1. Participants & Procedure
Parents’ use of Facebook as a Source of Support Dr. Jessica Troilo and Dr. Bob Britten; West Virginia University
Abstract
Participants & Procedure
Based on our data from 145 parent, Facebook users, we found that parents’ belief that their friends are similar to them are positively correlated to providing and seeking parenting advice, sharing information about children, feeling positive about the advice they’ve received, and feeling understood by their Facebook friends. We did find gender differences, however, in that fathers were less likely to provide advice, share information about their children, feel positive about the advice they received, and feel understood by their friends as compared to mothers. We suggest that Facebook is an important tool well-educated parents use in finding answers to parenting questions and feeling validated about their parenting concerns, which likely provides support, though this may be less true for fathers.
Data were based on a purposive sample of 145 parents who were 18 or older, had at least one child, and were Facebook users. Survey was collected via an online survey. Most respondents were women (66%) and White (96%). Parents’ mean age was (SD: 7.68). Most participants were married (88%) and had 2 children, and most children were 15 or younger. Almost all (80%) had a college or graduate degree and logged into Facebook at least once per day (88%).
The authors posted an announcement about the study on three parent-focused Facebook group pages. The announcement asked participants to post the study announcement on their Facebook pages to further advertise the study. Reminders were posted on each group page twice, each about a week apart. The survey was open from February 14, 2011 through March 31, A total of 165 parents took the survey, and 145 were completed in full (88%).
Results
Discussion
We expected that ACS scores would be positively correlated with: sharing of information (H1), providing and seeking parenting advice (H2, H3), satisfaction with parenting advice (H4), and feeling understood by Facebook friends (H5).
We also hypothesized differences in the ACS and the FPBS based on sex. Men were significantly less likely to perceive similarities with their friends, share information about their children, provide or ask for parenting advice, feel satisfied with parenting advice they received, and feel understood by their friends.
Note. Lower numbers correspond with greater levels of variable. * p < .05, ** p < .01 (all tests two-tailed).
This study sought to understand whether or not parents use Facebook as a support to their parenting. We found that parents’ perceptions of similarity with their Facebook friends is positively related to feeling satisfied by the parenting advice given and feeling understood by our friends. This suggests that individuals don’t limit their advice giving or requesting or sharing child information based on feeling similar to Facebook friends. Further, we found that Facebook behaviors are all highly, positively correlated. This suggests that individuals who use Facebook as a support rely on that medium for a number of activities.
Finally, we found that men were less likely to engage in Facebook behaviors (with the exception of seeking advice) or feel similar to friends as compared to females. This may be because involved fatherhood is a newer aspect to fatherhood identities, and it may that fathers actively seeking parenting advice in a public medium is rare.
VARIABLE
M/SD
RANGE
1 ACS
3.14/.77
1-5
2 Sharing Information
2.46/.81
3 Providing Advice
2.94/.84
4 Seeking Advice
3.16/.72
5 Satisfaction w/Advice
2.43/.66
6 Feeling Understood
2.05/.54
Introduction
VARIABLE 1 2 3 4 5
1 ACS
2 Sharing
.136
3 Providing
.076
.547**
4 Seeking
.057
.654**
.559**
5 Satisfaction
.183*
.338**
.150
.408**
6 Understood
.345**
.288**
.097
.228**
.594**
Measures & Analysis
Becoming a first-time parent is stressful, but the process of parenting itself can also bring about considerable levels of stress for parents (Price, Price, & McKenry, 2009). Support groups can alleviate that stress., but is Facebook a useful support for parents?
Parenting advice has existed for more than a century long before the Internet came into existence (Rutherford, 2009). Prior to the Internet, about 80% of mothers relied on informal sources of parenting support (Crockenburg, 1986), and today, a Google search of “parenting advice” returns well over 30 million hits. It is less clear how parents use those resources.
Our exploratory study used Social Capital Theory, which states that both bonding (resources from close relationships) and bridging (resources from “weak ties”) provides us with information and emotional support, but to different degrees. Research remains unclear as to the benefit of social media on individuals’ bonding and bridging capital.
Two measures were created for this survey, as no measure of Facebook usage currently exists. We sought guidance from an expert in the field (Baum, 2004) as well as piloted our measures prior to this study.
The Attitude Congruence Scale (ACS) is a 6-question measure that assess how similar in attitudes participants believed their Facebook friends were in terms of religion, politics, social values, family values, and economic values. Scale reliability was quite good (Cronbach’s α = .86).
The Facebook Parenting Behaviors Scale (FPBS) is a 23 question instrument that measures:
Sharing information about children: 6 items, α = .75
Providing parenting advice: 4 items, α = .73
Seeking parenting advice: 5 items, α = .86
4. Satisfaction with parenting advice provided: 4 items, α = .49
5. Feeling understood by Facebook friends: 4 items, α = .53
Contact Information
Dr. Jessica Troilo, Assistant Professor
Child Development and Family Studies
Dr. Bob Britten, Assistant Professor
P.I. Reed School of Journalism
VARIABLE
MALE M/SD
FEMALE M/SD
ACS
3.25/.79*
2.89/.71*
Sharing Information
2.79/.78**
2.36/.79**
Providing Advice
3.34/.74**
2.86/.83**
Seeking Advice
3.35/.63
3.11/.68
Satisfaction w/Advice
2.61/.69*
2.33/.54*
Feeling Understood
2.21/.59*
1.99/.48*