Parents Report Strategies for Managing Technology Use in Children Ages Two to Four

• In Event: Division B: Research in Progress Session

Abstract

A reanalysis of pilot study data, collected around parental decisions of early childhood technology use, was conducted to describe current monitoring efforts of parents with at least one child, in the age range of 2-4 years old. Transcripts of semi-structured, qualitative interviews were reanalyzed to describe specific parental monitoring behaviors related to implementation of the decisions they reported making. Specifically, behaviors to restrict, limit, or manage a variety of variables related to their children’s technology use, such as the amount of time, the type of content and the context of the use, were coded. Three parents provided descriptions of the actions they took to implement decisions around the technology use of their young child, situated in the context of mobile devices, and the continual availability of content through online streaming.

Author

• Cindy Lorelle Lentz, University of Cincinnati