Materials

Social media has become a central part of Vietnamese adolescents’ daily lives, shaping communication, learning, and identity development, while also raising growing concerns about problematic use and psychological well-being. The present study examined how digital parenting relates to adolescents’ social media use and well-being, with self-control and problematic social media use (PSMU) considered as potential serial mediators. A cross-sectional self-report survey was conducted with 894 Vietnamese high school students in grades 10–12 (M = 17.13, SD = 0.78). Measures included parental management, parental care, social media use behavior, self control, PSMU, and psychological well-being. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t tests, ANOVA, linear regression, and serial mediation. The findings showed that students used social media intensively and across multiple platforms, averaging 5.13 platforms, with TikTok, Messenger, and Facebook being the most frequently used. Social media use was significantly higher on weekends than on weekdays. Parental management was associated with lower weekday use, lower weekend use, and fewer social media platforms, whereas parental care was associated with lower weekday use only. In the mediation model, parental care was positively related to self-control and psychological well-being, negatively related to PSMU, and showed significant indirect effects through self-control, PSMU, and the serial pathway from self-control to PSMU to well-being. By contrast, parental management showed weaker and less consistent associations with well-being. Overall, the findings suggest that while parental management helps reduce the intensity of social media use, supportive and caring digital parenting plays a stronger role in promoting adolescents’ self-regulation and psychological well-being.