About this Research Topic

Background

Families’ daily lives are heavily influenced by digital media. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the daily screen time of parents and children increased extraordinary. At the same time, concerns are growing about the effects on the physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development of children in early childhood. Although the research on the effect of digital media use on preschool children is still patchy and sometimes inconsistent. It is by no means clear if and how the development of children is impacted by digital media use of parents or the children themselves. However, the healthy development in early childhood is crucially dependent on direct contact with sensitive, physically present care takers, and the real world with all senses. There are, however, two areas of risk in this context: (a) the so-called technoference, or parental distraction caused by digital media use, which can have a negative effect on the parent-child-interactions and relations; and (b) the use of digital media by the infant, toddler or preschooler itself.

With this Research Topic we aim to contribute to a critical examination and reflection of the usage of digital media in early childhood. Digital media, including Tablet PCs and smartphones, have become basic devices in almost all homes and are used by almost all adults all over the world. Studies have shown that even children under the age of 5 years come in regular contact with screen media. Some prior studies have shown negative effects on developmental variables in early childhood, such as reduced cognitive ability or language. However, the literature has rarely considered the individual factors of children and parents (e.g. personality, temperament, emotion regulation). We invite high-quality research focusing on the developmental outcome of digital media use of parents and children in early childhood. We welcome manuscripts adopting diverse methods, including cross-sectional, case-control, longitudinal, experimental manipulation, and intervention studies as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses, in the field of:

-Contextual processes, e.g., parent-child interactions, parental personality and emotion regulation, cultural differences,

- Pathways and long-term developmental outcomes

- Protective factors and resilience, e.g. moderators, and mediators of change

- Prevention and Intervention

Keywords: digital media, child mental health, intervention, internet, smartphones, mental health, psychiatry, cognitive development

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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