Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 616-625.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.05.02

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Screen Time and Young Children’s Self-regulation: The Role of Adult Involvement

ZHANG Heyi, YU Li   

  1. Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Published:2025-09-15

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Abstract: There is a global trend that digital media users are growing younger. Children’s screen activities have shifted from non-interactive to interactive and from disembodied to embodied, as technological innovation continues to progress. In this study, two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of different screen time patterns on children’s self-regulation and to examine the role of adult involvement. The results showed that: (1) Age was a determining variable in children’s self-regulation ability; (2) There was an interaction between the screen time pattern and adult involvement, showing that adult involvement contributed to the effects of interactive active screen time and cognitive active screen time on self-regulation. The study suggests that the development of children’s self-regulation is based on physical maturity, adult education, and human-environment interaction. Adult scaffolding can help young children benefit from interacting with screens and support the development of early self-regulation.

Key words: screen exposure, screen time pattern, children’s self-regulation, adult involvement

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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