Parental norms and perceptions regarding use of mobile devices by children under five years.
David San-Martín-Roldán, Adrián González-Marrón, Sonia de-Paz-Cantos and 3 others
PMID 39476139WHAT IT FOUND
Spanish parents who allowed children under five to use smartphones or tablets without time limits reported higher daily use.
Using devices to entertain or as reward was also linked to more screen time, and use was higher when the father was absent.
Key findings
01Only 1.6% (n=3) of respondents agreed that a child could use a smartphone or tablet without time limitation, but those children had a median reported use of 103.0 minutes per day.
02Using a device to keep a child entertained in different settings, or as reward or punishment, was associated with higher overall median use times than not using these strategies.
0391.8% (n=168) agreed that the parent was present while the child used the device, and overall median use was higher when the father was not present.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was convenience and snowball recruited, so it may not represent Spanish parents or guardians generally. Most respondents were mothers (89.1%) and university-educated (78.1%). Fathers, guardians and parents with lower education were underrepresented. The questionnaire was ad hoc and no validation or reliability information was provided. Device use time was self-reported in 30-minute categories and depended on memory. The category 4 hours or more was capped at 4 hours, so longer use may be underestimated. The study did not ask about parents' own device use, which may influence children's use. It is cross-sectional. It cannot show that rules, supervision, or entertainment use caused higher or lower screen time. It did not measure child development outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as proof that setting limits or supervising use causes less screen time. The study is cross-sectional, relies on parents' own reports, uses an unvalidated questionnaire, and did not measure developmental outcomes.