Parents' Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents' Profiles.

Julie Vaiopoulou,Dimitrios Stamovlasis,Michail Kalogiannakis,Stamatios Papadakis,Eirini Sifaki

doi:10.3390/bs11060082

Abstract

Contemporary mobile technologies offer tablets and smartphones that elicit young children’s active participation in various educational apps, dramatically transforming playing, learning, and communication. Even the most knowledgeable users face difficulties in deciding about the value and appropriateness of the so-called educational apps because of many factors that should be considered. Their importance for children’s attitudes is affected by the perceived positive and negative aspects, which vary across a multiplicity of criteria. Filling the gap in the relevant literature, a new instrument, named PEAU-p (Perceptions about Educational Apps Use–parents), was developed and validated in the present study designed to measure parents’ perception of educational apps for kindergarten pupils. Data (N = 435) were collected via online procedures, and the psychometric properties of PEAU-p were studied via exploratory and confirmatory methods. Principal Components Analysis extracted six factors, namely Usability, Enjoyment, Involvement, Learning, Worries, and Values, which explained 72.42% of the total variance. Subsequently, by implementing Latent Class Analysis based on the above factors, four Clusters (i.e., parents’ Profiles) were extracted corresponding to their perceptions and attitudes towards the educational apps used for kindergarten pupils. Those were named as ‘mild attitude’, ‘negative attitude’, ‘positive attitude’, and ‘indifferent attitude’. This categorization, besides the statistical support, is fully interpretable, and the profiles were associated with certain covariates, such as age, the number of children, knowledge on new technologies, or distal outcomes, e.g., the frequency of using apps, the general position towards apps or their intention to recommend apps use. The findings are discussed within the current research field, investigating the influential role parents play in young children’s media selection and use.

Highlights

IntroductionSince Apple launched iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010, people worldwide have been attracted to and fascinated by touchscreen devices [1,2]
Guided by the evidence-based assumption that parental engagement in technology use is by far influential [53,83], the present study has provided insights for (a) the properties that parents identify in apps for young children, (b) how parents appraise those features, and (c) how those features of apps are in line with parents’ anticipations and needs when they consider them for use by their children
The present endeavor adds to the research area on technology and childhood by investigating parental perceptions and attitudes on early childhood educational apps

Summary

Introduction

Since Apple launched iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010, people worldwide have been attracted to and fascinated by touchscreen devices [1,2]. Touchscreen devices provide an intuitive and straightforward method of management. Compared to the customary systems, the interactive screens did not require special motor skills and became easy to use even for young children [3]. Studies with young children have shown that basic operations, such as opening apps, and tracing shapes, or swiping the screen, are efficiently utilized [4]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion