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.
(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.