Effect of the Use of Smart Media on the Cognitive and Language Development of the Preschooler: The Mediating Effect of Smart Media Addiction Tendency and the Moderated Mediating Effects of Maternal Guidance on Smart Media Usage

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between preschoolers’ smart media usage in regards to cognitive and language development, especially the mediating effect of preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency and the moderated mediating effect of maternal guidance on smart media usage. The study surveyed 273 preschoolers’ mothers who lived in Daegu City and Kyungpook Province. The findings of this study were as follows. First, preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency mediated the relationship between smart media usage time in regards to cognitive and language development. Second, maternal active mediation and monitoring moderated the relationship between preschoolers’ smart media usage time and smart media addiction tendency. Third, there was a maternal co-use moderated the mediating effect of preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency on language development. In conclusion, preschoolers’ smart media addition tendency mediated the effect of smart media usage time on cognitive and language development. Among the mediation pathways, the influence of preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency on language development was moderated by maternal co-use. The findings of this study suggest that maternal guidance should be applied differently depending on preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency. This study examined preschoolers’ and maternal smart media-related variables on preschoolers’ cognitive and language development in order to provide preliminary data that can be used to explore the maternal guidance on how to use smart media for their preschool children.

Associations between Children’s Health-Related Characteristics, Self-Esteem, and Fathers’ Parenting Practices and Media Addiction among Younger School-Aged Korean Children

“…Our findings on the direct relationship between media use time and media addiction are in line with previous studies on young [17] and late school-aged children (fifth and sixth grade of elementary school) [40]. In our data, 31.3% of the participants had a smartphone, and the average media use time per day amounted to 1.37 h. Based on a longitudinal study that examined the relationship between changes in media use time and media addiction among early school-aged children [16], children whose media use time continuously increased showed a strong tendency toward media addiction, as did those who spent more time using media at an early age.…”

“…Subsequently, permissive parenting practices are inconsistent with the rules and discipline standards and provide minimal control over the children's behavior [52], therefore, they can be viewed as undesirable parenting practices. Even in late school-aged children, strong parental control over smartphone use was found to be a major influencing factor for smartphone addiction [30], which is in line with our findings that parental guidance on media use mediates media addiction tendencies and positively affects children's language development [17,30]. To generalize, our findings suggest that parents showing strong control over school-aged children's undesirable behaviors, whilst also respecting their children's personalities, is an important factor that prevents media addiction.…”

“…Furthermore, media addiction decreases children's likelihood of engaging in healthy interactions with their peers and families [14] and leads to behavioral problems such as impulsive behavior [15] and poor adaptation to school life [16]. Furthermore, as young children become accustomed to stimulating digital media they lose interest in conventional media that offer less stimulation, such as books, which, in turn, leads to delays in children's cognitive development [17]. In general, children's vulnerability to media addiction can be related to difficulties in self-regulation [18] and an immature ability to control themselves [19], which are typical of this age group.…”

The Structural Relationship Between Mothers’ Smart Media Literacy, Smart Media Mediation, Young Children’s Overdependence on Smart Devices, and Executive Function

“…Kim, 2016) 과 유아교육기관 적응(E. 실행기능에 대한 선행연구에서는 유아의 기질 (Conway & Stifter, 2012;Kong & Lim, 2012), 마음이론 (Devine & Hughes, 2014;Hughes & Ensor, 2007), 정서조절 (Zelazo & Cunningham, 2007), 어머니의 자율성 지지 (Cha, 2015), 그리고 어머니의 애 정적 양육행동 (Yoo & Kim, 2017) 등이 유의한 예측요인임을 밝히고 있다. 그러나 현시대는 스마트미디어 사용이 보편화 된 사회로서 스마트미디어 환경이 유아의 인지 및 언어 (Jang, 2020;E. Kim & Jeon, 2020), 주의집중(Y. M. , 자기 조절능력(S. Y.…”