Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting Styles
Background: Motor performance in childhood predicts physical fitness, cognitive capacity, socio-emotional development, and academic success. Parenting styles are especially important to such performance in the preschool period, as children’s gross motor abilities are shaped in part by their interact...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Children |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/12/7/932 |
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| author | Savaş Aydın Ramazan Sak İkbal Tuba Şahin-Sak |
| author_facet | Savaş Aydın Ramazan Sak İkbal Tuba Şahin-Sak |
| author_sort | Savaş Aydın |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Motor performance in childhood predicts physical fitness, cognitive capacity, socio-emotional development, and academic success. Parenting styles are especially important to such performance in the preschool period, as children’s gross motor abilities are shaped in part by their interactions with parents. Young children’s physical activity is also declining as they spend more time on screens. Methods: This quantitative survey-based study examined the relationships among 252 preschoolers’ gross motor skills, their tendency to become addicted to digital games, and their parents’ parenting styles. Results: The sampled preschoolers’ gross motor skill development and game addiction tendencies were both low, while the participating parents reported high levels of democratic and overprotective parenting attitudes, low levels of authoritarian ones, and moderate levels of permissive ones. Motor skills were not associated with children’s addiction tendency or parents’ democratic (also known as authoritative), authoritarian, or permissive styles. However, overprotective parenting was positively and significantly associated with gross motor skill scores. While no significant relationship was found between children’s digital game addiction tendencies and their parents’ adoption of a democratic parenting style, such tendencies were positively and statistically correlated with the authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. One dimension of such tendencies, constant gameplay, was also positively and significantly correlated with overprotective parenting. Conclusions: Although the participating children’s digital game addiction tendencies were low, the findings indicate that parents and carers should guide children to reduce their screen time and promote increased interaction with their surroundings and other people to mitigate screen time’s known negative effects on gross motor coordination. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1e75ee61f10243c0ad2f2139e4642845 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2227-9067 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Children |
| spelling | doaj-art-1e75ee61f10243c0ad2f2139e46428452025-08-20T03:32:25ZengMDPI AGChildren2227-90672025-07-0112793210.3390/children12070932Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting StylesSavaş Aydın0Ramazan Sak1İkbal Tuba Şahin-Sak2Sports Management, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Van 65080, TürkiyeEarly Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Van 65080, TürkiyeEarly Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Van 65080, TürkiyeBackground: Motor performance in childhood predicts physical fitness, cognitive capacity, socio-emotional development, and academic success. Parenting styles are especially important to such performance in the preschool period, as children’s gross motor abilities are shaped in part by their interactions with parents. Young children’s physical activity is also declining as they spend more time on screens. Methods: This quantitative survey-based study examined the relationships among 252 preschoolers’ gross motor skills, their tendency to become addicted to digital games, and their parents’ parenting styles. Results: The sampled preschoolers’ gross motor skill development and game addiction tendencies were both low, while the participating parents reported high levels of democratic and overprotective parenting attitudes, low levels of authoritarian ones, and moderate levels of permissive ones. Motor skills were not associated with children’s addiction tendency or parents’ democratic (also known as authoritative), authoritarian, or permissive styles. However, overprotective parenting was positively and significantly associated with gross motor skill scores. While no significant relationship was found between children’s digital game addiction tendencies and their parents’ adoption of a democratic parenting style, such tendencies were positively and statistically correlated with the authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. One dimension of such tendencies, constant gameplay, was also positively and significantly correlated with overprotective parenting. Conclusions: Although the participating children’s digital game addiction tendencies were low, the findings indicate that parents and carers should guide children to reduce their screen time and promote increased interaction with their surroundings and other people to mitigate screen time’s known negative effects on gross motor coordination.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/12/7/932gross motor skillsdigital game addiction tendencyparenting stylespreschoolers |
| spellingShingle | Savaş Aydın Ramazan Sak İkbal Tuba Şahin-Sak Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting Styles Children gross motor skills digital game addiction tendency parenting styles preschoolers |
| title | Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting Styles |
| title_full | Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting Styles |
| title_fullStr | Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting Styles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting Styles |
| title_short | Interrelationship of Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Skills, Digital Game Addiction Tendency, and Parents’ Parenting Styles |
| title_sort | interrelationship of preschoolers gross motor skills digital game addiction tendency and parents parenting styles |
| topic | gross motor skills digital game addiction tendency parenting styles preschoolers |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/12/7/932 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT savasaydın interrelationshipofpreschoolersgrossmotorskillsdigitalgameaddictiontendencyandparentsparentingstyles AT ramazansak interrelationshipofpreschoolersgrossmotorskillsdigitalgameaddictiontendencyandparentsparentingstyles AT ikbaltubasahinsak interrelationshipofpreschoolersgrossmotorskillsdigitalgameaddictiontendencyandparentsparentingstyles |