The Home Learning Environment in the Digital Age—Associations Between Self-Reported “Analog” and “Digital” Home Learning Environment and Children’s Socio-Emotional and Academic Outcomes

Abstract

We analyzed the association between the analog and the digital home learning environment (HLE) in toddlers’ and preschoolers’ homes, and whether both aspects are associated with children’s social and academic competencies. Here, we used data of the national representative sample of Growing up in Germany II, which includes 4,914 children aged 0–5 years. The HLE was assessed via parental survey that included items on the analog HLE (e.g., playing word games, reading, and counting) and items on the digital HLE (e.g., using apps or playing with apps). Children’s socio-emotional, practical life skills, and academic competencies were assessed via standardized parental ratings. Our results indicate that there are two dimensions of the HLE, an analog and a digital, that are slightly positively associated, especially in the toddler age group. For toddlers, only analog HLE activities were associated with better socio-emotional outcomes and practical life skills. However, interaction effects indicate that toddlers with less frequent analog HLE activities showed better socio-emotional skills in households with more frequent digital activities. For preschoolers, digital HLE activities were associated with weaker socio-emotional skills but higher academic skills, although the analog HLE shows higher effect sizes for the academic outcomes. Our study points out that analog and digital HLE activities seem to be partly associated, but not interchangeable. Further, they seem to be important variables that can explain individual differences in young children’s socio-emotional, practical life, and academic competencies. However, digital media usage at home may also have negative effects on children’s social–emotional competencies. This association needs to be investigated further.

Home learning environment and out-of-home activities: their relations to prosocial behaviour and peer relationships in primary school children

“…These findings align with those by Meroni et al ( 2021 ), who – although considering socio-emotional skills of 11-year-old children – found a negative effect of video-screen time on emotional problems of 11-year-old children, but no effects on their prosocial skills or peer relationships. Interestingly, Lehrl et al ( 2021 ) found no associations between digital HLE-activities with socio-emotional skills for toddlers, but, for preschoolers, digital HLE-activities were related to weaker socio-emotional skills. These findings might be associated with the fact that, amongst others, interactions with digital media by older children are less often guided by parents (Lehrl et al, 2021 ), who also vary in the provision of these regulations, and suggest the need to explicitly consider parental regulation of the use of digital media.…”

“…Interestingly, Lehrl et al ( 2021 ) found no associations between digital HLE-activities with socio-emotional skills for toddlers, but, for preschoolers, digital HLE-activities were related to weaker socio-emotional skills. These findings might be associated with the fact that, amongst others, interactions with digital media by older children are less often guided by parents (Lehrl et al, 2021 ), who also vary in the provision of these regulations, and suggest the need to explicitly consider parental regulation of the use of digital media. Notably, Lehrl et al ( 2021 ) distinguished between prosocial behaviour and total difficulties score of the SDQ, while in the present study prosocial behaviour and peer relationships were considered.…”

“…These findings might be associated with the fact that, amongst others, interactions with digital media by older children are less often guided by parents (Lehrl et al, 2021 ), who also vary in the provision of these regulations, and suggest the need to explicitly consider parental regulation of the use of digital media. Notably, Lehrl et al ( 2021 ) distinguished between prosocial behaviour and total difficulties score of the SDQ, while in the present study prosocial behaviour and peer relationships were considered. Furthermore, it might be useful to consider the quality of digital media.…”

“…Few studies investigated the effects of both “analog” and “digital” (i.e., shared activities between children and parents while using digital devices as well as the time spent on these activities; Segers & Kleemans, 2020 ) HLE on socio-emotional skills. For instance, using data from nationally representative German sample, Lehrl et al ( 2021 ) found associations between analog HLE activities with better socio-emotional skills of preschoolers, while associations between digital HLE activities with socio-emotional skills of preschoolers were negative (i.e., high frequency of joint digital media-related activities was associated with low prosocial behaviour and more difficult behaviour as measured by the SDQ). Thus, scarce research on relations between indicators of HLE and socio-emotional skills mainly suggests the existence of significant positive associations between them, especially in case of analog HLE-activities.…”

Home Information and Communication Technology Use and Student Academic Performance: Encouraging Results for Uncertain Times

“…These contexts range from the proximal such as the family and home environments, to the more distal settings of schools, communities, and governmental jurisdictions ( Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006 ). Within the home, the transactional dyad between home and school has been described as the Home Learning Environment (HLE), where child access and interaction with educational resources at home predicts academic outcomes (for example, Lehrl et al, 2021 ). Research has generally found support for a significant correlation between HLE and longitudinal academic outcomes, even where enhancements to the HLE are domain incongruent.…”