Onishi Ryuta
Faculty of Nursing, Toyama Prefectural University, Toyama-shi, Toyama-ken, Japan.
Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2024 Dec 19;7:e58757. doi: 10.2196/58757.
In today's digital society, the acquisition of parenting information through online platforms such as social networking sites (SNSs) has become widespread. Amid the mix of online and offline information sources, there is a need to discover effective information-seeking methods for solving parenting problems.
This study aimed to identify patterns of information use among parents of young children in the digital age and elucidate the characteristics of these patterns through a comparative analysis of parental social support and self-efficacy.
An internet-based survey was administered to fathers and mothers of children aged 0-3 years. Convenience sampling, facilitated by an internet-based survey company, was adopted, and data from 227 fathers and 206 mothers were analyzed. The survey included questions on personal characteristics, frequency of use of different sources of parenting information (websites, SNSs, parenting apps, family, friends, and professionals), availability of parental social support, and parental self-efficacy. The Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) clustering algorithm was used to identify patterns in parenting information use.
A total of 4 clusters were identified: multisource gatherers (n=161), offline-centric gatherers (n=105), online-centric gatherers (n=86), and minimal information gatherers (n=68). The availability of parental social support was perceived to be relatively higher among multisource and offline-centric gatherers compared with online-centric and minimal information gatherers. Parental self-efficacy was highest among multisource gatherers, followed by offline-centric and online-centric gatherers, and lowest among minimal information gatherers.
This study contributes to the evidence that online information can effectively complement offline information in addressing parenting challenges, although its ability to fully replace offline sources remains limited. Parenting support professionals are encouraged to understand parents' current information use strategies and actively foster their social relationships, helping them to adopt more diverse and comprehensive approaches to information use.
在当今数字社会，通过社交网站（SNS）等在线平台获取育儿信息已变得十分普遍。在在线和离线信息源混杂的情况下，需要找到解决育儿问题的有效信息寻求方法。
本研究旨在识别数字时代幼儿父母的信息使用模式，并通过对父母社会支持和自我效能的比较分析来阐明这些模式的特征。
对0至3岁儿童的父母进行了一项基于互联网的调查。采用了由一家基于互联网的调查公司协助的便利抽样方法，并对227名父亲和206名母亲的数据进行了分析。该调查包括有关个人特征、不同育儿信息来源（网站、SNS、育儿应用程序、家人、朋友和专业人士）的使用频率、父母社会支持的可得性以及父母自我效能的问题。使用围绕中心点划分（PAM）聚类算法来识别育儿信息使用模式。
共识别出4个类别：多源收集者（n = 161）、以离线为中心的收集者（n = 105）、以在线为中心的收集者（n = 86）和最少信息收集者（n = 68）。与以在线为中心和最少信息收集者相比，多源和以离线为中心的收集者感知到的父母社会支持可得性相对更高。父母自我效能在多源收集者中最高，其次是以离线为中心和以在线为中心的收集者，在最少信息收集者中最低。
本研究提供了证据，表明在线信息在应对育儿挑战方面可以有效地补充离线信息，尽管其完全取代离线来源的能力仍然有限。鼓励育儿支持专业人员了解父母当前的信息使用策略，并积极促进他们的社会关系，帮助他们采用更多样化和全面的信息使用方法。
