Empowering Parents in the Digital Age: Does Good-Practices Information Shift Parenting Behaviour? — Follow-Up Replication Study

2026-05-26

2026-07-29

Intention Index — standardised index of 6 stated intentions to change parenting practices (stricter time limits, parental control apps, tech-free zones, reviewing messages, conversations about online safety, delaying smartphone)
Intention II — willingness to pay for a premium digital-safety app (£ slider)
Intention III — priority given to social media management vs. other parenting goals (1–5)
Donating to Charity — amount donated out of a £10 lottery prize to a digital-safety charity
Signing the Petition — whether the parent signs the real petition to Parliament (binary) with or without a ban policy.
Parental Beliefs about Social Media Risks— perceived prevalence of 6 social media harms (beliefs update)
Parental Worry about Their Own Child — emotional worry about child's exposure to those 6 harms
Supervision — index of supervision methods used
Rules — index of household online rules
Discussion — index of online safety topics discussed with child
Monitoring — index of specific monitoring actions taken
Communication — index of questions asked to child about online life
Family Communication — index of family-level agreements and screen practices

Child Well-Being I— child well-being index (SDQ short form, 3 items)
Child Well-Being II— child well-being ONS measures (follow-up Survey 2 only)
Life Satisfaction — parent life satisfaction (Cantril ladder, 0–10)
Social Media Use — Parents' reported hours on social media by child
Parents Mental Health — Generalized Anxiety Questionnaire Index and Scale
Valuation of School and Home Policies I— estimated probability child has severe mental health issues under 4 school/home scenarios
Valuation of School and Home Policies II — estimated probability child has at least 3 close friends under the same 4 scenarios
Knowledge — Reported knowledge about what the child is going online.
Parent-Children Communication — estimated number of hours per week having a conversation
Parent-Children Activities — estimated number of hours spent doing activities with the child that do not involve screens
Use of Tech Tools — whether any parental control tools have been used (binary)
Friends/Follower — whether parents are friends or followers of their child on any social media.

Participants are recruited via Prolific, an online panel provider, targeting UK-resident parents of at least one child aged 10–15. All recruitment, consent, randomisation, and survey administration occur within Qualtrics, with respondents accessed through the Prolific panel.

The treatment consists of exposure to a condensed video summarising the key good-practices guidance developed across the four weeks of Intervention 2.

The video is embedded directly in the Qualtrics survey flow. Treated participants see the video before answering the first set of outcome questions. Control participants proceed directly to the outcome questions without video exposure. All other survey elements are identical across conditions.

Not available

Randomisation is performed within Qualtrics using its built-in branching randomiser. Fifty per cent of respondents are assigned to treatment and fifty per cent to control. The randomisation is not stratified in advance; balance on pre-specified covariates will be verified ex post and any imbalance will be accounted for in robustness checks.

Randomisation is at the individual level, with no clustering.

No

Clustered at the individual level

Planned total completes:1600 respondents. For the follow-up survey, we anticipate re-contact rates of approximately 25%, yielding approximately 400 matched responses (200 per arm). This is consistent with attrition observed in prior waves of this project.

Planned total completes: 1600 respondents. With 50% assignment to each arm, we expect approximately 800 treated and 800 control respondents.

For the follow-up survey, we anticipate re-contact rates of approximately 25%, yielding approximately 400 matched responses (200 per arm). This is consistent with attrition observed in prior waves of this project.