| dc.description.abstract | Parent-child interaction plays a critical role in the outcomes that emerge from a given shared activity. However, there are clear context effects on the kinds of behaviors that determine a high-quality interaction between parents and children. For example, rich conversation may be more central to shared book reading than during joint toy play. One newer context that may benefit from high-quality interactions is joint media engagement (JME), or when two individuals share an interaction around digital content. Yet parents often view digital media-based activities as primarily solo interactions for the child, rather than opportunities for cooperation and reciprocity. There is little research on how to promote high-quality parent-child interactions in contexts that involve digital media, such as co-play of a digital game application. The current study evaluated whether the incorporation of parent-based information slides, or nudges, would promote significant changes in parent-child interaction behaviors. We also hypothesized the existence of a latent variable, interaction quality, that underlay measurements of conversation, engagement, and behavior. Four-year-old children and their parent (n = 77) in the United States participated in a pre-test Zoom session during which they played two pre-selected activities in a co-play game application (OK Play), and then were randomly assigned to use a version of the same application 10 times over two weeks that either did or did not contain parent-directed nudges before every activity. Upon completion, parents and children were brought in for a post-test Zoom session to evaluate whether condition differences and within-condition growth emerged. Given the small sample size, a Bayesian structural equation model was chosen for the analyses, and measures of conversation, engagement, and behavior were used as indicators for the latent variable. Results showed that, despite the model fitting the data (ppp = .326) and the latent variable being detected, the nudge intervention had no effect on parent-child interaction quality. Future research should consider digital media that contains parent-based features that are less frequent yet harder to ignore, as this may have a more robust effect on parent-child interaction quality. | |
