Exploring parent profiles in parent–child interactions with e-books

Abstract

Despite the documented rise of children’s use of mobile media devices in the United States, particularly in lower-income homes, there is limited research on how children and parents interact together with these types of devices. This study sought to describe and investigate how parents and their 3-year-old children use one type of mobile digital media – e-books. With a sample of 65 families from middle- and lower-income homes, the present study examined different parent profiles in a parent–child interaction with e-books and how parents’ attitudes around learning influenced their interactions. Results show that parents and children on average demonstrated high levels of engagement and collaboration when using an e-book, although there was wide variability in the way parents and children interacted with e-books. Using latent profile analysis, three distinct profiles of parent interactions when using e-books with their children were identified: parents with high levels of speech quality and dialogic talk but low levels of engagement, parents with low levels of speech quality, and parents with high speech quality but low dialogic talk. In addition, parent report measures of self-efficacy, growth mindset, knowledge of child development, and screen time used at home varied by the parent profiles identified in this study. The findings suggest that future research should examine parent profiles to help advance the research base in service of informing efforts to promote adult–child interactions as they relate to mobile device use.