Positive mother‐child interactions and parenting styles were associated with lower screen time in early childhood

Abstract

This study examined long-term associations between mother-child interactions and parenting styles and electronic screen time. We studied 280 healthy children (53.2% girls) enrolled at a mean age of 36±0.4months from February 2015 to September 2016. The study included retrospective data on 267 children who had been recruited from medical facilities in Thailand at 6months of age. Mother-child interaction, parenting styles and screen time were assessed at various ages and path analyses were performed to elucidate the directionality and relationships between the variables. Increased mother-child interaction at 18months of age was positively associated with less screen time at 2 and 3years of age. Likewise, nurturing authoritative parenting at 3years of age was directly related to lower media exposure at 4years. The total screen time at younger ages had positive direct relationships with relaxed permissive and strict authoritarian parenting styles, but negative direct relationships with nurturing authoritative parenting in subsequent years. Early mother-child interaction and nurturing authoritative parenting were associated with subsequent decreased screen time, while media exposure at the age of two was related to relaxed permissive and strict authoritarian parenting at 3years of age.