Network analysis of parental burnout and its interaction with screen media use in preschool children

Parental burnout is a significant risk factor in the degree of preschool children’s screen media use, alongside marital conflict and parental smartphone dependence. However, the interactions between parental burnout and these risk factors in influencing preschool children’s screen media use remain unclear. The study used network analysis to explore the intercorrelations between parental burnout, marital conflict, and parental smartphone dependence, as well as to compare the intercorrelations between high-risk and low-risk subgroups of screen media use, consisting of 758 preschool children who completed parent-report questionnaires. Results emphasized the central roles of the emotional exhaustion dimension in the network, as it exhibited higher strength and betweenness centrality. Additionally, the study also identified a higher correlation between marital conflict, parental smartphone dependence, and emotional exhaustion in parental burnout. Notably, the findings found no differences in the network structure between the high-risk and low-risk subgroups. These findings highlight the significance of addressing parental emotional exhaustion, marital conflict, and parental smartphone dependence in influencing children’s screen media use. The implementation of targeted interventions, focusing on specific nodes within the network, has the potential to enhance the efficacy of interventions aimed at reducing excessive screen media use in preschool children.