Supporting from the Background: How a Mobile Application for Parent Skills Development Encourages Authoritative Parenting

Rebecca M. Jonas, Benjamin V. Hanrahan, Carlie J. Sloan, Gregory M. Fosco

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper, we describe initial findings of a usability evaluation of a mobile parenting app for families with adolescents. We designed and built a mobile app to support healthy family dynamics through behavioral parent management and skills development, intended to serve as an accessible alternative to traditional intervention programs. We conducted semi-structured interviews and usability evaluations of our app with seven families with adolescents. Interviews centered around modules in the app for planning and maintaining adolescents' morning routine and monitoring adolescents' activities and whereabouts. While the app was not designed to support a specific parenting style, findings demonstrated the app's potential to encourage authoritative parenting by balancing adolescent autonomy with parental support and monitoring. By modeling parental monitoring around communication-based information solicitation and disclosure rather than tracking and surveillance, we also found that the app could help to diffuse parent-adolescent conflict and tension.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCSCW 2023 Companion - Conference Companion Publication of the 2023 Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
EditorsMorgan Ames, Susan Fussell, Eric Gilbert, Vera Liao, Xiaojuan Ma, Xinru Page, Mark Rouncefield, Vivek Singh, Pamela Wisniewski
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages105-111
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9798400701290
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 14 2023
Event26th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2023 - Minneapolis, United States
Duration: Oct 14 2023Oct 18 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

Conference

Conference26th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityMinneapolis
Period10/14/2310/18/23

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Human-Computer Interaction

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