Visualization, Interaction and Evaluation, and Memory: How Social Media Parenting Practices Mediate the Relationship Between Authoritative Parenting and Mental Health of Young Adult.

The impact of parenting styles on the mental health of young people has long gained widespread attention, yet in the age of social media, do different forms of social media parenting practice have an impact on the relationship between the two, and how does this impact play out? There is a lack of multifactorial mechanistic analyses in this area. Based on online survey data from 413 young adults aged 18-24 in China, this study integrates measurements from Thimm et al and Modecki et al on digital parenting practices to examine the roles of visualization, interaction and evaluation, and positive media memory in the relationship between authoritative parenting style (assessed via the PAQ-R and EMBU-C) and young adults' mental health (measured by the MHC-SF) by a chain mediation analysis. (1) there was a significant correlation between authoritative parenting style and young adults' mental health; (2) Interaction & evaluation and positive media memory independently mediate the relationship between authoritative parenting and young adult mental health, but visualization practice do not.(3) Visualization practice, interaction and evaluation, and positive media memory act as pairwise and triadic chain mediators between authoritative parenting and young adult mental health. (1) Digital parenting practices significantly mediate the relationship between authoritative parenting style and young adult mental health. (2) Visualization practice promotes young adult mental health in authoritative family by influencing interaction and evaluation and thus positive media memory. (3) Positive media memory plays a key mediating function in each chain of influence. This implies that various forms of social media parenting practices primarily influence the mental health of young adults in authoritative family in a chain effect mode.