Use of touchscreen technology by 0–3-year-old children: Parents’ practices and perspectives in Norway, Portugal and Japan
Keywords
Cross-cultural
discourses
early years
parents
touchscreen technology
Publication details
| DOI: | 10.1177/1468798420938445 |
| Issued: | 2020 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 20 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Start Page: | 551 |
| End Page: | 573 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Dardanou M.; Unstad T.; Brito R.; Dias P.; Fotakopoulou O.; Sakata Y.; O'Connor J. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Journal of Early Childhood Literacy |
| Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
| Topics: | Social mediation; Internet usage, practices and engagement; Literacy and skills; Risks and harms; Online safety and policy regulation; Access, inequalities and vulnerabilities |
| Sample: | "The total sample comprised 552 respondents who registered as parents of one or more children, where at least one was under the age of three. More specifically, 180 participants were recruited from Norway, 274 from Portugal and 98 from Japan, with two respondents being grandparents. Many of the participants from each country held a university degree (30%), a smaller number had completed post-graduate studies (27%) and a limited number reported no qualifications at all (19%). Very similar responses and distribution were found with partners’ educational qualifications (33%, 25% and 15%)." (2020, p. 554) |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parental practices / parental mediation; Parental digital literacy ; Parenting guidance / support |
| Implications For Educators About: | Digital citizenship |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | Other |
| Other PolicyMaker Implication: | Improving parents digital skills - |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Industry |
Abstract
This paper discusses findings from online surveys completed by parents of 0–3-year-old children in Norway, Portugal and Japan concerning their young children’s use of touchscreen technology. The study investigated parental practices, views and perspectives related to children’s digital practices and explored these in relation to wider cultural discourses around early childhood in the participant countries. The study adopted Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to inform the questionnaire and interpretative data analysis of how parents’ views and experiences are influenced by a wide range of social, cultural and personal factors. The findings demonstrate some coherence between beliefs among parents regarding very young children’s use of touchscreen technologies and their place in the children’s home lives. Quantitative and qualitative results highlight that the respondents from all countries expressed the need for further guidance regarding technology use, and better communication with early education and care centres. The study findings are discussed in relation to the reported uses of touchscreen technologies in the three different cultural contexts, parents’ views on the benefits and/or disadvantages of children’s touchscreen technology use, and the potential influences of dominant cultural discourses on parents’ perceptions, views and practices.
Outcome
"The findings demonstrate some coherence between beliefs among parents regarding very young children’s use of touchscreen technologies and their place in the children’s home lives. Quantitative and qualitative results highlight that the respondents from all countries expressed the need for further guidance regarding technology use, and better communication with early education and care centres. The study findings are discussed in relation to the reported uses of touchscreen technologies in the three different cultural contexts, parents’ views on the benefits and/or disadvantages of children’s touchscreen technology use, and the potential influences of dominant cultural discourses on parents’ perceptions, views and practices. " (2020, p. 551)