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The accelerated transformations of the digital environment have generated significant changes in the way parents exercise their educational role, with social networks becoming a dominant frame of reference for defining and evaluating parental behaviors. This article aims to explore the remodeling of classic parenting styles (authoritarian, democratic, permissive) under the influence of online social pressure, conceptualized through social comparison and normative pressure. The theoretical foundation is based on the model of parenting styles proposed by Baumrind and expanded by Maccoby and Martin, also integrating the theories of social comparison (Festinger), social influence (Kelman) and social learning (Bandura) to explain the mechanisms of internalization of norms and models promoted in the virtual environment. The research has a quantitative, descriptive and correlational design, using an online questionnaire applied to a representatives ample of Romanian parents with children between 0 and 18 years old, active users of social media platforms. The instrument includes items for measuring perceived parental style, the level of online social pressure and declared changes in parental behaviors. The data analysis aims to identify correlations between the frequency of social media use, the perception of online pressure and the tendency to change parenting style, as well as to determine differences based on socio-demographic criteria (gender, age, level of education). The estimated results aim to identify a significant association between the time spent on social networks and the intensity of perceived pressure, with different effects on each parenting style, starting from the hypothesis of the existence of a tendency to make the democratic style more flexible and to increase the permissive components, correlated with exposure to idealized models in the online environment. Our study aims to highlight the need to develop digital parenting education programs, which would provide parents with skills to critically filter online content and manage virtual normative pressure, intended to contribute to the shaping of effective public policy proposals in the field of family education. The study makes relevant contributions to the fields of psychology, sociology, education and social work, providing an empirical basis for interventions aimed at supporting balanced parenting in the digital age.
Keywords: parenting, social pressure, social media
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