Examining the effectiveness of the digital parenting education program applied to mothers with preschool children (48-72 months old)

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of the Digital Parenting Education Program, developed for mothers with preschool children (48–72 months), on mothers' digital parenting awareness and parental media mediation levels, as well as on their children's problematic media use and media literacy levels. The study employed a pretest-posttest control group design, which is one of the true experimental models. The study included 64 mothers and their 48–72-month-old children enrolled in two public preschools in Karaman during 2023–2024, with 32 in the experimental and 32 in the control group. As data collection tools in the study, the "Digital Parenting Awareness Scale", "Early Childhood Parent Media Mediation Scale", "Problematic Media Use Scale (Long Form)", "Media Literacy Scale Child Form", and the "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher to determine the demographic information of mothers and their children and their habits of using digital devices were used. The researcher implemented the Digital Parenting Education Program for the experimental group mothers twice a week for seven weeks. Of the 14 sessions, 8 were face-to-face, and 6 were online via Google Meet. Chi-square and Independent Samples t-tests examined between-group differences, while Paired Samples t-tests and Repeated Measures ANOVA assessed within-group changes, with Bonferroni tests for multiple comparisons. The results showed that after the program, mothers' digital parenting awareness increased, their children's problematic media use decreased, and media literacy improved. Between groups, a significant difference favoring the experimental group appeared only in the active restrictive sub-dimension. Within the experimental group, significant improvements were found in active supportive, active restrictive sub-dimensions, and total scores from pretest to posttest. In addition, it was determined that there was no significant difference between the post-test and follow-up test score averages of the experimental group in all scales. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the Digital Parenting Education Program was effective in increasing the digital parenting awareness of mothers in the experimental group, reducing their children's problematic media use, and improving their media literacy, while it was partially effective in enhancing parental media mediation skills. Keywords: Digital Parenting; Media Mediation; Media Literacy; Parenting Education Program; Problematic Media Use.