ERIC Number: EJ1390978
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Sep
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0165-0254
EISSN: EISSN-1464-0651
Is More Information Always Better? Associations among Parents' Online Information Searching, Information Overload, and Self-Efficacy
Glatz, Terese; Lippold, Melissa A.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, v47 n5 p444-453 Sep 2023
The internet constitutes an important platform for parents to find information. How online information searching is linked to parental self-efficacy (PSE)--defined as parents' perceptions about their abilities to have a positive impact on their children--is still unknown. This two-wave study examined cross-lagged associations between PSE and parents' online information searching, as well as the prospective effect of perceived information overload on PSE and online information searching. Moreover, we examined whether these associations differed depending on the online context (governmental-run or nongovernmental-run websites). We used a sample of 214 parents of children (equal number of boys and girls) <4 years (85% of the parents were mothers and 93% were born in Sweden), who completed an online survey twice, 1 year apart. The results showed that parents who felt more efficacious at T1 reported a decrease in online information searching over time. The frequency of parents online searching, however, did not predict changes in PSE. In addition, the effects of information overload depended on the type of websites parents used. Among parents who used both types of websites to search for information, higher information overload was linked with increases in information searching and decreases in PSE over time. The results suggest that perceptions of low self-efficacy and feelings of overload might motivate parents to use the internet more to search for information.
Descriptors: Parents, Information Seeking, Online Searching, Information Dissemination, Information Management, Barriers, Self Efficacy, Parent Attitudes, Parent Child Relationship, Young Children, Incidence, Web Sites, Foreign Countries, Internet
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sweden
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A