How parental mediation relates to digital device use in primary and secondary school students: evidence for the statistical mediation of parent–child interaction quality

Introduction Digital device use has become increasingly common among children and adolescents, making it important to understand how parental mediation strategies relate to students’ device-use behaviors and the family relational context in which such behaviors occur. Methods This cross-sectional, multi-informant questionnaire study examined associations among parental mediation strategies, parent–child interaction quality, and students’ digital device use. Participants were 1,235 paired primary and secondary school students in Grades 4–8 and their parents from Tianfu New Area, Chengdu, China. Descriptive statistics, group comparisons, correlation analyses, mediation models, and path analysis were used to examine the focal variables. Results Digital device use was widespread and often began in early childhood. Restrictive mediation was associated with lower device-use time, less entertainment-oriented content, and less intensive use habits, whereas co-use and active mediation were positively associated with better parent–child interaction quality. Parent–child interaction quality showed significant statistical mediation in the associations of co-use, active mediation, and restrictive mediation with overall digital device use. Discussion Because the data were cross-sectional, the findings should be interpreted as relational rather than causal. Overall, the results highlight the family relational context in which parental mediation is linked to children’s digital device use.