British Journal of Multidisciplinary and Advanced Studies: Health and Medical Sciences 3 (2),47-66, 2022 Print ISSN: 2517-276X Online ISSN: 2517-2778 Website: https://bjmas.org/index.php/bjmas/index Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK 47 How parental internet use impacted parenting practices and children’s behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic Dr Hadjicharalambous Demetris 1 Dr Demetriou Loucia 2 Michael – Hadjikyriakou Elena 3 Department of Psychology and Social Sciences, Frederick University, Cyprus DOI: https://doi.org/10.37745/bjmas.2022.0067 Published: 21 st December , 2022 Citation: Hadjicharalambous D., Demetriou L., Michael – Hadjikyriakou E. (2022) How parental internet use impacted parenting practices and children’s behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic, British Journal of Multidisciplinary and Advanced Studies: Health and Medical Sciences 3 (2),47-66 ABSTRACT: Our survey aimed to investigate how online parental behavior affects their parenting practices and how such practices may affect their family relations, their children’s social competencies, school achievements, and self–esteem. We examined a sample of 357 Greek-speaking parents (77.3% mothers and 22.7% fathers). We applied Young's (1998) Internet Addiction Questionnaire, the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ), and Kontopoulou's (2008) questionnaire to assess children's school performance and social competencies, their self-esteem, and family relationships. Our findings indicated that almost half of the participants are moderately addicted to the internet. Parental pathological internet use affects parental style and consequently impacts family relations and children's behavior. Gaining knowledge from the research data helps design and implement intervention programs to prevent and raise public awareness through psychoeducational information programs towards preventing internet addiction. Keywords: compulsive behavior, covid-19, internet addiction, online risks, parenting practices, pathological internet use. KEYWORDS: compulsive behavior, covid-19, internet addiction, online risks, parenting practices, pathological internet use. INTRODUCTION The internet provides many benefits and is an essential tool for knowledge, information, communication, and entertainment, especially for young people. However, there is a rapid increase in internet users and internet use in general. Irrational internet use and lack of 1 Demetris Hadjicharalambous, Dr., Lecturer, Psychology and Social Sciences Department, Frederick University, Nicosia and Limassol, Cyprus soc.cd@frederick.ac.cy 2 Loucia Demetriou, Dr., Associate Professor, Psychology and Social Sciences Department, Frederick University, Nicosia and Limassol, Cyprus, pre.dl@frederick.ac.cy 3 Elena Michael - Hadjikyriakou, primary school teacher and counsellor for children and teenagers with social problems, Limassol, Cyprus, elenam82@hotmail.com