The Roles of General and Technology-Related Parenting in Managing Youth Screen Time

This study examines the associations of 2 types of parenting practices-general adaptive parenting and technology-related strategies-with youth screen time. We hypothesized that technology-related parenting focused on behavioral control would relate directly to screen time and serve to link general parenting to screen time. Participants were 615 parents drawn from 3 community samples of families with children across 3 development stages: young childhood (3-7 years; n = 210), middle childhood (8-12 years; n = 200), and adolescents (13-17 years; n = 205). Using structural equation modeling, we found that general adaptive parenting was not related to child screen time but was positively related to technology-related parenting strategies for all 3 samples. For the young and, to some extent, middle childhood samples, but not for the adolescent sample, general adaptive parenting was positively linked to youth screen time through technology-related parenting strategies.