Digital Game Addiction and Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood: The Mediating Role of Protective Digital Parenting

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of protective digital parenting in the relationship between digital game addiction and socioemotional development in early childhood children. The study employed a cross-sectional design with a sample of 478 mothers (M = 34.70, SD = 6.74). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping procedures in IBM AMOS. The findings indicated that digital game addiction was negatively associated with children’s communication/social performance and emotional stability/coping with stress. In contrast, protective digital parenting was positively associated with these developmental outcomes. Moreover, protective digital parenting showed a small but statistically significant mediating association in the relationship between digital game addiction and socio-emotional functioning. These findings suggest that protective digital parenting is associated with children’s social and emotional development and may partially help explain the relationship between digital game addiction and socio-emotional outcomes. Although the indirect effects were relatively small, the results indicate that parental protective digital mediation practices may represent a limited but significant associative factor in early childhood socio-emotional functioning.