What parents say about their own involvement in children's digital activities in everyday life: a mixed method systematic review
Systematic review
|Published
The purpose was to do a mixed-method systematic review of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish studies that examine what parents say about their approach to children's daily digital activities outside of school and kindergarten.
Key message
For many children and young people, digital activities are a central part of everyday life. Parents have an important role in monitoring their children's online activities and ensuring that their needs and interests are met. Parents may need information or guidance related to this.
In a mixed method systematic review of research from Scandinavia we included 29 studies about what parents say about their approach to children's (0 -18 years) digital activities in everyday life (leisure) over the past 10 years. The majority were qualitative studies, and included 769 parents, and two were questionnaires with 1001 and 94 parents, respectively.
The themes highlighted across the qualitative studies concerned parents’ involvement, regulation, concerns, positive aspects and competence related to their children's digital activities. Most parents were concerned with the opportunities and challenges of their children's digital activities. They involved themselves and regulated their children's activities in many ways and expressed concerns about screen time and content. Many were unsure about regulating their children's digital activities. Some experienced a generation gap and that they had insufficient conditions to guide and follow up on children and young people, especially with regard to gaming and the use of social media, but also what screen use could lead to in the long term and how they could protect their children.
This overview did not consider children's digital activities in kindergarten and school. These are arenas that contribute to the overall digital activity of children.
We identified many research gaps and therefore encourage more research in a field that is constantly evolving.
Summary
Introduction
"Digital parenting" refers to how parents relate to their children's use of digital tools and media. A daily life that includes digital tools and media gives children opportunities for development, learning and social interaction, but it also presents some challenges and concerns. Parents, i.e. people in all types of roles as caregivers, have a crucial role in ensuring that children and young people's needs and interests are taken care of. Like everything children do in their everyday lives, children's digital activities also require parental involvement.
Objective
The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs wants knowledge support for the preparation of targeted information, guidance and advice for parents about digital parenting. The purpose was to do a mixed-method systematic review of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish studies that examine what parents say about their approach to children's (0 -18 years) daily digital activities outside of school and kindergarten. The aim was to shed light on the following question: What do parents say about their involvement in-, and concerns related to, their children's digital activities in everyday life?
Method
We conducted systematic searches for Scandinavian primary studies published between 2015 and November 2024. Studies that examined parents’ statements about their approaches to their children's digital activities in everyday life outside of school/ kindergarten, were included. All types of outcomes about parents' involvement in, concerns with, or ways of regulating children's digital activities in everyday life (excluding health outcomes, such as those related to parents' mental health) were included. We aimed to encompass all types of involvement. This means that we included parents' positive and negative attitudes, experiences, parents' interactions with their children, engagement, and similar aspects that can be understood as parental involvement.
Two people screened references, selected full-text publications, and assessed these independently. We assessed the internal validity of the included studies using checklists that corresponded to each study’s design. We extracted data, analysed and presented qualitative and quantitative data separately, and then discussed the findings together. For qualitative data, we performed thematic analyses in several steps. For quantitative data, we did not perform our own analyses. We have not performed meta-analyses.
Results
The search resulted in 2801 unique references. After screening references, we read 139 publications in full-text and included 35 publications that represented 29 studies. The majority of which were qualitative studies. Nineteen studies were Norwegian, six were Swedish, and four were Danish. The most recent were twelve studies that collected data between 2019 and 2023.
The qualitative studies (N=27 + qualitative data from one mixed-methods study) included 769 parents of children 0 -18 years old. Most were parents of children of primary and secondary school age. The quantitative studies (N=1 + quantitative data from one mixed-methods study) included a survey, answered by 1001 parents and a study with 94 parents of adolescents with cognitive impairment. In the quantitative studies most were parents of teenagers, with average ages of 13.2 and 16.5 years, respectively.
Through thematic analysis of qualitative data across studies, we developed 32 findings and came to five main themes about parents' approaches to children's digital activities: involvement, regulation, concerns, positive aspects and competence. The quantitative data were extracted directly from the publications without further analysis. Here, we included percentages of parents who stated involvement, concerns, regulation and wishes in terms of their own competence about children's digital activities. We also included information about the opportunities and risks of internet use as seen by parents of young people with (all degrees of) cognitive impairment.
The findings from the 29 studies showed that parents were concerned about the opportunities and challenges of children's (0 -18 years) digital activities – and they provided many different perspectives on how family life is characterized:
Involvement: Parents took an interest in and became involved in their children's digital activities in different ways and to different degrees. Many parents described how they interact with their children through conversations about digital, playing digital games with them, or watching digital media together. Some parents wanted to be more involved in their children's digital activities.
Concerns: Parents were concerned about their children's screen time and the content they were exposed to, and they expressed uncertainty about their own decisions considering their child's age and maturity. Negative consequences of screen use, such as poorer language development, concentration and school performance, as well as social pressure, exclusion and bullying, were among things parents were concerned about.
Regulation: Parents commonly practiced rules for their children's screen time, and for example reported 67% of parents in one survey that they practiced rules about how long time or when their child was allowed to be online. Conflicts with children about regulation could be demanding. However, parents said little about whether they create the rules for screen use together with their children. Many parents used digital parental controls and monitoring.
Positive aspects: A finding in our data was that parents saw many positive opportunities with their children's use of digital media, such as it being a platform for social interaction and a learning arena for their children. Many parents recognized digital activities as a leisure interest their children had.
Competence: Parents' knowledge and competence were touched upon, and many parents seemed to be unsure about how to regulate their children's digital activities. They particularly highlighted gaming and the use of social media, and how they could protect children and youth. Parents experienced a difference between generations and the rapid digital development, and some believed that they lacked competence to guide or follow up on their children and youth regarding gaming and the use of social media.
The parents had different perspectives, and it varied how they experienced cooperation between themselves and common understanding around several topics related to children's digital activities. Many also said that being a good role model regarding time use with digital media was not always easy in practice. In the studies, we found little focus on at what age (of the child) the parents gave the children access to various digital tools (TV, computer, tablet and mobile). Many talked to their children about different aspects of social media in the start-up phase when the children got access, and with increasing age the parents wanted the youth to take more responsibility in their use of social media.
Discussion and conclusion
This mixed method systematic review includes 29 studies published in the last 10 years in which Scandinavian parents themselves answered questions about their approach to children's digital activities in everyday life at home. Most parents were concerned with the opportunities and challenges of their children's digital activities. They involved themselves and regulated their children's activities in many ways.
It is important for us to point out that we have not included the perspectives of children and adolescents and that these should be considered when making decisions that will affect the parent-child relationship. We also lack insight into aspects related to children's use of digital devices in kindergarten and school, which are also arenas that contribute to a child's overall digital activity.
Although there are certain limitations to this review, such as lack of assessment of our confidence in the results and focus on other arenas in children's lives, our findings show that parents need support in managing their children's digital activities and that a balanced approach is needed that considers both positive and negative aspects of children's digital lives.
We identified important research gaps, including those related to parents of young children (pre-school age), older teenagers (17-18 years) and children with disabilities, low-income families, gender differences (parents and children), information on how much (degree/extent) parents regulate and worry, whether parents take the perspective of children's rights into account, and on the effect of interventions (for example, parent training/guidance).
