Parents of preschoolers: expert media recommendations and ratings knowledge, media-effects beliefs, and monitoring practices.

Objective: Given the increase in screen media targeted at the very young, the purpose of this study was to examine preschooler parents' knowledge about expert recommendations for young children's screen media experience, their knowledge of specific screen media ratings, their beliefs about screen media effects, and actual monitoring practices.

Method: Parents of 94 children <5 years of age (mean age: 2.95 years) were surveyed. Questionnaires were distributed in day care centers and completed at the parents' convenience. The questionnaire included background questions about parental education, age and gender of child, and parents' perceptions of their child's favorite television show and favorite video or computer game. Eleven multiple-choice questions assessed the respondent's knowledge of expert recommendations for screen media for preschoolers and the meaning of television and video game content ratings. Fourteen questions addressed the typical amount of their preschooler's screen media exposure, parental rules regarding screen media use, and parents' beliefs about appropriate use of screen media for preschoolers.

Results: Preschoolers were exposed to an average of approximately 12 hours of screen media in a typical week. Parents believe that media do have either short- or long-term effects on preschoolers. Performance on factual questions was poor (mean score: 2.83 of 11). In particular, only 34% of the parents correctly identified the expert recommendation for children >2 years of age.

Conclusions: Parents should continue to be educated about the need for preschoolers to participate in activities that promote language development, socialization, imagination, and physical activity. Although professionals should work to improve the ratings, and ultimately to implement a universal ratings system for all screen media, parents need to be encouraged to improve their understanding of current recommendations for screen media exposure and television and video game ratings.