Psychological risks and opportunities of the information family environment

Abstract

The modern family, as part of society, is an element of the society’s unified information environment and, and the same time, forms the information environment of its own. The child is exposed to its influence directly, through independent use of gadgets and content consumption, as well as indirectly, through interaction with parents. In turn, the child influences the family’s information environment. This mutual influence creates opportunities for the development of the child’s personality. At the same time, this environment carries risks of deviant behavior. The article presents the results of a study of informational family predictors that both weaken and increase the risks of behavioral deviations in adolescents. We understand the family information environment as a multidimensional and multifunctional system of general and specific signs of parents’ and adolescents’ interaction with information resources, which is localized in the family space. The risk of illegal behavior increases if adolescents choose the telephone and the press as sources of information, accept the internet, and use traditional methods of transmitting information within the family. Several signs of the family information environment reduce this risk: adolescents’ orientation to third-party recommendations when choosing an information source, the emotions of disgust and calm they experience when using the internet, and interest in educational information. The risk of aggressive behavior among adolescents is increased by their choice of the press as an information source, focus on the reliability of information, trust in movies, the use of telephone to communicate within the family, and the emotion of calm observed in parents when using the internet. The risk of aggression is reduced by trust in the information received on television and by anger represented by parents. Addictive behavior is potentiated by adolescents’ preference for the press when obtaining information, acceptance of the internet and the emotion of grief and suffering represented by parents, and is reduced by interest in the content about art and culture, focus on external recommendations when choosing an information source, and anger observed in parents when using the internet. The risk of self-aggression in adolescents increases when they choose the press as a source of information and are interested in consumer content, while the emotion of anger observed in parents reduces this risk. Adolescents’ conformity behavior increases when choosing educational information and trusting the phone, and decreases when staying calm on the internet.