Already at a disadvantage? ICT in the home and children's preparation for primary school. (ICT Research Bursaries 2004 - Final Report)

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on pre-school children's development of competences in information and communications technologies (ICT). The study focuses on children's experiences of ICT in the home and in pre-school settings in the year before they begin formal education, and seeks to investigate concepts of advantage and disadvantage in this context. The study also aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of children's ICT competences on entry to school

The effectiveness of asking behaviors among 9-11 year-old children in increasing home availability and children's intake of fruit and vegetables : results from the Squire's Quest II self-regulation game intervention

Background: Home environment has an important influence on children's fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption, but children may in turn also impact their home FV environment, e.g. by asking for FV. The Squire's Quest II serious game intervention aimed to increase asking behaviors to improve home FV availability and children's FV intake. This study's aims were to assess: 1) did asking behaviors at baseline predict home FV availability at baseline (T0) (RQ1); 2) were asking behaviors and home FV availability influenced by the intervention (RQ2); 3) did increases in asking behaviors predict increased home FV availability (RQ3); and 4) did increases in asking behaviors and increases in home FV availability mediate increases in FV intake among children (RQ4)? Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a study using a randomized controlled trial, with 4 groups (each n = 100 child-parent dyads). All groups were analyzed together for this paper since groups did not vary on components relevant to our analysis. All children and parents (n = 400 dyads) received a self-regulation serious game intervention and parent material. The intervention ran for three months. Measurements were taken at baseline, immediately after intervention and at 3-month follow-up. Asking behavior and home FV availability were measured using questionnaires; child FV intake was measured using 24-h dietary recalls. ANCOVA methods (research question 1), linear mixed-effect models (research question 2), and Structural Equation Modeling (research questions 3 and 4) were used. Results: Baseline child asking behaviors predicted baseline home FV availability. The intervention increased child asking behaviors and home FV availability. Increases in child asking behaviors, however, did not predict increased home FV availability. Increased child asking behaviors and home FV availability also did not mediate the increases in child FV intake. Conclusions: Children influence their home FV environment through their asking behaviors, which can be enhanced via a serious game intervention. The obtained increases in asking behavior were, however, insufficient to affect home FV availability or intake. Other factors, such as child preferences, sample characteristics, intervention duration and parental direct involvement may play a role and warrant examination in future research

Children\u27s choices: the technology choices that children make within their free time. Influences and implications

The Irish Neighbourhood Play Research Project included almost 1700 families and 240 communities throughout Ireland. Using parental surveys and naturalistic observation, data was secured on how children in modern Ireland aged 0-14 are spending their free time. An all-island approach was taken incorporating cities, towns and rural areas across a variety of socio-economic groupings. Interesting findings arose from the data relating to the choices that children are making within their free time. This paper focuses on the choices they are making within technology use. Data on the children’s technological engagement will be presented and discussed through a child development lens. The positive and negative implications for both learning and development are raised. This generation of children will be the first to emerge into adulthood without ever experiencing a world without technology. For them, it will always have been central to their existence. What does this mean for the next generation of humanity? ©IATED (2016). Permission granted by IATED for inclusion in ResearchOnline@N

Collecting Data from Children Ages 9-13

Provides a summary of literature on common methods used to collect data, such as diaries, interviews, observational methods, and surveys. Analyzes age group-specific considerations, advantages, and drawbacks, with tips for improving data quality

Video games, parental mediation and gender socialization

The study examines the parental perception of the use of video games by their preadolescent children, as well as parental beliefs, mediation practices and difficulties they encounter. In total, 186 parents have participated. The results, gathered in the quantitative and qualitative phase, reveal differences in parental perception according to the age and sex of their children; parents have more negative than positive beliefs about video games and use more strategies based on control than on support and communication. In parents’ opinion, the difficulties for mediation are related to the precocity to which they access the media and Internet, social pressure, uncontrollability and the digital divide. The paper concludes with implications for the educational intervention aimed to respond to parents’ concerns and needs for information and training

At home with the future : influences on young children's early experiences with digital technologies

Early years curricula encourage practitioners to build on children's home experiences. Research into the kinds of activities that young children engage in at home and considerations of how to link these to their experiences in pre-school settings can therefore make an important contribution to practice. This chapter, which draws on studies investigating young children's home experiences with digital technologies, seeks to identify some of the key factors that influence the nature and extent of these experiences. Although digital divides - reflecting classic social divisions of economic status, gender and ethnicity - have been extensively explored in order to understand the causes of inequalities in access to digital technologies, our research concluded that parental attitudes towards these technologies are more influential than economic disadvantage in determining young children's experiences. To explore this issue in greater detail, we have drawn on the concept of prolepsis, a key influence on parents' interactions with their children deriving from the projection of their memories of their own idealised past into the children's futures (Cole, 1996). Parents' assumptions, values and expectations are influenced by their past experiences, enacted in the present, and are then carried by their children into the future as they move from home to formal education. We argue that prolepsis has powerful explanatory force for understanding the kinds of decisions parents make about activities such as the extent to which children engage in technological play

Children's Health: Evaluating the Impact of Digital Technology. Final Report for Sunderland City Council.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Children’s Health project sponsored by the City of Sunderland Digital Challenge project examined the impact of providing health-focused digital technologies to children aged 11-15 years, in terms of their usage and requirements of such technologies, and their subsequent behavioural changes. The empirical study ran with three groups of six children over a period of seven weeks for each group. A console-based exercise game and an exercise-focused social website were used in the study and the focus was on opportunistic (unstructured/unplanned) exercise. The emergent findings are: • Data collected about physical activity must be more extensive than simple step counts. • Data collection technologies for activities must be ubiquitous but invisible. • Social interaction via technology is expected; positive messages reinforcing attainments of goals are valued; negative feedback is seen as demotivating. • participants were very open to sharing information (privacy was not a concern). • Authority figures have a significant impact on restricting adolescents’ use of technologies. This document reports the how the study was conducted, analyses the findings and draws conclusions from these regarding how to use digital technologies to improve and/or maintain the physical activity levels of children throughout their adolescence and on into adulthood. The appendices provide the detailed (anonymised) data collected during the study and the background literature review

Parental perceptions of technology and technology-focused parenting: Associations with youth screen time

In the present study we propose a model linking parental perceptions of technology to technology-related parenting strategies to youth screen time, and, finally, to internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Participants were 615 parents drawn from three community samples of families with children across three developmental stages: young childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. The model was tested at each stage with the strongest support emerging in the young childhood sample. One component of parental perceptions of technology, perceived efficacy, was related to technology-related parenting strategies across developmental stages. However, the association of these strategies to child screen time and, in turn, problem behaviors, diminished as children increased in age. Implications for intervention are considered

Familial Regulation of Young Children\u27s TV Viewing in Ghana

This study examined familial regulation of young children\u27s TV viewing in Ghana. Participants were families with young children four through eight years enrolled at a school in the south of Ghana. An online survey of TV regulation practices of families (restrictive, coviewing, and instructive), TV viewing hours of young children, and families\u27 perception of TV influence on their children was completed by 158 family members (mostly parents). Results showed that restrictive regulation is the most predominately used strategy in Ghana, although all 3 regulation styles were used. College educated families were significantly more likely to use restrictive regulation than families with a primary school education. Further, over 70% of the young children exceeded the World Health Organization (2019), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (2016) recommended two hours of young children’s TV viewing. Results are discussed in terms of policy suggestions and future research