Examining Parents’ Views and Behaviors About Preschool Children’s Technology Use

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the views and behaviors of parents of preschool children about their use of technology. This study was designed as a qualitative design. Participants were selected from convenience sampling, one of the purposeful sampling types. The participants comprised 29 parents of children studying in kindergartens and preschools in the Central District of Burdur Province in 2022-2023. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. The findings were explained under the themes of the duration of children's use of technology, time restrictions, children's reactions to these restrictions, various methods applied by parents against these reactions, and the measures they took to restrict technology. Findings showed children are intertwined with technology, technology should be used within the controls, children react to time restrictions, parents have some methods of agreement against these reactions, they resort to techniques such as deprivation of technology in case of failure to reach an agreement, their children should comply with the predetermined time, they followed the content in general, and benefit from some programs or were present with their children while creating content.