Abstract
The impact of digital technology on the younger generation is profound and far-reaching. In a digital home environment, parental mediation of children’s access to the Internet, digital devices, and their device use will either directly or indirectly affect children’s digital attitudes and behaviors. Based on the ecological techno-microsystem theory, this study aims to examine the influence of parental mediation of Internet use and smartphone interference on children’s Internet literacy and problematic smartphone use. A cross-sectional study was conducted in China and the data of 2465 elementary school students (mean age = 10.43 years, SD = 0.99, 47% girls) and their parents were collected through online and offline surveys. Structural equation model analysis indicated that parental mediation of Internet use reported by children was positively associated with children’s Internet literacy (both self-regulation and reflection and critical analysis) while negatively associated with problematic smartphone use. Besides, parental smartphone interference reported by children was positively related to their reflection and critical analysis and problematic smartphone use. We also observed that children’s self-regulation negatively predicted their problematic smartphone use. Further analysis showed notable discrepancies between what parents report and what children perceive. Additionally, the consistency between how parents mediate children’s Internet use and how parents manage their smartphone usage has a complex influence on children’s digital attitudes and behaviors. Current findings contribute to expanding our understanding of the important role of parents in a digital home and could further provide some practical guidance for parents to manage their children’s digital use.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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We are grateful to the children and parents for their participation.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32000764). The funders had no roles in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Qinxue Liu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Jiayin Wu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
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Liu, Q., Wu, J. What children learn in a digital home: the complex influence of parental mediation and smartphone interference. Educ Inf Technol 29, 6273–6291 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12071-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12071-2