Andrea Dürager’s scientific contributions

This article explores internet-related parent–child relationships across twenty-five European countries. Parent–child dyads are analysed in terms of parental mediation, digital competence, and communicative proximity, in order to answer the following research questions: Which types of parent–child relationship with respect to internet use can be found? How do they coincide with developmental, social, and cultural patterns? And how are they distributed across European Union countries? Using data from the EU Kids Online survey, four types of parent–child relationship were identified. The types are shaped by several factors on the level of child, family, and country, with the child's age and internet use being the most important predictors. Based on the prevalence of these family types, six country clusters were identified, which represent technical, social, and cultural contexts shaping the type of internet-related parent–child relationship.

Obwohl beinahe ein ‚altes‘ Medium, sind Strukturen und Inhalte des Fernsehens auch in aktuellen Debatten ein zentraler Gegenstand. Neue und veränderte Angebotsumgebungen (vgl. Hasebrink 2001), die Umstellungen der Empfangsebenen und vor allem soziodemografische Wandlungsprozesse bedürfen erhöhter Aufmerksamkeit und fragen nach angemessener Forschung (vgl. Paus-Hasebrink 2010). Neben Verschiebungen in der Altersstruktur (niedrigere Geburtenraten, höhere Lebenserwartung) oder soziökonomischen Differenzierungen (vgl. Paus-Hasebrink/Bichler 2008) fallen vor allem Veränderungen in den sozialen Beziehungsstrukturen (Alleinerzieherinnen und -erzieher sowie Patchworkfamilien statt bürgerlicher Kernfamilie; Flexibilität der Elternarbeitsplätze, zunehmende Berufstätigkeit von Müttern; veränderte Erziehungsstile) sowie hinsichtlich der lebensweltlichen Rahmenbedingungen (z.B. veränderten Wohn- und Lebenssituationen, Verhäuslichung der Kinder) und der gesellschaftlichen Wertegefüge als Momente für Veränderungen von Medienkommunikation auf (vgl. z.B. Paus-Haase 1998: 15f.; Kränzl-Nagl/Mierendorff 2007). Insgesamt geht der Trend unter anderem zu Individualisierung, zu mehr Selbstständigkeit bzw. mehr Eigeninitiative bei Kindern (vgl. Andresen/Hurrelmann 2010: 46), zu weniger Traditionsgepflogenheiten, aber auch mehr Multikulturalität sowie zur Kommerzialisierung der Alltagswelt; für die Entwicklung vom Kind zum Erwachsenen sind diese Aspekte von erheblicher Bedeutung (vgl. Paus-Haase 1998: 15f.).

Drawing on sociological and psychological theoretical perspectives, this chapter elaborates on two research questions. How does parents' formal education influence children's internet use? And how does children's development by age interact with their family background in terms of an autonomous and competent use of the internet? The interrelation between these two processes, parental socialisation and development by age, helps us understand the interplay of children's activities in dealing with the internet and their parents' handling of that. The chapter first discusses the persistent importance of social inequality for information and communications technology (ICT) use in the industrialised countries. It then elaborates on a theoretical framework by discussing both children and parents' individual agency and how these are interlinked with respect to their societal status. Finally, based on the EU Kids Online dataset, it tests out the theoretical ideas and hypotheses and ask how parental socialisation shapes young people's online competences, and how children's development by age interacts with structural processes and dynamics of socialisation. Children with a lower socio-economic background agree that they know more about the internet than their parents, as these children might acquire internet skills often independently from their parents.

Introduction Across Europe, economic restructuring and immigration from disadvantaged countries show that relations related to inequality are dynamic and persistent. Given the diversity of European countries, in social, cultural and economic terms, the gaps between rich and poor take various forms and occur to differing degrees. However, in all countries social inequalities are a major concern in social politics. Political economists point to the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that continue to affect the communicative rights and competencies of considerable numbers of citizens (Murdock and Golding, 2004). Hence, the increasing emergence of a society that is mediated, experienced and encountered more and more through the internet is raising continuous questions about whether and how vulnerable families are getting the best out of the social, informational, educational and cultural opportunities of online technologies (Livingstone, 2009). The younger children are, the more parental education is required for them to use the internet safely and exploit its potentials. Since lower parental educational status often leads to less confidente parental mediation, we need to provide the resources for children to draw on to build competencies for using the internet and coping with online risks. As children get older, they achieve more unrestricted access to and use of the internet, and parents tend to refrain from intervening in their personal time and space (see, for example, Wang et al, 2005; Livingstone and Helsper, 2008; Bauwens et al, 2009). However, the degree of liberty children enjoy and how they deal with it is often the product of a particular family culture. Drawing on sociological and psychological theoretical perspectives, this chapter investigates two research questions: How does parents’ formal education influence children's internet use? How does children's development (by age) interact with their family background in terms of an autonomous and competent use of the internet? The interrelation between these two processes, that is, parental socialisation and development by age, helps us understand the interplay between children's activities in dealing with the internet and how their parents mediate this. Building on existing empirical work, first, we discuss the persistent importance of social inequality in information and communications technology (ICT) use in industrialised countries; second, we propose a theoretical framework that includes children and parents’ individual agency and how they are interlinked with respect to their societal status.