An increasing number of children access media at younger ages, with many actively consuming it. In the United States, 70% of children under the age of 1 year and 91% of children aged 2-3 years access media several times per week [1]. Similarly, in South Korea, approximately 60% of children aged 3-9 years are exposed to television before their first birthday, and 30% begin using smartphones before the age of 1 year [2]. This growing trend is in contrast with the recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics [3], which advises against media use for children under the age of 2 years [4]. Despite the recommendation, children’s media consumption remains high. The typical 8- to 10-year-old children spend almost 8 hours daily across different media, and this number increases for older children and teenagers to more than 11 hours per day [1].

While media may not be a leading cause of major health concerns, previous research suggests that media exposure contributes to various risks and health problems [3]. For example, younger children’s media use, as early as preschool years, has been associated with developmental difficulties such as reduced physical fitness and psychosocial health [5,6]. Specifically, engagement in risky online social behaviors [7], poor academic performance [8], obesity [9,10], reduced quality of life [11], and impaired executive function [12] have been associated with increased children’s media use. Additionally, previous studies have shown that excessive television viewing can lead to cognitive, language, and social-emotional delays [13-16]. Research has further shown that infants and toddlers gain more developmentally beneficial skills through play with physical objects rather than screen-based devices [17,18].

Numerous longitudinal [19] and cross-sectional studies [5,13,20] showed that children with greater screen time had a higher level of behavioral difficulties. A longitudinal study investigating children between the ages of 2 and 6 years showed an association between increased media use and poorer well-being outcomes, even though the results varied for boys and girls [13]. Additionally, each extra hour of television viewing per week between the ages of 2 and 4 years was associated with a 5% increase in body mass index at the age of 10 years, a 9%‐10% rise in the consumption of soda and snacks, and a 13% reduction in outdoor weekend activities [21]. A study from South Korea with survey data from mothers and teachers of 5- and 6-year-old children showed that increased use of smart devices was associated with increased levels of aggression [22]. Altogether, the findings suggest that children’s excessive consumption of media may have adverse developmental and behavioral effects.

To better understand the effects of media use on children, it is essential to examine the various factors influencing the media use of digital native children (ie, children who have access to and utilize a wide range of media and platforms from birth) [23]. One key factor is the physical environment, or in other words, the advancements in digital media technology that enable children to use media freely without restrictions of time and space through traditional means such as television as well as portable devices like smartphones and tablet PCs. Another key factor is the situational context, such as the influence of parents, given that parents shape their children’s behaviors and attitudes as primary role models [24-26]. Parental media usage [27-29], attitudes toward media [30,31], and parenting styles [26,32] have all been identified as significant factors influencing children’s media use. In addition, the impact of these factors varies according to the developmental stage or age of the children [25,26,32]. This study seeks to focus on the second key factor and examine these relationships in greater depth, drawing on existing research to understand their impact on the media usage patterns of digital native children.

Although extensive research has examined children’s overall media or screen time, much less is known about how parental factors influence media use across different times of day. This is a critical gap because daytime and nighttime media use may have distinct developmental implications (eg, school readiness, sleep quality, and behavioral regulation). Moreover, little evidence exists on how these influences shift across post-COVID years when children’s reliance on screen-based media has been both normalized and expanded to include educational contexts [33,34]. This study addresses this problem by examining parental media use, attitudes, and parenting styles as predictors of children’s daytime and nighttime media use in a large, national Korean sample drawn from three independent cohorts across 3 years (2022‐2024). In this study, “media use” is defined operationally as children’s screen-based engagement, including television, smartphones, tablets, and computers, as reported by parents in a 24-hour matrix of daily activities. Conceptually, we focus on electronic and online media rather than print or offline formats, as these account for the majority of children’s daily exposure in contemporary contexts.

Children’s screen time can be explained by Bandura’s social learning theory [35], which posits that learning and behavior are shaped by observing others in one’s environment. Young children learn by observing their parents, siblings, and others around them, picking up on daily habits, social interactions, and responses to various situations, including media use in the home. When parents model media behaviors, their children are likely to replicate those patterns. For instance, a national survey found that children often imitate their fathers or older siblings by playing with game controllers, even when they lack the skills to use them effectively [36].

Parents’ prolonged or habitual consumption of media at home may serve as a role model for children’s media use. Research indicates that parents’ media use and habitual patterns of consumption are associated with increased media use time and habitual use among children [37]. Notably, children’s media use was more closely related to their parents’ habitual consumption of media than to parental restrictions on media use. Further, studies have shown that children’s screen time tends to be higher when their mothers report substantial media use [38,39]. These findings suggest that parents’ media use may significantly influence children’s ability to regulate their own media consumption. Accordingly, we propose:

Parent attitudes are another important factor in children’s screen time. Parents play a critical role in establishing rules within the household, with their influence on media consumption being particularly pronounced in younger children. Parent attitudes toward media, whether positive or negative, shape the rules governing media use, thereby directly influencing the amount of time children spend engaging with media [26]. Given their substantial influence on their children’s behaviors [40], parents often modify their behaviors as a strategy to affect changes in their children’s behaviors [41].

In the United States, a survey focused on electronic media use among children aged 6 months to 6 years indicated that parents had varied attitudes toward media use [36]. Some parents encouraged media use, finding it beneficial for children and useful for household management, such as keeping children occupied while doing chores. While similar proportions of parents felt that television had both positive (38%) and negative (31%) effects on learning, the majority supported computers as beneficial (70%) but video games as detrimental (49%) [29]. It is possible that parents aim to help their children maximize the benefits of the rich resources offered by video media while simultaneously shielding them from harmful content [42].

In general, the children of parents who view media positively tend to have higher screen time. Among preschoolers, parent attitudes and beliefs about media were strong indicators of children’s screen time [30]. For younger (0‐2 y) and older (5‐6 y) children, positive parent attitudes have been shown to significantly contribute to exceeding the recommended screen time limits set by the American Academy of Pediatrics [3,43], particularly in relation to television viewing [44]. Although parent attitudes significantly influenced the television and computer use of children, their influence on mobile devices was less pronounced [31].

Additionally, parental rules based on positive attitudes tend to support media use in the home, while negative attitudes encourage restrictions. The more critically parents evaluate media, the more likely they are to engage positively in parental mediation (active or restrictive) to mitigate the negative effects of their children’s media exposure [41]. Parental mediation has been shown to effectively influence children’s responses to media exposure [45], and experts have even advocated for increasing the level of parental mediation provided by parents [46]. Therefore, we hypothesize:

Finally, parents considerably contribute to children’s media use, indicating that parents may mediate children’s media use and, in turn, the overall developmental outcome. For example, while children with increased media use showed a decreased level of prosocial behavior, the level of parent-child interactions mediated the association between the children’s media use and level of prosocial behavior [19]. Specifically, parenting style—or specific sets of parental mediation strategies and behaviors—may explain children’s varying levels of media use. Previous studies have shown that parental control over children’s access to smart media influences the amount of time younger children spend using such media [47]. Research in Korea has further indicated that among parental mediation strategies, supervisory control tends to be more pronounced before the age of 6 years but diminishes after the age of 7 years. In particular, for children aged 5-6 years, multiple factors—including media use patterns, self-regulatory abilities, and parental supervision—exert significant influence. This suggests that age-specific approaches to parents' mediation are necessary [48]. Research also indicates that mediation practices vary not only in form (eg, restrictive, active, or co-use) but also in effectiveness, depending on the child’s age. For younger children, restrictive mediation (eg, setting time limits) has been shown to reduce overall screen exposure, whereas older children and adolescents benefit more from active mediation approaches that involve discussion, explanation, and joint engagement [25,32,49-51].

Baumrind [52] and Maccoby and Martin [53] identified four different parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful. Each parenting style varied in their levels of demandingness and responsiveness. Generally, studies showed that children with authoritative parents (ie, highly demanding and responsive) had the most positive developmental outcome, while children with authoritarian (ie, highly demanding but not responsive) and permissive (ie, not demanding but highly responsive) parents had more negative outcomes.

The Ghent Parental Behavior Scale, developed by Leeuwen and Vermulst [54], categorizes parenting strategies into 9 distinct domains: positive parenting, autonomy, rules, monitoring, discipline, harsh punishment, material reward, inconsistent discipline, and ignoring. A material reward is a tangible incentive, such as a toy, snack, small gift, or even cash, provided to a child in exchange for a specific behavior or compliance. Positive parenting styles, such as permissive and neglectful parenting, are characterized by strategies including autonomy, positive parenting, and rules. In contrast, negative parenting styles, such as authoritative or authoritarian approaches, are associated with parenting strategies including monitoring, harsh punishment, material rewards, and ignoring [54].

A recent study by Lee et al [26] showed that a child’s daytime media use between the ages of 4 and 6 years significantly increased for parents who gave more autonomy to their children (ie, permissive and neglectful parenting style), and a child’s nighttime media use decreased with the parenting style of discipline (ie, authoritative and authoritarian parenting style). Lee et al also found that parents’ use of material rewards was the strongest predictor of the child’s nighttime media use, as the child’s nighttime media use significantly increased when parents practiced material reward. Similarly, other studies showed that children between the ages of 10 and 11 years exhibited higher levels of screen exposure when they had parents with lower levels of control over their children [27,32]. The parental behavior in this example aligns with a permissive and neglectful parenting style, where parents provide more autonomy to their children and incorporate positive parenting. On the contrary, studies showed that parents who exercise higher levels of control and support would engage in behaviors or strategies employing active and restrictive mediation [32,55]. Specific strategies would include monitoring and rules, discipline, harsh punishment, and material reward. Collectively, the literature suggests that children with permissive and neglectful parents would be more likely to have higher levels of media use, while children with authoritarian and authoritative parents would be more likely to have lower levels of media use [26].

Despite the clear implications of the parent’s role in shaping children’s media use, previous studies have focused on descriptive and correlational analyses. As Lee et al [26] suggested, further investigation on the relationship between parental determinants, such as parenting style and children’s media use, is needed. The primary goal of the study is to determine the relationship between parenting style and children’s media use across various age groups. The researcher distributed surveys to parents because young children cannot reliably self-report their daily media use, and parent reports are generally considered appropriate for estimating children’s media use, such as video and app games, computer use, and television viewing [56]. Based on previous findings that parenting style may potentially have important effects on children’s media use, we hypothesize the following:

The secondary goal of the study is to extend the findings of Lee et al [26] by replicating the previous findings. Therefore, we incorporated the 2 hypotheses related to parenting style used in Lee et al [26]:

Previous findings support a clear relationship between parenting style and children’s media use. To extend the existing literature, it is imperative to identify the parental determinant that explains children’s media use, and the researcher of this study aims to answer the following research question:

A total of 1058 parents of children aged 5-7 years, 1020 parents of children aged 6-8 years, and 1020 parents of children aged 7-9 years completed questionnaires between April 26 and May 9, 2022; October 26 and November 9, 2023; and July 31 and August 21, 2024, respectively. All participants completed the questionnaire through an online survey conducted by a Korean survey company, Macromill Embrain, which recruited participants from its national panel pool. Each year’s sample primarily consisted of an independent cross-sectional group, although approximately 5%‐10% of the participants may have overlapped across years due to the nature of the panel system. However, the study did not track individuals over time, and analyses were conducted separately for each dataset. The age and sex distribution of the children was balanced across each dataset. Detailed demographic characteristics for all three groups are presented in Table 1.

The study received ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board of Ewha Womans University (Institutional Review Board approval number: EWHA-202103-0028-01). All data were anonymized prior to analysis, and no personally identifiable information was stored or retained. Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study. As the participants were members of a registered survey company panel, an honorarium was provided based on the survey response time at a rate of 100 KRW (approximately US $0.67) per minute. Participants who discontinued the survey prior to completion were also compensated with a prorated stipend corresponding to their participation time.