infrastructure cannot keep up with the population’s needs. The archipelago consists of around seven thousand islands,

making it difficult for the government to provide basic connectivity. As of 2017, around 64 million out of 105 million inhabitants had internet

access. While 81 percent of the 18 to 24 year-olds were already online, only 12 percent of those aged 55 years an older were able to access

the internet. It is expected that by 2025, around 90 million Filipinos will become users of a social network. Considering the forecasted

population of around 118 million, it reflects the high popularity of social media in the Philippines.

Social Media in Foreign Country

Parents play a vital role to become aware of the quality of social media sites for their children because not all are healthy environments for

them. According to the American Academy Of Paediatrics, they updated the media guidelines for children and adolescents in 2016 but only

20% of parents of children aged 0 to 8 years are well acquainted with those guidelines. Most teens (children ages 8-12 years) (84%) and teens

(66%) informed that their parents have communicated to them about their media use. For 30% of teens, their parents have a narrow

knowledge of what they post on social media (Hill, 2020). Parents and children no longer have conversations face to face but rather will text

each other, even when they are only a short distance away or within the same house. Individuals also use social media as an outlet to vent

frustrations and connect with others in similar situations throughout the world. For these reasons, mobile devices such as cell phones and

tablets have become ubiquitous and are an ever expanding aspect of socialization for children (Blake and Wrothen , 2012). Excessive use of

social media may lead to decrease in the many communication processes necessary to create strong bonds between a parent and a child

(Contreras, 2016) This raises the question what the effects of different types of social media use are on adolescents’ life satisfaction and what

role parents can play to prevent possible negative outcomes of social media use (Dallinghaus, 2018).

 Sharenting – Parenting in the Digital Age

‘Sharenting’ is a term used to describe the ways many parents share details about their children’s lives online. In a journal titled Sharenting:

Children’s Privacy in the Age of Social Media (Steinnberg, 2017), the author raised the issue that there is an ample discussion focused on the

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threats children face when they are online, and yet little discussion is centered at the parents choices to publish information about their children

in the virtual world and its effects.

Parental Mediation of Children’s Internet Use

In examining parental mediation strategies for children’s Internet use, researchers began with the strategies already identified for television

use. In 205 survey of British 9 to 19 year old, (Livingstone and Helsper, 2008) found that restrictive mediation (rules, time limits, and bans on

particular activities or contents) was commonly used, as were technical controls (parents tools and filters of various kinds), but that the

distinction between active mediation (talking about and explaining the media) and co-use (sharing the activity) was no longer applicable. They

argued that while parents and children may watch television together without conversation, the close proximity, focus on a shared screen, and

active decisions (where to click, what to select) required by Internet use invites social interaction, blurring co-use and active mediation (see

also Garmendia et al..,2012; Troseth et al.,2016; Valkenburg, piotrwski, Hermanns, & de Leeuw, 2013. Extending this approach across 25

European countries, the EU Kids Online network identified five distinct strategies for 9 to 16 year old (Livingstone, Haddon, Gorzig, & Olafsson,

2011): active mediation of Internet use (actively discussing and/or sharing the activity); active mediation of Internet safety; restrictive editation;

technical controls; and monitoring (checking on the child’s online activities after use). These have been adopted by Chang et al.’s,2015) survey

of junior high school students and Nikken and Schols’,2015) survey of the parents of under 8s, among others.

Parental Mediation and Risky Online Behavior

Scholars use the term Parental Mediation to describe the interactions between parents and their children regarding media use (Lee & Chae,

2012). Parental Mediation theory is a communication perspective rooted primarily in social/psychological media effects and information

processing theories (Clark 2011). It refers to the role of variation in the types of parent-child interactions in media use and consumption (Collier

et al.2016) and it explains how interpersonal communication between parents and children reduces the negative effects of the media on

children (Clark 2011). In the context of the Internet, this term refers to everything parents to do to protect their children from online risks

(Livingstone 2007). Studies suggest different typologies of online parental mediation (Kirwil 2009); Livingstone & Helsper, 2008); Lwin et al.

2008). These typologies converge into two main strategies: active mediation and restrictive mediation. Active mediation refers to parents’

efforts to guide their children about internet use, advising and helping them learn to behave online ad recommending their children about

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internet use, advising and helping them to learn how to behave online and recommending appropriate web sites (Lee & Chae, 2007);

Valkenburg, Piotrowski, Hermanns, Leeuw, 2013). According to the Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), when parents use

instructive methods the children feel that their parents respect their perspsectives and support their autonomy (Chen & Shi, 2018). As a result,

children tend to obey parental guidance and engage less in risk behaviors (Valkenburg, Piotowski, Hermanns, & Leeuw, 2013). Moreover,

parental mediation based on conversations and critical discussions between parents and children is likely to provide opportunities for children

to ask questions as well as chances for parents to explain the reasoning behind their guidance (Shin & Lwin, 2017). These activities may

design children attitudes and shape their risk perception.

Restrictive mediation refers to rules and restrictions designed to limit children’s exposure to content and social interactions (Kirwil 2009). It

includes using technological means for blocking inappropriate websites and track browsing history and restricting social interactions by setting

rules and checking the children’s activities in an open or covert manner(Lee & Chae,2012; Livingstone & Helsper, 2008; Mesch, 2009). Studies

examining the influence of restrictive mediation on children internet activities introduced indecisive results. Some studies found that restrictive

mediation was effective in reducing children exposure to cyberbullying victimization. For example, Navarro et al.(2013) surveyed children about

being cyberbullied, Internet use and parental mediation strategies. The results showed that monitoring software installed on the computer and

the joint creation of rules regarding the time spent online and personal information shared helped reduced the likelihood of online victimization.

On the other hand, Sasson & Mesh (2014, 2016), in two different studies found that restrictive parental mediation had a positive association

both to cyberbullying victimization and to participation in risky online activities. The researchers concluded that parents who feel their children

are being bullied online or acting in a dangerous way online may increase their oversight.(Shin & Ismail (2014) indicated that restrictive

mediation was positively associated with risky social media behaviors among children.

(Present related literature and studies by theme)

Relevance of the Related Literature and Studies to the Present Study

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It has been a pleasure to me to read those kinds of different studies with regard to parenting in social media. There are some relationships,

similarities, differences of reviewed literature to the present studies.

Theoretical Framework

This section explains the different theories that are related to the subject of the study. This would be used for the analysis and interpretation of

data.

The theoretical framework of the study is to determine an approach to reinforce effective parenting among their children in social media.

Parental mediation studies have demonstrated that the extent to which parent’s guide their children’s media use and which strategies they

apply are related to the characteristics of parents and children (such as educational level, age, gender, media skills) (e.g.,

Nikken&Janz,2006,2013; Nickken&Schlos, 2015). According to (Nikken&Jaan, 2015), mothers are usually more involved than fathers; lower

educated parents tend to be more restrictive, whereas higher educated parents usually apply more active mediation. Parental mediation

research has also convincingly shown that parents vary mediation strategies in accordance with their views on both positive and negative

effects of the media on children.

This research study is anchored on the theory of Baumrind’s on parenting style. Authoritarian parents believe kids should follow the rules

without exception. Authoritative parents use positive discipline strategies to reinforce good behavior like praise and reward system. Permissive

parents usually take on more of a friend role than a parent role. Neglectful parents don’t devote much time or energy into meeting children’s

basic needs.

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Figure 1

Conceptual Framework

The direction of the study is presented in Figure 2 using a flowchart diagram. In this study, parents served as respondents. Their profile was

surveyed including their house rules on technology and communication. I was also surveyed their children forms of social media use and the

frequency of social media and internet activity.  Their views as regards the level of effective parenting among their children in social media

were surveyed using a research-made questionnaire. 

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Figure 2

Operational Definition of Terms

To better understand the content of this study, the following terminologies are defined in their conceptual and operational meaning.

Social Media – Computer based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual

networks and communities.

Parents Participation – Combination of commitment and active participation on the part of the parent to social media activity of their children.

Effectiveness – Capability of producing desired output, it has intended or expected outcome

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

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This Chapter presents the research design to be applied, the respondents of the study, the research locale, the instrument to be utilized in

gathering the data, the data gathering procedures, and the statistical treatment of the data.

Research Design

This study used the descriptive method to determine the level of parents’ involvement among their children in using social media. Descriptive

research is quantitative research that attempts to collect quantifiable information to use for statistical analysis and it describes the

characteristics of the population that is being studied (Bhat, 2019).

The study used descriptive method of research because the researcher believed that it is an accurate method to achieve the objectives of the

study.

The study employed quantitative analysis thru survey to gather parent insights regarding effective parenting among their children in social

media.

Quantitative data were gathered from sampled HUMSS students of Nova Schola Tanauan Batangas.

Population and Sample

The study involves a total of 138 Grade 11 HUMSS students from Nova Schola Senior High School Department. Random sampling was used

by the researcher to find out the target respondents. Moreover, the Slovin’s Formula was used to determine the number of samples with 5%

margin of error.

Table A

Distribution of Respondents

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Grade 11 HUMSS Students

Section Population Sample Size

B 70

C 68

Total 138

Research Locale

The study will be conducted at Nova Schola Tanauan which is formerly known as National Teacher’s College in Tanauan City

Batangas, since the researcher was formerly affiliated with the said school.

Method and Procedure

The questionnaire will be the major instrument used in gathering data. It is divided into two parts, the profile of the respondents and the

questionnaire proper. The profile of the respondents includes the age, gender, highest educational attainment of parents and work status.

On the other hand, the questionnaire proper includes the perceptions of Grade 11 HUMSS students on the involvement of their parents in

using social media.

A letter of request will be forwarded to the office of the principal of the school to ask permission to conduct a survey to the target respondents.

When the permission is granted, the researcher personally asks the Grade 11 HUMSS adviser for the class list. The respondents per section

were chosen by random according to their class list. Distribution and retrieval of the questionnaires will be in google forms since we have no

face-to-face classes. This will be done in one week.

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Instruments

The validation of the instrument was done thru face value validation and by administering the survey instrument to the group of respondents

who are not the target respondents of this study.

Statistical Treatment

REFERENCES
(Note: Use APA Format)
A. Books and Other References
B. Journal and Periodicals
C. Published and Unpublished Materials
D. On-line References
E. Other References

APPENDICES

JOSE RIZAL UNIVERSITY

Graduate School
GRAMMARIAN’S CERTIFICATE

JOSE RIZAL UNIVERSITY

Graduate School

STATISTICIAN’S CERTIFICATE

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BIO-DATA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

DEDICATION

This is wholeheartedly

dedicated to

GOD

her family

friends

and the people

behind this piece of work

J.E.A

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