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Associations between parenting styles and excessive screen usage in preschool children
Nilgün Çaylan1, Sıddıka Songül Yalçın2, Meryem Erat Nergiz3
1Department of Child and Adolescents Health, Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey.
Insights
Parenting styles significantly influence preschooler screen time. Authoritative parenting is linked to less screen exposure, while overprotective and permissive styles correlate with excessive use, suggesting relationship-based interventions.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Pediatric Health
- Parenting Studies
Background:
- Preschoolers face increasing exposure to digital devices.
- Parental guidance on screen time is often recommended but not always followed.
- Understanding the link between parenting and screen habits is crucial for child well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between different parenting styles and excessive screen time in preschool children.
- To identify specific parenting behaviors linked to high and low screen exposure.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional descriptive study design.
- Inclusion of preschool children categorized by screen exposure (low: <1 hour, excessive: >4 hours).
- Data collection via self-completion surveys including the Parent Attitude Scale administered to mothers.
Main Results:
- Mothers with authoritative (democratic) parenting styles showed association with low screen exposure (AOR: 0.3).
- Overprotective and permissive parenting subscales were significantly associated with excessive screen exposure (AOR: 2.8 and 4.5, respectively).
- Factors like increased children, household size, maternal unemployment, birth order, and home-based care were higher in the excessive screen group.
Conclusions:
- Excessive screen time in preschoolers may signal underlying parent-child relationship issues.
- Fostering positive parent-child relationships is a key strategy for managing children's screen time effectively.
Objective:
Young children and preschoolers are now growing up in settings filled with a variety of technological devices. Despite the recommendation that parents should limit screen time, many preschoolers are exposed to screens at very early ages and for a long time. This study aimed to investigate the associations between parenting styles and the excessive screen time of preschool-aged children.
Material And Methods:
This cross-sectional descriptive study included preschool children with low screen exposure (<1 hour; n=176) and excessive screen exposure (>4 hours; n=74). A self-completion-structured survey form and Parent Attitude Scale were filled by the mothers.
Results:
More than half (52.0%) of them were male children. Increased number of children, increased household sizes, mothers being unemployed, birth order ≥2, and home-based care were found to be statistically significantly higher in the excessive screen exposure group than in the low screen exposure group. Mothers and fathers in the excessive screen exposure group had lower educational levels compared with their counterparts in the low screen exposure group (p<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that mothers' high authoritative (democratic) scores were associated with low screen exposure(adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.3; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.1-0.9). High overprotective and permissive parenting subscale scores were related to excessive screen exposure after adjusting potential confounders (AOR: 2.8, 95% CI: 1.1-6.7; AOR: 4.5, 95% CI: 1.8-11.6).
Conclusion:
Excessive screening time may indicate a problematic parent-child relationship. Establishing a positive parent-child relationship can be an effective way of managing screen time in preschool children.
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