How are parenting stress and attitudes linked to young children’s screen time?

Details

Screen media increasingly shape everyday life, including that of young children. The authors note that parents might use screen media as a problem-oriented coping strategy to reduce parenting stress. Previous research has also shown that parental attitudes toward children’s screen media use predict young children’s screen time.

This study examined how parenting stress and parental attitudes are intertwined with children’s screen time throughout early childhood. Parents of 462 children up to age 3 participated in four assessments over 10 months. The children’s mean age was 1.28 years (SD = 0.61), and 50% were female. At each assessment, parents reported their parenting stress, their attitudes toward young children’s screen media use, and their child’s screen time.

At all four assessment points, both greater parenting stress and more positive parental attitudes were associated with more children’s screen time. Parental attitudes strengthened the link between stress and children’s screen time at two of the four assessment points. The authors recommend that guidance on children’s screen time consider parental stress and suggest alternative ways to cope with it.