Parent–child Joint Media Engagement in Infancy

Keywords

Parent-child engagement, media, infancy, child development

Abstract

Early conversations are an important source in shaping children's cognitive and emotional development, and it is vital to understand how parents use media as a platform to engage in conversations with their young children and what might predict the quality of these interactions. Thus, in the current study we explored the nature of parent–child discourse while engaging in media (i.e., joint media engagement) with infants, and how parent (empathic concern and responsiveness) and child (negative emotionality and regulatory capacity) variables might be associated with the quality of engagement. The current study consisted of 269 infants (50% female, M age =17.09 months, SD=3.93; 59% White) and their primary caregiver (98% mothers) who engaged in a variety of in-home tasks and parental questionnaires. Results established three meaningful codes for both parent and child that assessed positive and negative joint media engagement. Further, results suggested that parental empathic concern was associated with positive parent and child media engagement, while child negative emotionality was associated with lower levels of distraction. Discussion focuses on the importance of studying parent–child discourse in the context of joint media engagement and recommends limiting media exposure before 18 months of age.

Original Publication Citation

Padilla-Walker, L. M., Coyne, S. M., *Booth, M. A., Domoff, S. E., *Summers, K., *Jensen,E., Stockdale, L. (2020). Parent-child joint media engagement in infancy. Infancy, 25, 552-570.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2020-07-27

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/7755

Publisher

Infancy

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Family Life

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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