Parental mediation profiles across six European countries: a person-centered analysis using three-wave longitudinal data.

Background: Parents use diverse strategies to mediate children's digital media use, yet prior research has largely examined them in isolation using variable-centered approaches. The few person-centered studies use single-country samples and have not validated longitudinal profile stability. Methods: Latent profile analysis (LPA) and latent transition analysis (LTA) were applied to three-wave longitudinal data from the ySKILLS project (six European countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal; ages 11-20), using Mplus 8.3 with robust maximum likelihood (MLR) and full-information maximum likelihood (FIML) for missing data. The analytic sample comprised Results: Three profiles emerged: Disengaged (40.2%), Moderate Balanced (35.4%), and Active All-Round (24.4%). Profile validity was confirmed against monitoring ( Conclusion: Parental mediation strategies co-occur in interpretable configurations that vary across cultures and developmental stages. Disengaged adolescents showed less favorable outcomes than those whose parents engaged at any level (threshold pattern), supporting basic engagement over its absence. The absorbing nature of disengagement across all six countries underscores the need for universal early-adolescence interventions before it consolidates.