Gender and parent–adolescent differences in perceived media parenting: evidence from a Chinese validation study

Parents and children often have different perceptions of parenting practices and we have limited knowledge on this issue regarding the media parenting practices. In this study, we aimed to examine the gender (male vs. female) and parent-adolescent differences in perceived media parenting in Chinese society. Adolescents (N = 737, Mean age = 14.71, SD = 1.40; 56.3% girls) and their parents (N = 702, 62.5% mothers) were sampled and invited to complete a newly developed Media Parenting Practices Scale (MPPS), resulting in a total of 486 matched families (with 272 girls and 293 mothers). The results confirmed the five latent constructs of MPPS with appropriate psychometric evidence: restriction, involvement, modeling, supervision, and reward. The between-group analysis identified significant gender differences in perceived media parenting between fathers and mothers and between boys and girls. The paired-sample t-test revealed significant parent–adolescent differences, with parents reporting significantly higher levels of media parenting practices than their adolescents.