"Young school children’s use of digital devices and parental rules" (Goh, 2015)Please note: This post is more relevant for researchers and clinicians.

Research Paper Breakdown:

• Survey
• Face to face interview
• 116 Primary 1 and Primary 2 school students from co-educational schools
• Children were asked about access to digital devices, asking for permission and parental rules
• Conducted in Singapore by National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University with funding from Inter ministry Cyber wellness Steering Committee
• 32 questions conducted by the same interviewer over an average of 10 minutes per interview

Weaknesses of Study:

• Parents were not interviewed
• Younger children were observed to be distracted mid-way in the interview
• Younger children may have under reported or incorrectly reported digital device use
• Younger children may have difficulty with concepts relating to time
• Time constraints on interview
• Descriptions of how games were played online and offline were not elicited
• Only 4 schools sampled

Strengths of Study:

• Face to face interview allows for young children to clarify questions they do not understand
• Using the same single interviewer allowed for consistency
• The study asked about multiple devices: computers, mobile phones and tablets

What were their main findings?

• Young children use digital devices mainly for playing games (78%) and e-learning (72%).
• Regarding computer use:The most common instruction from parents was that students were only allowed to play computer games after their homework was completed
• One quarter of students were unable to report specific instructions given by their parents.
• 60% of students reported some sort of time limit on use of devices
• 21% of students reported that they had no time limits imposed on them
• The remaining 19% were uncertain about any time limits from parents

Regarding mobile phone and tablet use:

• Parents tend not to set a specific time limit for playing on the mobile phone
• Parents tend to give vague instructions

What can we learn from this?

• Parents need to understand the activities their child are doing on digital devices and online
• Parents need to stay up to date with the the risks associated their children using digital devices and online
• Young children need to be taught about cyber safety and cyber-wellness
• Parents need to be clear and consistent with their instructions on use of all digital devices
• Young children may have difficulty with concepts relating to time
• Parents need to set specific time limits
• Parents should have a continual open parent-child communication and provide the rationale for setting limits
• Children should be taught self regulations skills at an early age that do not involve digital devices
• Parents should be involved in monitoring of their child's use of digital devices

Source:

Goh, W. W., Bay, S., & Chen, V. H. H. (2015). Young school children’s use of digital devices and parental rules. Telematics and Informatics, 32(4), 787-795.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0736585315000337

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vivian_Chen2/publication/275521646_Young_school_children's_use_of_digital_devices_and_parental_rules/links/553e770e0cf210c0bdaaa615.pdf