Publicizing Growth: Parental Social Media Sharing and Children's Developmental Milestones with Low-Income Families

The increasing prevalence of parents posting their children on social media, or sharenting, has raised questions about its implications for early childhood development. Guided by Media Multiplexity Theory, this study examined associations between parents’ posting frequency, motivations for sharenting, and children's developmental milestones for low-income families, who are under-represented in the literature. Data were collected from parents ( N = 87) recruited from a low-income child development center and Prolific, who completed an online survey assessing sharenting behaviors and children's development across communication, motor, problem-solving, and personal-social domains. Results indicated that higher posting frequency was negatively associated with children's communication and gross motor skills, although effect sizes were small. Posting motivations were not significantly related to developmental outcomes in main effects models. However, moderation analyses showed that the association between posting frequency and developmental outcomes varied based on parents’ motivation to document family media. Children demonstrated higher developmental scores when parents posted less frequently and did not report documenting family experiences as a primary motivation.