Structural Relationships Between Mothers’ Parenting Stress, Mother-Child Interactions, and Children’s Self-Control and Smart Media Use

Abstract

Objectives:The purpose of this study was to measure mothers' parenting stress and the frequency of interaction between mother and child and determine the path whereby children's self-control affects the use of smart media in a preceding study. Methods: This study analyzed 7th-wave panel data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Study of 1,565 mothers and children using Structural Equation Modeling. Results: The results were as follows. First, the interactions between mother and child did not significantly affect the child's use of smart media. Second, the path to child self-control was significantly affected by a mother's parenting stress and child's use of smart media. Third, the frequency of mother-child interactions and the double mediating effects of the child's self-control were significant factors in the path between mother's parenting stress and the child's use of smart media. Conclusion: Not only does this study identify the pathways of the variables that have been verified for each individual effect so far, but it is also meaningful in that while the use of smart media by young children has so far been considered passive and controlled by adults, especially parents, our results reflect changes in their use as smart media continue to spread.