Peer-reviewed article
Parent-Child Play and Media Addiction in Adolescence: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study.
Lee C, Jeong HI, Kim Y ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study followed 1,130 South Korean children from age 6 to age 14 to understand how early parent-child play affects media addiction in adolescence. Children who played more with their parents at age 6 developed better executive function (planning and self-control skills) by age 10, which protected them from media addiction by age 14. The protective effect worked through cognitive development rather than through social relationships. The findings suggest that early family play in middle childhood is important for preventing later media addiction problems.
Key points
- Early parent-child play at age 6 significantly predicted higher executive function at age 10
- Higher executive function at age 10 subsequently predicted lower media addiction at age 14
- The indirect protective effect through executive function was statistically significant
- Peer attachment did not mediate the relationship between early play and later media addiction
- The protective influence of early family play operates through cognitive mechanisms rather than social bonds
Limitations
The study is based on data from South Korea and may not reflect patterns in other cultural contexts. The study does not directly measure the mechanisms of how executive function reduces media addiction or explore other potential protective factors.
Abstract
Although media addiction is a recognized public health concern, the theoretical framework surrounding its longitudinal development remains relatively underdeveloped. This study addresses that gap by evaluating a developmental model that traces a path from early parent-child play at age 6 to adolescent media addiction at age 14, with executive function and peer attachment at age 10 examined as parallel mediators. We used three waves of data from a representative sample of 1,130 parent-child dyads in the Panel Study on Korean Children. Early parent-child play at age 6 significantly predicted higher executive function at age 10, which subsequently predicted lower media addiction at age 14. This indirect path via executive function was statistically significant. Conversely, the indirect effect through peer attachment was not significant, as peer attachment was unrelated to both early play and subsequent media addiction. The direct effect of parent-child play on adolescent media addiction was nonsignificant, demonstrating that the protective influence of early family play operates through cognitive mechanisms rather than social bonds. These findings shift the clinical focus from proximal adolescent factors to early prevention, emphasizing middle childhood as a critical therapeutic window for bolstering executive function to mitigate later media addiction risks.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Early parent-child play
- Population
- 1,130 parent-child dyads in South Korea, representative sample
Key finding
Early parent-child play at age 6 significantly predicted higher executive function at age 10