Meta-analysis of associations between digital parenting and children's digital wellbeing

Purpose This study examines children’s digital well-being through a stakeholder-driven, transdisciplinary research initiative. Understanding the multidimensional risks affecting a child’s digital well-being requires examining how stakeholders perceive and define the problem. The purpose of this research is to provide a deeper analysis of how the focal problem, identifying factors that influence a child’s digital well-being, should be framed. The author synthesizes insights from local agencies, teens, and medical practitioners to identify gaps in current framings and inform more comprehensive intervention strategies. In addition, this research offers insight beyond the context of digital well-being for scholars seeking to achieve societal impact through the process of stakeholder collaboration. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a stakeholder-driven approach to examine children’s digital well-being risks. Local agencies, teens, and medical professionals were engaged as active collaborators, ensuring a multi-stakeholder analysis. This research identifies and analyzes the most serious risks for children online, develops stakeholder-driven, collaboratively designed solutions, and promotes measurable improvements in children’s digital well-being through advocacy, education, and policy recommendations. This integrative approach bridges theoretical insights and practical interventions, fostering actionable solutions for policymakers, practitioners and educators seeking to enhance children’s digital well-being. Findings Local agencies contributed valuable data on child well-being, helping to identify community-specific digital health challenges. They integrated findings into workshops and parental resources. Over time, this project expanded to include teens and medical practitioners, with each contributing unique perspectives and expertise. Teens shaped the research agenda by sharing firsthand experiences of sharenting, dark design, and other online risks. They shaped research questions and contributed to peer-led digital literacy initiatives. Medical practitioners provided insights into the psychological and developmental effects of screen use and misuse. They applied research insights to refine their guidance on social media’s impact on adolescent mental health. Research limitations/implications Findings are derived from multimethod insights within specific geographic and institutional contexts, which may limit generalizability. In addition, while this research highlights a variety of risks to children’s well-being, evolving digital ecosystems and technologies require ongoing examination. For wider applicability, future work can incorporate alternative methodologies such as longitudinal analyses, as well as a broader range of diverse stakeholder perspectives, including industry leaders and policymakers. Practical implications Each partnership plays a critical role in co-developing solutions that facilitate digital well-being for children. Aligned with Transformative Consumer Research’s societal impact framework, this research integrates diverse stakeholder perspectives from project inception to implementation. This approach ensures that solutions are evidence-informed, actionable, and reflective of community needs. Social implications This research highlights a timely need for child-centered interventions that safeguard children's digital well-being. Findings help to inform teens, parents, educators, service and healthcare providers, and policymakers on addressing risks while promoting responsible digital engagement. Transdisciplinary collaboration can promote safer, developmentally appropriate environments for the internet’s youngest users. Ultimately, this work contributes to systemic change by advocating for evidence-based solutions that promote digital resilience among children, ensuring they can navigate online spaces safely while preserving their autonomy and well-being. Originality/value This impact-focused research advances scholar–stakeholder collaboration by integrating insights from local agencies, teens, and medical practitioners to address children’s digital well-being. While extant research primarily examines individual-level risks, this study adopts a transdisciplinary approach to analyze outcomes at the user, household, and community levels. By bridging scholarly research with real-world application, this study contributes impact-oriented solutions that inform both consumer protection efforts and child-centered digital design reforms.

This review examines children's perceived and experienced subjective digital well-being by investigating their digital activities, behaviours and online relationships across three domains (Family, Leisure, and Education) presenting children's own perspectives. The included studies are limited to research published between 2011 and 2021 using European samples incorporating children aged 5-17 years. While research on children's digital well-being has expanded over the last two decades, the novelty of this review is that it presents research across all activity domains, representing an ecological approach to child development, one that aims to capture children's own views. The 23 studies identified for the review show, first, an apparent shortage of studies on children's well-being involving digital technologies that incorporate children's own perspectives on their situation. Second, the review shows that these studies relate primarily to well-being outcomes categorised as either social, emotional and cultural outcomes or as cognitive development and educational outcomes. Directions for further research on children's digital well-being are suggested.

Digital well-being concerns the balanced and healthy use of digital technology, and the existing studies in this area have focused on adolescents and adults. However, young children are more vulnerable to digital overuse and addiction than adults; thus, their digital well-being deserves empirical exploration. In this scoping review, we synthesized and evaluated 35 collected studies on young children's digital use and their associated well-being that were published up to October of 2022 to understand the related definitions, measurements, contributors, and interventions. The synthesis of the evidence revealed that (1) there was no consensus about the definition of the concept of digital well-being; (2) there were no effective ways of measuring young children's digital well-being; (3) both child factors (the duration and place of digital use, as well as the child's demographic characteristics) and parent factors (digital use, parental perception, and mediation) contribute to young children's well-being; and (4) there were some effective applications and digital interventions reported in the reviewed studies. This review contributes to the development of this concept by mapping the existing research on young children's digital well-being, as well as proposing a model and identifying the research gaps for future studies.

Considering the prevalence of digital interaction within the Generation Alpha, this study focuses on the digital wellbeing of elementary school-aged children in South Korea. By taking into account the multi-faceted nature, this study frames the issue that exists within children's digital wellbeing as a complex problem and aims to have a better comprehensive understanding of the system using a designerly and systems thinking approach. Thus, this study conducts a Systematic literature review and thematic analysis to get grasp of the current situation which then is translated using a systems thinking-based visualization tool to convey the causal relationships that exist within the system. Therefore, the outcome of this study presents a concept map that consolidates the findings to communicate a holistic perspective of children's digital wellbeing which can be used in design activities and decision-making processes which contribute to future design solutions and conversations.

Background Digital technologies proliferate in many people’s lives around the world with over 65% of these technology users being online. Children and youth are among the most prominent adopters of digital technologies in forms such as video gaming, social media, and online shopping. Problematic use of digital technologies can lead to poorer school/work performance, neglect of self-care skills, and comorbidities with other mental health issues. However, when used non-problematically, digital technology can also contribute to improving health and well-being. With the abundance of literature published, many reviews have sought to collate literature on treatment and interventions for children and youth with varying results. Thus, our proposed systematic review aims to synthesize current systematic reviews and meta-analyses on interventions and treatment of problematic digital technology use in children and youth (up to 25 years old). Methods As part of a three-paper series, a systematic search was completed in PsycINFO, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. Grey literature databases of the World Health Organization (IRIS database) and ClinicalTrials.gov were also searched. Furthermore, hand-searching of reference lists was also conducted. Title and abstract screening, followed by full-text screening, were completed by at least two independent reviewers. For this review, the extractions and the quality of selected reviews will be assessed using AMSTAR 2.0 by two authors independently and reviewed by two additional authors. Results Results will be presented in narrative and tabular form. The results of this study are expected to offer insights into the populations of children and youth studied, treatments/interventions provided, outcomes, results, limitations, and conclusions of literature from the past five years. Feasibility and generalizability of the reviews will also be discussed. Conclusions Methodological strengths and weaknesses of reviewed studies will point to gaps in knowledge and can be used to inform future areas of policy and research.

Cooperative Mentorship: Negotiating Social Media Use within the Family

Because children are introduced to digital technology at an early age, their digital skills are influenced by digital learning and well-being in everyday life. This article examines how family values may influence children’s digital lives. The study is based on qualitative data from individual interviews with family members from ten different families and ten focus groups with children aged five to ten years. The analysis shows how values linked to parental mediation are important in determining how family members relate to digital technology. In the discussion, we examine how established values may affect parental mediation, and how children can participate in a digital culture. This work posits that the ability to communicate about digital lives is an important value regarding the well-being of young children.

Media is rife with articles regarding smartphone addiction and how digital overload may be harming the mental well-being of children and young adults. As a response to the negative backlash about digital overload, Apple and Google released ScreenTime and Digital Wellbeing on iOS and Android devices to help users make informed decisions about their smartphone app usage. However, we expect that reminding users about their digital overload may have a negative effect, especially in undergraduate students, who are avid users of smartphones, and maybe also struggling with mental health issues. We conducted a survey among 230 undergraduate students to understand whether they use the ScreenTime feature on their iOS devices to manage app usage and if so, how the tool affected their emotions. We discovered that ScreenTime was effective in changing smartphone usage behavior, but also triggered negative emotions in undergraduate students who are avid smartphone users and also struggle with mental health issues. We expect the tools can be improved by changing the way users are warned about increased phone usage, by incorporating positive mindfulness techniques. We also emphasize the need to have more studies, like ours, to understand the effectiveness of digital overload reminder tools.

This paper explores the potential of the PAYTON social robot as a supportive tool for fostering emotional well-being among children in school environments. With the growing presence of social robots in education, the integration of PAYTON provides an opportunity to promote empathy, emotional regulation, and social connectedness. Drawing on recent advances in human–robot interaction, this study examines how PAYTON can be applied in classrooms to support children’s emotional health and to complement traditional psychological and pedagogical approaches. The research is grounded in the increasing importance of digital wellbeing, particularly in post-pandemic contexts where children face heightened risks of stress, social isolation, and emotional challenges. Findings are expected to demonstrate that PAYTON’s interactive and responsive features can enhance engagement, improve emotional awareness, and strengthen peer relationships, ultimately contributing to healthier learning environments.

Background/Objectives: The use of digital technologies among children and adolescents has been increasing exponentially, raising concerns about the potential impacts on physical, mental, cognitive, educational, and social development. Understanding these effects is key to informing clinical and educational practices and public policies that promote digital wellbeing in childhood and adolescence. The main objective of this study was to map the latest available scientific evidence on the patterns of digital technology use by children and adolescents and its main impact, identifying risk factors, opportunities, and strategies for promoting digital wellbeing. Methods: A rapid review was carried out following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed studies published between 2020 and 2025, in Portuguese or English, that addressed the use of digital technologies by children and adolescents were included. The assessment of methodological quality was based on JBI's Critical Appraisal Tools. Results: Ten studies from diverse contexts showed an association between excessive screen time and risks of sedentary lifestyles, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, attention difficulties, and low academic performance. Occasional benefits arose with adult mediation and educational use; parental mediation and socioeconomic background were key factors. Conclusions: The use of digital technologies is a complex and multifactorial phenomenon that requires integrated approaches; the promotion of digital literacy, public policies for equitable access to quality digital resources, and longitudinal and intercultural studies are recommended to clarify causal relationships and adapt interventions to local contexts.