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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Addictive Behaviors
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1435575
This article is part of the Research Topic An Integrative Proposal in Addiction and Health Behaviors Psychosocial Research: Overview of New Trends and Future Orientations View all 3 articles

Family socioeconomic status and young children digital addiction: a moderated mediation model

Provisionally accepted
Huanhuan Li Huanhuan Li 1Mengzhen Luo Mengzhen Luo 1Bingyu Duan Bingyu Duan 1Abidan Kawulia Abidan Kawulia 1Menglu Su Menglu Su 1Huijuan Di Huijuan Di 2*
  • 1 Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi, China
  • 2 Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Presently, the problem of digital addiction in young children is becoming more and more prominent, and digital addiction can cause significant harm to the healthy physical and mental development of young children. A growing body of research suggests that family socioeconomic status and parenting styles are associated with digital addiction. However, little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms behind this relationship, and few studies have explored whether this relationship holds in young children populations. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether parenting styles mediate the relationship between family socioeconomic status and young children's digital addiction and whether young children's gender moderates this mediation process.: A cross-sectional study design was used. 403 parents of young children were asked to complete online questionnaires, including the Internet Addiction Test-10 (IAT-10) the Chinese version of the Parenting Style Questionnaire (C-EMBU). The mediation model with moderation was tested using the PROCESS plug-in for SPSS. Results: (1) Family socioeconomic status is significantly and negatively associated with digital addiction in young children. (2) Parenting styles (emotional warmth and understanding, punishment and harshness) mediate the relationship between family socioeconomic status and young children's digital addiction. (3) Young children's gender moderates the relationship between family socioeconomic status and punishment and severity parenting styles, emotional warmth and understanding parenting styles and young children's digital addiction.The results indicate that family socioeconomic status can prevent digital addiction in young children through the path of improving parenting styles. However, there is still an overall negative effect of family socioeconomic status on young children's digital addiction.

    Keywords: family socioeconomic status1, parenting styles2, digital addiction3, young children digital addiction4, gender5

    Received: 20 May 2024; Accepted: 01 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Luo, Duan, Kawulia, Su and Di. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Huijuan Di, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.