Examining ‘Sharenting’ From a Psychological Perspective: Comparing Turkish and British Mothers

Abstract

The concept of “Sharenting” can be examined within the scope of negative parenting or abuse of parenting. Sharenting is a neology deriving from “sharing” and “parenting” and refers to parents’ over-sharing of photos, videos, stories and any information regarding their children aged under 18 years on social media. The purpose of the present study was to explore the views of Turkish and British mothers about their sharenting on social media. In order to examine this, a qualitative research method was applied. The study was carried out with the mothers (65 Turkish and British mothers, respectively) of children aged under twelve years who attended elementary schools in the cities of İzmir (Turkey) and Nottingham (UK). Research data were collected via face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the mothers in both countries and content analysis was applied. In the study, although some differences regarding sharenting between two cultures, the results showed that similar themes based on dynamics of technology have similar effects on societies or mothers. Finally, the reasons of sharenting and their views about sharenting were discussed and It was concluded that mothers should be aware of the information they share about their children.

Keywords

• Children
• child-parent relationship
• content analysis
• parenting
• sharenting
• social media

Sharenting Eyleminin Psikolojik Açıdan Değerlendirilmesi: Türk ve İngiliz Annelerinin Karşılaştırılması

Abstract

The concept of “Sharenting” can be examined within the scope of negative parenting or abuse of parenting. Sharenting is a neology deriving from “sharing” and “parenting” and refers to parents’ over-sharing of photos, videos, stories and any information regarding their children aged under 18 years on social media. The purpose of the present study was to explore the views of Turkish and British mothers about their sharenting on social media. In order to examine this, a qualitative research method was applied. The study was carried out with the mothers (65 Turkish and British mothers, respectively) of children aged under twelve years who attended elementary schools in the cities of İzmir (Turkey) and Nottingham (UK). Research data were collected via face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the mothers in both countries and content analysis was applied. In the study, although some differences regarding sharenting between two cultures, the results showed that similar themes based on dynamics of technology have similar effects on societies or mothers. Finally, the reasons of sharenting and their views about sharenting were discussed and It was concluded that mothers should be aware of the information they share about their children.

Keywords

• Çocuk
• İçerik analizi
• ebeveynlik
• sharenting
• sosyal medya

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