The Moderating Role of Parental Strain on the Relationship Between Child Media Use and Regulation.

Research suggests that toddlers with regulation issues engage in significantly more media use than toddlers without regulation difficulties, and this may be due, in part, to parental strain associated with parenting a child who is difficult to regulate or soothe. The current study sought to determine if the observed relationship between parental strain and child media use in the context of regulation difficulties continues into the preschool years. Data from the 2016 ( = 6,976) and 2017 ( = 3,056) National Survey of Children's Health were used to test a structural equation model (SEM) examining the moderating effect of parenting strain on the relationship between child media use and child regulation after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and adverse childhood experiences.