Digital media habits in early childhood: an Italian study on parents and children

Purpose: Understanding the effects of digital device use within family settings is crucial for developing strategies to optimize benefits while mitigating harms. The study examines the time spent on digital devices and screen media use outside of preschool hours among Italian families, with a focus on the influence of parents’ monthly household income. Methods: 305 parents of children aged 2–6 years provided self-reported responses to the Surveillance of digital Media hAbits in earLy ChiLdhood Questionnaire (SMALLQ ). The questionnaire included 27 items, detailing demographics, digital media usage, and off-screen activities. In this study, we focused on 4 selected items: (a) parents’ digital habits: In the last 7 days, how much time do you spend using digital media?; (b) children’s digital habits: Over the last 7 days, how frequently did your child use screen media?; (c) time spent by children using digital devices: In the last 7 days, how much time does your child spend using digital devices, outside of the kindergarten?’’; (d) time spent by parents and children together using digital devices: When your child uses media, estimate the amount of time you are engaged with him/her. Hours per day (6 h/d; items a, b, c) and percentage (%; item d) spent on digital use were utilized for statistical analysis. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the differences in digital device use time of parents and children according to socioeconomic status (SES) categorized into 5 monthly household income categories: SES0: B 1500€; SES1:1501–2000€; SES2: 2001–2500€; SES3: 2501–3000€; SES4: C 3000€. Results: Significant differences (p = 0.0001) were observed for parents’ digital habits (item a), with SES0 (0.75 ± 0.6 h/d) showing lower values than SES2 (1.14 ± 0.7 h/d), SES3 (1.08 ± 0.6 h/d) and SES4 (1.15 ± 0.4 h/d). However, no significant differences were found for children’s digital habits (items b and c) across SES. A significant difference (p = 0.002) was observed for % of time spent by parents and children together using digital devices, with SES0 (27.2%) showing lower values than SES3 (47.3%) and SES4 (45.9%). Conclusions: This study highlights the impact of SES on family digital habits, indicating that higher SES is linked with higher joint media activities between parents and children, which may reduce negative effects of digital media on children, suggesting the need for interventions addressing economic disparities to foster healthier digital environments and more research into parent–child media use.