Research on Parenthood and the Internet : Themes and Trends

The purpose of this study was to review articles about parenthood and the internet published in the medical, educational, and social sciences. The aim was to identify themes and trends in the available literature. A building block strategy was designed and used to achieve a high recall rate. By searching PubMed, ERIC, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, and Social Services Abstracts, 484 articles were retrieved. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were set to identify relevant articles. A sample comprising 94 articles was considered relevant in relation to the topic. We found that since the field of research was opened in 1997, there has been an increased interest for the topic from a variety of academic disciplines in various countries. Four themes were found in the body of literature: web site analysis, user patterns, online support groups, and interventions. In the first years, researchers were occupied with listing useful web sites for parents and analyzed them regarding quality and accuracy. After that a clearer focus on parents’ online user patterns emerged, followed by an interest for online support groups. More recently, there has been an increase in using the internet for various interventions