Rega, Valeria (2025) Parents regulating children’s screen media use in the digital age: Developing new assessment tools and a model of factors influencing parental mediation strategies within the Italian context. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

In recent decades, screen media use has increased significantly among young people, particularly children and adolescents. However, despite the growing awareness of the risks associated with early exposure to screen media, most studies have focused on problematic Internet use, online gaming, and social media use mainly in adolescents and young adults, while few have investigated problematic and risky screen media use in childhood, especially in the Italian context. In light of the profound social changes of recent years, including the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to an increase in time spent online among all age groups, more attention must be paid to screen media use in childhood and pre-adolescence, as early identification of maladaptive patterns may reduce the risk of developing more serious media-related problematic behaviours in later stages of life. The literature has long shown that parents can play a pivotal role in both reducing the risks and maximizing the benefits of digital screen use among children and adolescents. However, studies often report conflicting results on the effectiveness of parental mediation due to the lack of a clear and shared definition of its strategies, cultural differences in parenting practices, and methodological limitations of existing measurement tools. Moreover, parental mediation alone may not be sufficient, as its impact on children’s risky and problematic screen media use may be influenced by broader family dynamics. Therefore, the present research aims to expand and deepen the existing literature on risky and problematic screen media use in childhood and preadolescence, as well as on the strategies parents adopt to mediate their children’s screen use, providing a contribution rooted in the specific Italian context. Based on the theoretical framework of the Interactional Theory of Childhood Problematic Media Use (IT-CPU), four studies were conducted. Study 1 explored children’s perspectives on their screen media use through a qualitative focus group methodology, highlighting their awareness of risks and opportunities, ambivalent emotions, coping strategies to manage risks, perceptions of parental mediation strategies, and signs of screen media addiction. Study 2 contributed to the Italian validation of the Problematic Media Use Measure (PMUM), confirming its good reliability and validity. Study 3 focused on the development and validation of the Italian Parental Mediation Scale (I-PMS), a culturally sensitive instrument adapted to the Italian context that identifies four mediation strategies and shows good reliability and validity. Study 4 tested two structural equation models to examine how variables such as parental reflective functioning, parenting style, parents’ digital skills, parents’ perceptions of children’s emotional regulation and problematic screen media use influence mediation strategies. Overall, the present research provides new perspectives on the phenomenon of risky and problematic screen media use among children and pre-adolescents, introduces new assessment tools and explores the various family variables that influence parental mediation, paving the way for further studies aimed at deepening these phenomena particularly—but not exclusively— in the Italian context. Furthermore, this research has significant implications for clinical and therapeutic interventions, as well as for prevention and health promotion in educational and school settings.

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