Parents’ views on quality programmes for children and the risks and benefits they bring to preschool children’s development and learning

Seršen, Sara (author), Peštaj, Martina (author), Fekonja, Urška (author)

The aim of this study, which combines a qualitative and a quantitative approach, was to investigate by which standards Slovenian parents of preschool children define a high-quality children’s programme that can be watched on different screens. In addition, we were interested in parents’ views on the risks and benefits that programmes designed for children bring to the child’s early development and learning. The sample included 239 parents of children aged 1 to 6 years. The results show that, on average, children were exposed to screens at the age of two, but individual differences in both the age of first exposure and the frequency of exposure to screen content were substantial. Parents mostly used restrictive mediation to regulate their children’s screen exposure. Overall, parents attached great importance to the different aspects of quality children’s programme and rated aesthetic quality, entertainment and involvement as three very important elements. The standards by which they judged the quality of children’s programme were related to their education and the age of the child. They emphasised the positive effects of children’s programmes on the child’s emotional and language development, imagination and creativity, as well as on the development of social skills and play. On the other hand, the parents were most concerned about violent content, the modelling of inappropriate behaviour and the choice of words in children’s programmes.

• Language: English
• Keywords: media programme, preschool children, parental mediation, content quality, screen exposure, early childhood development, learning, parents, Questionnaire about the child’s screen habits, Maternal quality standards for children’s television programmes questionnaire, Television mediation scale
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 191-214
• Numbering: Vol. 33, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-155978
• UDC: 159.922.72:316.774
• ISSN on article: 1332-0742
• COBISS.SI-ID: 193914115
• Publication date in RUL: 25.04.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Psihologijske teme
• Shortened title: Psihol. teme
• Publisher: Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta, Odsjek za psihologiju
• ISSN: 1332-0742
• COBISS.SI-ID: 45259777

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: predšolski otroci, starševsko posredovanje, kakovost vsebine, izpostavljenost zaslonom, razvoj v zgodnjem otroštvu, učenje, starši

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0062
• Name: Uporabna razvojna psihologija