Abstract
This qualitative study provides insight into the role of parents’ self-interest in digital media use of children in different age groups. We conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with fathers/mothers of children aged 3–16 years who were recruited via targeted sampling. A deductive and inductive content analysis was applied. Results show that parents’ self-interest in letting children use digital media includes being able to do other tasks without being bothered, having some me-time, managing children’s behavior, avoiding discussions, having moments to use digital media themselves and spending quality-time together. In addition, we found that the manner in which parents let children use digital media out of self-interest seems to depend on age. With younger children, parents initiate digital media use or set times at which children are allowed to use digital media. With older children, parents use a passive manner by omitting restrictive responses to their children’s media use. Current findings can be used to inform interventions aimed at reducing children’s screen time.
Highlights
Deductive analysis confirmed that parents can initiate digital media use among their children for reasons of self-interest
Parents’ self-interest plays an active role in children’s digital media use: “Yes when I am cooking and I cannot help him and he is tired and hungry and everything fails with him I distract him, I kind of put him on hold with a video.”
The interviews show that letting children use digital media can fulfill certain needs of parents and that this can result in children using digital media more often and/or longer
Summary
Since digital media are very useful in keeping children entertained, children’s media use can have benefits for parents Having their child watch a movie or play a game on a tablet allows parents to do household chores, or to have some downtime (Beyens & Eggermont, 2014). Restrictions aimed at decreasing the spread of COVID-19 (such as the closure of, amongst others, schools and sports clubs and the strong advice to work from home) result in children and parents spending more time together at home In light of these circumstance, it may even be more beneficial for parents to let their children use digital devices to have time for their own tasks.
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