Parental Factors Associated with Smartphone Overuse in Preschoolers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study aimed to identify parental factors associated with smartphone overuse in preschoolers. @*Methods@#A systematic reviewwas conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Relevant studies published in peer-reviewed journals from 2009 to June 2019 were identifiedthrough systematic search in 10 electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, EMBASE, Web of Science, NDSL, KISS, KMbase,KoreaMed, and RISS). Standardized effect sizes were calculated to quantify the associations of parental factors with smartphoneoveruse in preschoolers using meta-analysis. @*Results@#A total of 30 cross-sectional studies involving 7,943 participants met the inclusioncriteria. The following were negatively correlated with smartphone overuse in preschoolers mother’s parenting self-efficacy (r =-.35),mother-child attachment (r =-.28), mother’s positive parenting behavior (r =-.28), mother’s positive parenting attitude (r =-.25), and father’sparenting involvement (r =-.15). Further, maternal factors such as smartphone addiction tendency (r =.41), parenting stress (r =.40), negativeparenting behavior (r =.35), negative parenting attitude (r =.14), smartphone usage time (r =.26), employment status (r =.18), and age(r =.12) were positively correlated with smartphone overuse in preschoolers. @*Conclusion@#Several parental factors influence smartphoneoveruse in preschoolers. These findings emphasize the need to assess and enhance the parental factors identified in this study to preventsmartphone overuse in preschoolers. Accordingly, we recommend the development of preventive interventions to strengthen parent-relatedprotective factors and mitigate risk factors.