The Association of Maternal Emotional Status With Child Over-Use of Electronic Devices During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic may generate high levels of maternal depression/anxiety, and maternal emotional status may affect child behavioral development. Online education during the pandemic may induce child over-use of electronic-devices. However, child electronic-device over-use (especially among children under 12 who are immature in physical and mental development) during the pandemic has not attracted sufficient attention, and the association of child over-use with maternal emotional status remains unknown. Therefore, this study aims to assess the characteristics of child electronic-device over-use and the association between maternal emotional status and child over-use among 1,300 children from nurseries (<3 years), kindergartens (3–6 years), and primary schools (6–12 years) in Shanghai and Wuhan during COVID-19. Mothers completed an online questionnaire (including the Self-Rating-Depression/Anxiety-Scales and Family-Environment-Scale). The use of electronic devices (mobile-phones, iPads, computers, and televisions) and online courses taken by the children were investigated. Associations of maternal emotional status with electronic-device-use by child age were analyzed. The proportions of children in nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools were 8.5, 44.5, and 47.0%, their percentages following online-courses were 24.5, 48.4, and 99.0%, and their rates of electronic-device over-use were 34.2, 62.2, and 93.4%, respectively. Significant associations were observed between higher maternal anxiety/depression levels and higher risks of mobile-phone/iPad over-use among preschoolers and primary-school students. Lower family intimacy and higher conflict levels were associated with higher maternal depression/anxiety levels and higher risks of electronic-device over-use. Our findings suggested that over-use of electronic-devices among children under 12 was common during COVID-19, especially among children ≥6 years, and online-teaching may exacerbate over-use. Maternal anxiety/depression levels were associated with over-use of portable internet-devices (mobile-phone/iPad), especially among preschoolers and school-aged students, and family environment may mediate the association. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of factors leading to over-use of electronic-device and developing strategies to decrease over-use during COVID-19.

The impact of media on children during the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative review

“… Eales, L., Gillespie, S., Alstat, R. A., Ferguson, G. M., & Carlson, S. M. (2021) Children's screen and problematic media use in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic Screen media use; problematic media use, COVID-19, children An ad hoc questionnaire was developed for the present study; adapted versions of the Common Sense Census (CSC; Rideout and Robb, 2017 ); Measure of Problematic Media Use - Short Form ( Domoff et al., 2019 ). Guo, X., Zhou, Y., Xu, J., Hu, Y., & Liu, Z. (2021) The Association of Maternal Emotional Status With Child Over-Use of Electronic Devices During the COVID-19 Pandemic COVID-19 pandemic, maternal depression, maternal anxiety, child electronic devices over-use, media, family environment An ad hoc questionnaire was developed for the present study; Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS; Zung, 1965 ); Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS; Zung, 1971 ); Family Environment Scale (FES-CV; Phillips, 1999 ).…”

“…It is possible to summarize the various contributions in this article by following a few main themes: the psychological and physical outcomes of using and owning technological gadgets during COVID-19 ( Adachi et al., 2022 ; Camerini et al., 2022 ; Chen et al., 2021 ; Chen et al., 2022 ; Cowan et al., 2021 ; Guo et al., 2021 ; Hmidan, 2022 ; Limone and Toto, 2021 ; Werling et al., 2021a ; Serra et al., 2021 ); behavioral problems related to overuse of media during COVID-19 ( Li et al., 2021b ; Marfua, 2021 ); the relationship between eating and sleeping disorders and the use of media during the pandemic ( Kamaleddine et al., 2022 ; Kim et al., 2022 ; Kotrla Topić et al., 2021 ); the effect of media in groups of clinical and ADHD children ( Sciberras et al., 2022 ; Shuai et al., 2021 ).…”

“…In a longitudinal study ( Chen et al., 2022 ) repeated-measures analyses of variance noted a significant difference in mean psychological distress, problematic smartphone use, and problematic gaming. Moreover, other researchers not only gave attention to the emotional state of children but also of mothers, showing that maternal anxiety/depression was related to an overuse of handheld Internet devices, especially smartphones, among infants and children ( Guo et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Regarding mental health during COVID-19, some studies have found a correlation not only between device ownership and depression in school-aged children ( Adachi et al., 2022 ), but also between maternal symptomatology and excessive use of handheld Internet devices, particularly smartphones, among children ( Guo et al., 2021 ), and this association varies according to the age of the children. This is a crucial point because we need to consider that children's social isolation and the activities, they engage in during the shutdown also affect parents' mental health.…”

The Use of Tablets in Elementary Education Attitudes and Reflections of Teachers

“…The high chi-square ( 2 = 438,843) shows that the answers of the respondents are significantly differently distributed. 19.0% of research participants fully disagree with the set item (2.0%), or disagree (17.0%), while 34.5% agree with the item (25.1%), or fully agree (9.4%). The chi-square is very high ( 2 = 262,497), which means that the answers of the respondents are statistically significantly differently distributed.…”