Patterns of parent screen use, child screen time, and child socioemotional problems at 5 years
Background: Digital media screens have become an essential part of our family life. While most studies focus on children’s screen use, we know less about parental screen use patterns and how these affect children’s socio-emotional development.Method: 867 Canadian parents of 5-year old children from the TARGet Kids! Cohort (73.1% mothers, mean age=38.88±4.45 years) participated from 2014 to 2020. Parents reported parental and child time on TV and handheld devices and completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify groups of parents with similar patterns of screen use and link these profiles with child screen time and SDQ.Results: We identified six latent profiles of parent screen use: low users (P1, reference; n=323), more TV than handheld (P2; n=261), equal TV and handheld (P3; n=177), more handheld than TV (P4; n=57), high TV and handheld (P5; n=38) and extremely high TV and handheld (P6; n=11). P6 were more likely to be living in single parent households compared to P1 (estimate=-1.49(0.70), p=0.03). P2 (estimate=-0.67(0.32), p=0.04) and P4 (estimate=-1.42(0.40), p<0.001) were more likely to have lower household income compared to P1. P4 (χ2=12.32, p<0.001) and P5 (χ2=9.54, p=0.002) have higher total child screen time compared to P1. P6 (χ2=6.82, p=0.009) had higher total SDQ compared to P1.Discussion: Patterns of parent screen use were associated with child screen use and child socioemotional problems. The link between parental screen use profiles and child behaviours suggests a need for guidelines on parental screen time.