| Poster | Poster Session 10 Program Schedule
02/17/2024
09:00 am - 10:15 am
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)
Poster Session 10: Neurodevelopmental | Congenital Conditions
Final Abstract #101
Understanding Parent Mediation of Screen Media Use in Children and Youth with Early Neurological Risk
Elizabeth Wanstall, York University, Toronto, Canada
Rachael Lyon, York University, Toronto, Canada
Maggie Toplak, York Univeristy, Toronto, Canada
Tricia Williams, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
Category: Other
Keyword 1: technology
Keyword 2: attention
Keyword 3: child brain injury
Objective:
Across development, it is essential to understand the strategies that parents use to manage their children’s screen media use (known as parent mediation), as this has been proposed as an important predictor of children and youth’s healthy relationships with screen media. It has been suggested that children with neurological vulnerabilities may be particularly prone to developing difficulties with managing screen media use, which may pose unique challenges to parents. Children with early neurological risk (e.g., stroke, significant cardiac conditions, etc.) are at higher risk of experiencing difficulties with attention abilities, which in turn has been shown to be related to increased difficulties with screen media use. However, parent mediation around screen media use has not been systematically investigated in children with early neurological risk.
Participants and Methods:
The first sample was a sample of parents of children with early neurological risk, who were recruited from the neonatal, neurology, psychiatry, and cardiology clinics at The Hospital for Sick Children (aged 6-18). The second sample was a community sample of parents of children without neurological or attention difficulties (aged 6-18). Participants from the neurological sample were matched (age and sex) to the community sample (N=65 per group). The Parent Mediation Scale (PMS) was used to assess parenting strategies used to manage their child’s screen media across the domains of restriction/mediation, internet safety, and active mediation. Parents also completed questionnaires about their child’s attention abilities (SNAP-IV) and parental stress (PS) related to their child’s screen media use. It was predicted that child attention abilities, parental stress, and child age would all affect the parent mediation strategies.
Results:
Parents of children with early neurological risk engaged in significantly fewer restriction/monitoring (t=7.56, p<.001), internet safety (t=9.75, p<.001) and active mediation (t=10.11, p<.001) strategies than parents of children in the community sample. The two samples did not differ significantly on parenting stress (PS) related to their child’s screen media use. Parents of children with early neurological risk endorsed significantly higher difficulties with child inattention (t=-6.74, p<.001). Domains of the PMS were regressed (linear regression models) on child age, SNAP-IV inattention scores and PS scores simultaneously. A significant portion of variance in PMS domains of restriction/mediation (F=7.84, p<.001), internet safety (F=6.00, p<.001), and active mediation (F=7.71, p<.001) was significantly predicted by these models. Within each domain of the PMS, child age and parent stress were not significant predictors of parent mediation strategies. However, higher parent-reported attention concerns were associated with less engagement in all parent mediation strategies.
Conclusions:
This study constituted the first to examine parent mediation strategies to manage screen media use among parents of children with early neurological risk. The findings from this study highlight the important role that child attention difficulties have in guiding parents’ mediation strategies. This emphasizes the importance of better understanding parents’ experiences of managing screen media use in children early neurological risk, and particularly in those with comorbid attention challenges.
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