Correlates of young children's screen time: child-, parent-, and home-related factors

Abstract

Young children spend a significant part of their day in front of screens. Existing literature has shown associationsbetween children's screen time and various demographic, parent7related, and home7related factors. Most evidencecomes from high7income, developed countries with access to early childcare options. Investigating these factors inT & uuml;rkiye is crucial to compare findings across countries and identify new variables that might influence children'sscreen time. The first goal of this study was to examine child7related factors (e.g., age), parent7related factors (e.g.,parental stress), and home7related factors (e.g., background television) that may be associated with young children'sscreen time through an online survey. The second goal was to investigate the relationship between children's screentime and parents' perceived social support for the first time in the literature. A total of 647 parents with children younger than six (M = 41.5, SD = 17.9) months) participated. Results revealed that children's screen time was positivelycorrelated with parents' positive attitudes toward children's use of technology, parents' own screen time, child ageand distractibility as perceived by the parents, and the frequency of background television at home. Conversely,children's screen time was negatively related to parental education, household income, and parents' perceived social support. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the frequency of background television at home, parents' positive attitudes toward children's use of technology, and child age emerged as the strongest predictors of children's screen time. This study is the first to propose and demonstrate the role of social support in determining children's screen time. Our findings may provide valuable insights for designing intervention strategies to reduce screen time among preschoolers.