Maternal COVID-19 Distress and Chinese Preschool Children’s Problematic Media Use: A Moderated Serial Mediation Model

Figures & data

Figure 1 Theoretical Hypothesis Model.

Note: Distress: maternal COVID-19 distress.

Abbreviations: PS, parenting stress; NIUMP, negative instrumental use of media in parenting; SCP, supportive co-parenting; PMU, problematic media use.

Table 1 Demographic Information of Participants

Variables	Groups	N	%
Age of child	Age 3	610	45
	Age 4	281	20.7
	Age 5	314	23.1
	Age 6	152	11.2
Gender of child	Girl	714	52.6
	Boy	643	47.4
Age of mother	≤ 30 years	157	11.6
	31–35 years	665	49
	36–40 years	410	30.2
	≥ 41 years	125	9.2
Age of father	≤ 30 years	86	6.3
	31–35 years	555	40.9
	36–40 years	446	32.9
	≥ 41 years	270	19.9
Mother education level	High school degree or below	57	4.2
	College degree	212	15.6
	Bachelor degree	837	61.7
	Master degree or above	251	18.5
Father education level	High school degree or below	64	4.7
	College degree	220	16.2
	Bachelor degree	734	54.1
	Master degree or above	339	25

Table 2 The Results of EFA for the Instrumental Use of Media in Parenting Scale (IUMPS)

Item	Factor Load Coefficient		Common Degree	KMO	% of Variance Explained
	Factor 1	Factor 2
Q4	0.61		0.47	0.74***	40.09
Q5	0.85		0.73
Q6	0.91		0.77
Q1		0.75	0.56		17.86
Q2		0.56	0.41
Q3		0.77	0.55

Note: ***p < 0.001.

Table 3 Descriptive Analysis and Correlations Among Variables

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
1. Child age	1
2. Child gender	0.01	1
3. Mother age	0.23***	0.01	1
4. Mothers’ education	0.08**	−0.01	0.08**	1
5. Father age	0.22***	−0.01	0.83***	0.04	1
6. Fathers’ education	0.09**	0.001	0.10***	0.57***	0.10***	1
7. PMU	0.002	0.07**	0.04	−0.04	0.01	−0.05	1
8. NIUMP	−0.09**	−0.01	−0.08**	0.001	−0.11***	−0.06*	0.38***	1
9. SCP	0.01	−0.04	−0.02	0.10***	−0.02	0.09**	−0.34***	−0.20***	1
10. PS	−0.12***	0.07*	−0.08**	−0.08**	−0.09**	−0.13***	0.46***	0.36***	−0.43***	1
11. Distress	−0.002	0.01	0.01	−0.05	0.03	−0.02	0.25***	0.18***	−0.23***	0.38***	1
M	4.01	1.47	34.99	2.94	36.67	2.99	1.96	2.41	3.86	1.89	3.88
SD	1.06	0.50	3.97	0.71	4.82	0.78	0.60	0.95	0.71	0.61	2.11

Notes: Child gender was coded as 1 = girl and 2 = boy. Distress: maternal COVID-19 distress. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001.

Abbreviations: PMU, problematic media use; NIUMP, negative instrumental use of media in parenting; SCP, supportive co-parenting; PS, parenting stress.

Table 4 Results of Model Testing

Predictors	Model 1 (Outcome: PS)			Model 2 (Outcome: NIUMP)			Model 3 (Outcome: PMU)
	β	SE	t	β	SE	t	β	SE	t
Child age	−0.09***	0.02	−4.15	−0.04	0.02	−1.47	0.05*	0.02	2.12
Child gender	0.09*	0.05	2.05	−0.07	0.05	−1.29	0.10*	0.05	2.26
Mother age	0.002	0.01	0.2	0.01	0.01	0.75	0.02*	0.01	2.24
Mothers’ education	0.04	0.04	0.92	0.08	0.04	1.78	−0.04	0.04	−1.06
Father age	−0.02	0.01	−1.83	−0.02*	0.01	−2.23	−0.004	0.01	−0.42
Fathers’ education	−0.11**	0.04	−3.08	−0.04	0.04	−1.1	0.02	0.04	0.54
Distress	0.30***	0.02	12.68	0.06*	0.03	2.35	0.06*	0.03	2.57
PS				0.32***	0.03	11.55	0.35***	0.03	13.08
NIUMP							0.26***	0.02	10.28
SCP	−0.36***	0.02	−15.01
Distress × SCP	−0.06*	0.02	−2.53
R^2	0.30			0.14			0.28
F	63.09***			27.38***			58.50***

Notes: Child gender was coded as 1 = girl and 2 = boy. Distress: maternal COVID-19 distress. Distress × SCP = maternal COVID-19 distress × supportive co-parenting. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001.

Abbreviations: PS, parenting stress; NIUMP, negative instrumental use of media in parenting; SCP, supportive co-parenting; PMU, problematic media use.

Figure 2 Regression Results of the Moderated Serial Mediation Model.

Note: Distress: maternal COVID-19 distress. Distress × SCP = maternal COVID-19 distress × supportive co-parenting. *p < 0.05. ***p < 0.001.

Abbreviations: PS, parenting stress; NIUMP, negative instrumental use of media in parenting; SCP, supportive co-parenting; PMU, problematic media use.

Figure 3 The Moderating Effect of Supportive Co-parenting on the Relationship between Maternal COVID-19 Distress and Parenting Stress.

Note: Distress: maternal COVID-19 distress.

Abbreviations: PS, parenting stress; SCP, supportive co-parenting.

Table 5 Conditional Process Analysis

Path	Condition	Effect	SE	95% Confidence Interval
				Lower	Upper
Distress→PS→PMU	M-1SD	0.12	0.02	0.09	0.16
	M+1SD	0.08	0.01	0.06	0.11
	Difference	−0.04	0.02	−0.08	−0.002
Distress→PS→NIUMP→PMU	M-1SD	0.03	0.01	0.02	0.04
	M+1SD	0.02	0.004	0.01	0.03
	Difference	−0.01	0.005	−0.02	−0.001

Note: Distress: maternal COVID-19 distress.

Abbreviations: PS, parenting stress; PMU, problematic media use; NIUMP, negative instrumental use of media in parenting.