Digital Home Learning Activities in Early Childhood: Associations with Socio-Emotional Difficulties

Families play a central role in shaping young children’s learning and development through everyday interactions and shared activities in the home environment. As digital technologies have become increasingly embedded in family life, digital home learning activities have emerged as a meaningful dimension of the broader Home Learning Environment, although research in this area remains limited. The present study examined the psychometric structure and characteristics of digital home learning activities and explored their associations with preschool children’s socio-emotional difficulties, as well as demographic factors related to variation in these activities across families. Data were collected from two independent parent samples (N = 308) of families with preschool-aged children. Digital home learning activities were assessed using the digital home learning activities subscale of the Home Learning Environment Questionnaire, while children’s socio-emotional difficulties were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Group A) and selected items from the Child Behavior Checklist (Group B). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a unidimensional structure with satisfactory reliability across both samples. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that digital home learning activities were generally not associated with children’s socio-emotional difficulties after demographic characteristics were taken into account. However, parent age and parent education were associated with variation in these activities across families.