Media-related parenting and children’s media use among Chinese young children during the post-pandemic age: a large-scale representative study

Although existing studies have shown a significant correlation between general parenting and children's media use, the relationship between media-related parenting and young children's media use in the post-pandemic era within China's social landscape remains underexplored. Drawing upon the IT-CPU as the theoretical framework, this study examined the associations between media-related parenting, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and young children's media use (aged 3–6 years) from 5187 families residing in the Guangdong Province, China. The findings revealed intricate and diverse associations between media-related parenting and children's media use. Notably, the higher the level of PTSD in children, the higher the frequency of media use. Interestingly, family SES did not moderate the relationships between media-related parenting, PTSD, and children's media use. These results inform the designs of targeted interventions for media-related parenting and children's media use.