Family Media Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Patterns and Associations with Parenting Stressors

• In Event: Is screen time family time? Media in the family system during COVID19

Abstract

Introduction:
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted family life worldwide. Many parents were juggling abrupt changes to employment, childcare, and schooling. Meanwhile, family media use increased dramatically during COVID-19 (Hartshone et al., 2020). Understanding why parents use media can elucidate stress, coping, and family dynamics during the pandemic. Parents use media to meet multiple needs and such instrumental media use is predicted by family characteristics and parent attitudes (Nikken, 2019). This study examines parents’ instrumental media use during the COVID-19 pandemic – and differences among families based on multiple parenting stressors, including income, number of children, caring for a child with special health care needs, working remotely, being a single parent, and parental burnout. The focus on parents’ reasons for media use during COVID-19 is critical to understanding how media may (or may not) support parents’ healthy coping and family well-being.

Methods:
In April 2020, 1,009 U.S. parents of children 0-12 years old reported on their experiences since the start of the pandemic. Most parents (88.8% women) identified as White (81.9%), married (82.1%), with 1-2 children (75.1%). Most parents (78.5%) reported annual income more than $50,000 per year, and 20.8% of families lived at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. Parental burnout was captured using a brief version of the Parental Burnout Assessment (Roskam et al., 2018). Parents reported on instrumental media use (see Figure 1).

Results and Discussion:
A latent profile analysis of instrumental media use revealed four profiles: 1) Selective Media Users reported using media to accomplish practical, day-to-day goals (e.g., information, communication, getting things done) but not for regulating others’ behavior/emotions (e.g., calm, reduce conflict). 2) Media Minimalists reported using media to get information and communicate, but not for other purposes. 3) Unenthusiastic Users acknowledged that they use media to meet many different goals, but they did not feel strongly about it. 4) Enthusiastic Users strongly endorsed most items, suggesting that media fulfills a variety of needs in their family.

Multinomial regression results revealed that parents who reported higher parental burnout were more likely to be unenthusiastic or enthusiastic users compared to media minimalists. In other words, they were more likely to report using media for functions other than to inform or communicate. Additionally, parents with higher income were more likely to be enthusiastic users than media minimalists.

Together, the results highlight the heterogeneity of parents’ reasons for using media during COVID-19. This study also demonstrates that despite several external stressors, parents’ feelings of burnout were linked to their reasons for media use specifically, using media to occupy their children or regulate their emotions. This finding highlights the importance of focusing research on media around parents’ reasons for using it, and how media might be used as a coping tool during a stressful period such as COVID-19. Future research examining how media use supports or hinders family coping and well-being will inform recommendations for balancing media use with other coping strategies.

Authors

• Christina N Kim, NYU Grossman school of medicine
  Presenting Author

• Margaret L. Kerr, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin Litzelman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Janean E Dilworth-Bart, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Heather Kirkorian, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author