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Panel information
Panel 24. Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

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Early digital media use has been studied in relation to various cognitive outcomes (Lawrence & Choe, 2021; Linebarger & Vaala, 2010). Creativity, a complex higher-order cognitive skill, is crucial to children’s ability to adapt to new challenges and solve problems (Ahmadi & Besançon, 2017). However, the relation between digital media use and creativity in young children, especially in terms of parental beliefs, remains unexplored. The family environment—especially parents’ media-related beliefs and motives—significantly shapes young children’s media use (Barr et al., 2024). Additionally, parental openness, a personality trait characterized by a willingness to embrace new experiences and creative thinking, has been linked to fostering creativity in their children (Kwaśniewska et al., 2018). This study examined parental beliefs of digital media as a tool to support children’s creativity and how these beliefs are associated with parental media use motives and openness. Given the differential impact of media interactivity on child development (AAP, 2016), we assessed parental beliefs about both interactive and non-interactive use in relation to creativity.



A total of 296 mothers of toddlers (18-36 months) participated in an online survey. Mothers reported their beliefs about the value of media for children’s creativity (interactive and non-interactive), motives for children’s media use, and openness. First, we used a mixed-effects model to examine whether beliefs about media’s role in fostering creativity would differ by media interactivity, controlling for child age and parent education. Next, we used the Regularized Graphical Gaussian Model (RGM) to discern the internal connections after systematically controlling for interdependencies among all variables in the network.



Results from the mixed-effects model revealed that mothers held more positive beliefs about the role of interactive media in supporting children’s creativity than non-interactive media (p < .001). In exploring how these beliefs related to media motives, RGM identified ‘beliefs in interactive media for creativity’ as a central node (strength indice = 1.02). These beliefs were significantly connected to motives for media use as reward for the child, for educational purposes, and for enhancing parent-child bonding, as well as beliefs about non-interactive media use for creativity. Furthermore, parental openness did not directly link to beliefs about interactive media’s creative potential but did so indirectly via motives for parent-child bonding and education.

Overall, this study revealed that parental beliefs about media’s creative value differed by interactivity and these beliefs were interconnected with motives and openness. Parents reported higher creative value for interactive media use compared to non-interactive, though beliefs about both were positively associated. Beliefs about interactive media’s creative potential were particularly tied to motives around education, bonding, and reward, aligning with media guidelines (AAP, 2016). The indirect pathway linking parental openness to beliefs about interactive media suggested that openness links to beliefs about creative benefits through nuanced routes involving education and bonding. Together, the findings from this study highlight the importance of considering media interactivity in parental beliefs about media’s value for children’s creativity. Future research should explore whether parental factors, such as beliefs, moderate the impact of media on young children’s creativity.

Author information

Author	Role
Jing Chen, Virginia Tech	Presenting author
Ziwei Wang, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences	Non-presenting author
Eunkyung Shin, The Pennsylvania State University	Non-presenting author
Cynthia L. Smith, Virginia Tech	Non-presenting author
Koeun Choi, Virginia Tech	Non-presenting author

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