A New Way to Co-Play With Digital Media: Evaluating the Role of Instructional Prompts on Parent-Child Interaction Quality

The quality of interaction between parents and children around a shared activity plays a significant role in what each party gets out of it. Many aspects of behavior are used to measure interaction quality, and consistent relations among them suggest the presence of an underlying latent variable. These insights from research in traditional shared contexts (e.g., mealtime, playtime, co-reading) may extend to the new context of interacting around digital media or joint media engagement (JME). In the current study, 4-year-old children (n = 77) and a parent were provided a digital co-play application for a 2-week period. Families were randomly assigned to receive an experimental version of the app that included brief, parent-focused tips ("nudges") before every activity or a control version without prompts. A Bayesian structural equation model indicated that a latent variable, interaction quality, underpinned measures of engagement, conversation, and behavior coded as dyads played two app games at pre- and posttest. Neither being assigned to use the app with nudges, nor parents' beliefs about digital media, had a significant effect on interaction quality. However, within the experimental condition, the duration of time the parent nudges were on-screen during the home play sessions was positively predictive of interaction quality at posttest. Principles for creating effective parent-focused interventions around JME are discussed. What is the significance of this article for the general public?The current research evaluates a relatively new shared play context (digital media co-play) through the lens of parent-child interaction behaviors. Evidence of a latent variable that has not previously been found within this context is presented, and its significance for future research on parent-child joint media engagement (JME) is discussed. The article describes a new digital feature built into a preschool game app (parent-directed tips or "nudges"), compares the effect of this feature to other efforts to increase JME, and discusses how optimizing parent-directed tips to maximize the value of JME will be useful for researchers and media industry companies interested in promoting positive parent-child outcomes.