Abstract
Children’s excessive screen use is associated with health risks such as obesity, sleep problems, attention problems, and others. The effect of parental regulative efforts focused on screen/media use (media parenting) is currently unclear and difficult to examine given the heterogeneity of measuring tools used for its assessment. We aimed to develop an inventory that would enable reliable and valid measurement of media parenting practices (especially active and restrictive mediation) in parents of primary school children. The inventory builds on existing tools, it is comprehensive, yet easy to use in research setting. The original MEPA-36 (36 items) and revised MEPA-20 (20 items) inventories were examined using data from 341 Czech and Slovak parents of children aged between 6 and 10 years. Psychometrical properties were estimated using confirmatory factor and reliability analyses. Model fit was better for MEPA-20 and similar to other currently available tools. Both active and restrictive mediation subscales demonstrated high internal consistency. The internal consistency of newly constructed risky mediation subscales (risky active, risky restrictive, and over-protective mediation) was low. MEPA-20, especially active and restrictive mediation subscales, can be recommended for research on media parenting in context of screen/media use of school-aged children.
Highlights
Given the lack of quality and properly constructed measures of media parenting, we aimed to develop a comprehensive self-report inventory for parents of school-aged children, that would (1) focus on the use of screen devices/media in general, and (2) clearly distinguish between positive and negative practices of both active and restrictive mediation
As opposed to the Risky active mediation (RA) subscale, in the case of Restrictive Mediation (RR), we identified a few items with a very high mean value (MP20 and MP30), meaning that parenting strategies expressed in these items were reported very frequently
The scale focuses on the use of screen-devices/media in general, which we believe reflects the way parents regulate screen-devices/media use in younger children—parents usually do not distinguish between various devices or activities but rather create regulative rules or guidelines for screen use generally [18]
Summary
Children’s use of screens has been an important topic of pediatrics, psychology, and other disciplines concerning children’s health and well-being since the mass spread of TV. Scholars have analyzed watching TV especially in relation with obesity (TV watching as a form of sedentary behavior) and violence (the possible negative outcomes of aggressive content). We witness a mass spread of other screen devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers, gaming consoles etc. Children can use screens almost anytime, anywhere, and anyhow. Children are spending an increasing amount of time with screens [1]. There is much evidence that the inappropriate use of screens may have serious negative outcomes for children.
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