Ciancimino Giulia, Cerbara Loredana, Benedetti Elisa, Molinaro Sabrina, Tintori Antonio
Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council of Italy, Rome, 00185, Italy.
Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council of Italy, Pisa, 56124, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 31;15(1):27910. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-12786-x.
Although research is extensively exploring adolescent social media usage, little is known about the relationship between parental psychological well-being, perceived family climate and preadolescents' screen time. This study draws on data from a survey conducted in 2024 among 3,044 parents of Italian middle school students. Using a research design based on an interdisciplinary approach, we combined descriptive analyses with logit generalized linear models (logit GLMs) to investigate how socio-demographic characteristics, parental psychological well-being, and perceived family climate influence preadolescents' social media use. The results show that a negative climate, elevated parental psychological distress, and heightened negative emotional intensity are significantly associated with prolonged screen time, regardless of parental education and economic resources. Our findings offer an interdisciplinary understanding of the phenomenon and its relevance even among families with highly educated parents. This underscores that the time adolescents spend on social media is not primarily influenced by parental education or income, as often assumed, but rather by the quality of family relational well-being and parents' mental health. In view of these findings, interventions addressing youth hyperconnection should prioritize fostering a positive family environment and strengthening parental mental health to prevent the adverse consequences linked to excessive social media use in early adolescence.
尽管研究广泛探讨了青少年使用社交媒体的情况，但对于父母的心理健康、感知到的家庭氛围与青春期前儿童的屏幕使用时间之间的关系却知之甚少。本研究借鉴了2024年对3044名意大利中学生家长进行的一项调查数据。我们采用基于跨学科方法的研究设计，将描述性分析与逻辑广义线性模型（logit GLMs）相结合，以研究社会人口学特征、父母的心理健康和感知到的家庭氛围如何影响青春期前儿童的社交媒体使用。结果表明，无论父母的教育程度和经济资源如何，消极的家庭氛围、父母心理困扰加剧以及负面情绪强度增加都与屏幕使用时间延长显著相关。我们的研究结果提供了对这一现象的跨学科理解，以及其在父母受教育程度高的家庭中的相关性。这凸显出青少年花在社交媒体上的时间并非如通常所认为的那样主要受父母教育程度或收入的影响，而是受家庭关系幸福感的质量和父母心理健康的影响。鉴于这些发现，针对青少年过度上网的干预措施应优先营造积极的家庭环境并加强父母的心理健康，以预防与青春期早期过度使用社交媒体相关的不良后果。
