ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1467701
This article is part of the Research TopicChildren's Health and Screen TimeView all 23 articles
Harsh Parenting and Preschool Children's Screen Time: The Mediating Role of Parent-Child Relationships and the Moderating Effect of Mindful Parenting
Provisionally accepted
- Xuchang University, Xuchang, China
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In the digital age, excessive screen time among preschool children has become a growing concern. This study investigates the complex relationship between harsh parenting and child screen time, examining the mediating role of parent-child relationships and the moderating effect of mindful parenting. A survey of 482 parents (Mage = 36 years, SD = 3.89) from four kindergartens in China, was conducted using validated measures of harsh parenting, parent-child relationships, mindful parenting, and child screen time. Results revealed that harsh parenting indirectly influenced child screen time through its negative impact on parent-child relationships. Importantly, mindful parenting moderated this relationship, buffering the negative effects of harsh parenting on parent-child relationships and, consequently, on child screen time. These findings highlight the significance of promoting positive parenting practices and mindfulness in parenting to mitigate excessive screen use among preschool children. The study contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying child screen time and offers valuable insights for developing targeted interventions to promote healthy media use in young children.
Keywords: Harsh parenting practices, Parent-child relationship, Mindful parenting, screen time, preschoolers
Received: 31 Jul 2024; Accepted: 27 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Caili Zhang, Xuchang University, Xuchang, China
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