Young Children’s Tablet Use and Associations with Maternal Well-Being

Abstract

While recent research has documented a rapid increase in the use of new technologies such as touchscreen tablets early in life, little is known about how young children use tablets, what activities they engage in, and whether family demographic and maternal well-being are associated with early use. Guided by Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory of human development, the current study addressed these questions with a cross-sectional, online survey of mothers with children between 12 and 48 months of age. Mothers reported on their child's tablet use as well as their own personal well-being (depressive symptoms and role overload) and relational well-being (relationship satisfaction, coparenting quality, conflict frequency). Nearly 63 % of all mothers owned a tablet. Approximately 46 % of children with access typically use a tablet in an average day, with the majority using for 15 min or less. For families who owned a tablet, child's frequency of use was positively associated with child's age and mother's use and negatively associated with mother's relational well-being. Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that screen media be avoided for children under 24 months, children in our study used tablets, albeit infrequently. Our findings suggest that it is important for researchers to consider the relationship between contextual factors within the family and child media use. Refining their focus for families with particular needs may allow child advocates and policy makers to develop more beneficial media recommendations for families with a variety of circumstances.

Technoference: Parent Distraction With Technology and Associations With Child Behavior Problems

“…Parenting stressors are common in parents with young children (Crnic & Low, 2002) and often predict poor family functioning (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Gelfand, Teti, & Radin Fox, 1992). Feeling stressed could hypothetically lead parents to use digital technology devices as a potential means of escape (Radesky et al, 2016) as well as to allow children to more frequently use digital technology (Pempek & McDaniel, 2016). …”

Play and creativity in young children's use of apps

“…Children also communicated with family members using apps such as Skype and Facetime and looked at family photographs. A US team (Pempeck & McDaniel, ) conducted an online survey of mothers of children aged between 12 and 48 months, which reported that 46% of children used a tablet on a daily basis. Children engaged in educational and creative apps more frequently than games for fun, although it should be noted that the survey relied on parental self‐report.…”

How can Smartphone-Based Internet Data Support Animal Ecology Fieldtrip?

“…The identification process using smartphone-based internet data has limited data, making it difficult for students to identify birds in research locations. The use of smartphones has contextual limitations that result in difficulty in obtaining complete data [21,24] Network services are a very important factor in using smartphones to obtain data from the internet. Inadequate network services will have an effect on data retrieval access in search of broader topics.…”

“…Thus, the decline of bird populations indirectly affects ecology and conservation efforts are needed with various approaches [20]. The Internet provides a variety of data that we need, but not all data can be presented completely, it is a flame [21,22] for that it needs to be developed special features [23,24,25]. This study aims to describe the ability of identification and classification of students in studying the various species of birds found around the location of observations by using smartphone-based internet data.…”