Investigation of parents' digital parenting awerness

The aim of this study is to determine the dimensions of digital parenting awareness, to develop a scale related to digital parenting awareness level of parents, and to investigate the level of digital parenting awareness in terms of gender, education level, family roles, age, smartphone usage time and perceived internet addiction in children. Exploratory sequential design, which is accepted as a mixed method, was used in the research. Initially, qualitative interviews and content analysis were conducted; and dimensions of digital parenting awareness were determined. Accordingly, a scale was developed. Then, digital parenting awareness level was examined according to various variables. The study was conducted as three different studies carried out with four different groups. In Study 1, individual interviews were conducted with twelve parents with children who attended primary school to collect data. For study 1, pre-coding method, which is a qualitative method, was found appropriate. Interviews were conducted through a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher. Parents' consent was obtained; so, interviews were recorded. According to the obtained results; it is concluded that digital parenting awareness has five dimensions. In order to carry out study 2, "Digital Parenting Awareness Scale, whose reliability and validity analyses were performed over the item pool prepared by taking individual interviews and literature into consideration, was developed. In the scale development stage, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted on 461 and 291 parents with primary school children, respectively. Internal consistency coefficients, test-half analysis, item analysis and criterion validity findings were obtained in order to certify the reliability of the scale. The data in Study 2 were collected online. According to the results obtained, a valid and reliable four-dimensional and 16-item "Digital Parenting Awareness Scale" was achieved. Finally, within the scope of Study 3, whether digital parenting awareness differs according to gender, level of education and domestic roles by adopting a screening type model; and whether there was relationship between age, smartphone usage time and perceived internet addiction in children by adopting digital parenting awareness and relational screening model were investigated. In order to perform the Study 3, 409 parents with children attending primary school were reached online. To perform screening type model, T-test and one-way ANOVA analysis and to perform the relational screening model, correlation analyses were used. According to the findings of Study 3, it was determined that gender, education level and domestic roles differ significantly according to some sub-dimensions of digital parenting awareness; on the other hand, there is a significant relationship between digital parenting awareness and age, smartphone usage time and perceived internet addiction in children. In line with the findings obtained, a discussion was made by taking the literature and suggestions into account; and suggestions were made to parents, guidance teachers and researchers. Keywords: digital parenting, digital parenting awareness, digital, parent, exploratory sequential design.