The trend of sharenting among Malaysian parents: a preliminary study of intention and motivation

Abstract

Social media platforms and applications are increasing exponentially and has become a part of life. It is widely used to connect with large numbers of people without investing much time and effort. This led to the emergence of a new term, ‘sharenting’ which refers to parents sharing children’s information on social media. The trend of sharenting is predominant and has raised concerns in the western countries, but in Malaysia there is still a lack of adequate knowledge on this trend. Past research on sharenting focuses on the usage frequency, content and consequences of sharenting in Western countries. However, there is a dearth of literature on the intention and motivation of Malaysian parents to this trend. Thus, the current study employed a qualitative approach to explore Malaysian parents’ intention and motivation of sharing children’s information on social media through the framework of Bandura’s social learning theory. The sample comprising of Malaysian parents aged between 20 to 40 who share their children’s information on social media were interviewed and the findings were analyzed using a thematic approach. This research is significant as it provides knowledge on the trend of sharenting of Malaysian parents. The paper ends with recommendation for further future research.