BACKGROUND
Social media have become extremely popular among parents to seek for parenting information. Despite the rising academic attention for the topic, studies are scattered across various disciplines. Therefore, the current study broadens the scope of the existing reviews by transcending narrow academic subdomains and including all relevant research insights related to parents' information seeking on social media and its’ consequent effects.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this systematic literature review is to (1) identify influential journals and scholars in the field, (2) examine the thematic evolution of research on parenting and social media, and (3) pinpoint research gaps, providing recommendations for future exploration.
METHODS
Based on the criteria of Kraus and colleagues1 we selected 338 studies in this systematic literature review. We adopted a bibliometric analysis combined with a content thematic analysis to get data-driven insights with a profound understanding of the predominant themes in the realm of parenting and social media.
RESULTS
The analysis reveals a significant increase in research on parenting and social media since 2015, especially in the medical domain. The studies in our scope spanned across 232 different research fields and the most prolific journal is ‘Pediatrics and parenting. The thematic analysis identified four emerging research themes in the studies: parenting motivations to seek information, nature of parenting content on social media, impact of parenting content, and interventions for parents on social media.
CONCLUSIONS
This study provides critical insights into the current research landscape of parenting and social media. The identified themes, research gaps and future research recommendations provide a foundation for future studies, guiding researchers towards valuable areas for exploration.