Conference Agenda

Introduction: Media fandom has been studied as a site of cultural participation, identity construction, and creative practice (Booth, 2010), yet scholarship has focused mainly on adolescents and adults, overlooking how fan identities may emerge in early childhood (Hunting, 2019). This study examines fandom in families with children under six, approaching fandom as a relational process shaped by co-creation, media practices, and the household’s social and technological context.

Method: This spin-off of the SWIPE project combines a revised version of the Fan Identity Questionnaire (Lozano et al., 2020) with parent-reported data on children’s fan practices. The adapted tool captures four dimensions of fan behavior, experience, viewing, collecting, and knowledge, alongside new indicators on co-creation, device use, and media consumption modes. Parents act as key informants, enabling ethical access to children’s practices and insights into bidirectional fan socialization.

Results: Preliminary observations suggest possible correlations between children’s fan engagement and various dimensions of the family environment. Media diet, language diversity, gender dynamics, and household composition links to differences in co-creative practices and forms of participation. Early indications also hint at reciprocal influences between children’s and parents’ fan activities, though further data collection is needed to confirm these trends.

Discussion: The study highlights intergenerational fandom as a dynamic, bidirectional process in which children actively contribute to and reshape family fan cultures. This research expands the scope of fandom studies and opens new avenues for understanding how fan identities are formed, negotiated, and transformed from the earliest stages of media engagement.

Introduction: Parental smartphone use forms part of early family live. As toddlers develop, they not only notice but increasingly engage with smartphones. This shared digital presence may cause disruptions in parent-child interactions. While quantitative studies link technoference to reduced parental sensitivity (Braune-Krickau et al., 2021) and adverse child outcomes, little is known about how parents themselves experience and interpret these dynamics. This qualitative study explores mothers’ experiences regarding the presence of smartphones within the parent-toddler relationship.

Methods: The study is part of the multi-methods project Smart Toddlers (SNF, grant nr. 10001C_192820). Twenty-nine mothers of children aged 14–16 months participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022).

Results: The developed themes captured mothers’ experiences of their own and of their toddlers’ smartphone use. Mothers reported balancing the need to protect interactions with their child, such as joint play and meals, with the desire for “me-time” and social connections with others on their smartphone. Many became acutely aware of the “magnetic pull” of smartphones for their child. Most sought to delay device use to protect natural learning and creativity, rejecting smartphones as tools for soothing or distraction.

Discussion: Overall, mothers experience a high amount of ambivalence, striving to balance digital connectedness and staying attuned to their child. They aim to minimize technoference while also acknowledging the challenges they face in this respect. This underscores a need for parental guidance that considers the complex functions smartphones fulfill in early family life.

Introduction: Studies have found that toddlers and infants acquire screens at a younger age and media use takes an increasingly large part of children’s time.

The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of media (smartphone, television, tablet, laptop) use in children aged two to six years in a clinical population.

Methods: All the participating children were referred to the child and adolescent psychiatry department for assessment. Parents of seventy-six children between the age of 2 and 6 years (mean 4.4 years, SD = 1.07, 21 females) filled out a questionnaire asking about the media use of their child. At another appointment a standardized parent interview on childhood psychopathology was conducted with the parents of twenty-six participants.

Results: In our analysis, we found that children on average use electronic devices for 49.97 minutes per day. Females show longer media use compared to males. Television is the media females use most, whereas males use smartphones most. Although the amount of media consumption was broad (0 to 180 minutes per day), the quantity had no influence on the number of diagnoses collected using the parent interview on childhood psychopathology.

Discussion: Our results add to the existing literature showing that children’s media use is higher than recommended. To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first studies examining the prevalence of media use in a clinical population of young children, combining it with psychopathology. The small sample size restricts generalizability. Future research should explore larger populations and evaluate long-term effects on psychopathology.

Introduction: Digital media use is deeply embedded in family life, with particular relevance for preschool-aged children. Early childhood is a sensitive developmental period shaped by play, direct interaction, and communication. While excessive or unreflective media exposure may disrupt these processes, mindful and age-appropriate use can support learning. Pediatric care offers a unique opportunity to engage parents in reflecting on media habits and promoting balanced practices.

Methods: In this pilot study, parents of children aged 0–6 years attending routine visits were invited to participate. The intervention included a brief video-based counseling session on age-appropriate media practices. Pre- and post-intervention assessments covered: parental reports on media use, attitudes and concerns regarding exposure, feasibility and usefulness of the intervention.

Results: Preliminary findings show high acceptance and feasibility of media-related counseling in pediatric visits. Parents reported greater awareness of potential developmental impacts and reflected more critically on their own media habits.

Discussion: Results suggest that brief counseling interventions within pediatric care can increase parental awareness, encourage reflection, and foster more mindful media practices. Limitations include the small sample and short follow-up, restricting generalizability. Future studies should evaluate effectiveness in larger, more diverse groups and explore long-term outcomes. Broadly, these findings may inform structured pediatric guidelines and policy measures to support families navigating children’s development in an increasingly digital environment.