Excessive screen use and anxiety symptoms in preschool children have become increasingly prominent public health problems. This randomized controlled trial aims to determine whether, compared with a control group, an ecological momentary parenting intervention delivered via text messages and a WeChat public account can reduce screen use, anxiety symptoms, and social-emotional behavior problems in preschool children.
A total of 356 caregiver-child dyads with children aged 3 to 6 years will be randomly assigned to an intervention group with 178 dyads or a control group with 178 dyads. The intervention group will receive an ecological momentary parenting intervention, including text messages and posts on a WeChat public account, focusing on guidance for emotion recognition, anxiety soothing, establishing regular routines, and reasonable screen use management. The control group will receive only general pediatric health science popularization text messages, which do not include content related to child emotion management, anxiety intervention, or screen use management.
The primary outcome is children's anxiety symptoms, assessed by the Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale. Secondary outcomes include children's screen use assessed by the ScreenQ scale and social-emotional behavior problems assessed by the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale-30 (SCBE-30)
Children between 3 and 6 years of age and their primary caregivers;
The primary caregiver possesses a mobile phone with SMS-receiving capability, and is able to read and comprehend Chinese;
Provide informed consent to participate in both the intervention and the study assessments.
The child has a diagnosed neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder;
The child is undergoing other forms of intervention or psychological therapy at the time of the study;
Parallel
Ecological Momentary Parenting Intervention
BehavioralParticipants will receive an ecological momentary parenting intervention delivered via parenting text messages and posts on a WeChat public account. The intervention focuses on emotion recognition, anxiety soothing, establishing regular routines, and reasonable screen use management.
General Pediatric Health Education
Other interventionParticipants will receive general pediatric health science popularization text messages that do not include content related to child emotion management, anxiety intervention, or screen use management.
Preschool Anxiety Scale
The Preschool Anxiety Scale is a 28-item parent-reported measure of anxiety symptoms in preschool-aged children. Each item is scored from 0 to 4, yielding a total score ranging from 0 to 112. Higher scores indicate more severe anxiety symptoms
ScreenQ Scale
The ScreenQ is a 16-item parent-reported measure of screen-based media use in young children. It assesses screen access, frequency of screen use, screen content, and caregiver-child co-viewing practices. Item scores are summed to produce a total score ranging from 0 to 26. Higher scores indicate greater inconsistency with recommended screen-media practices
Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale-30
The Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale-30 (SCBE-30) is a 30-item parent-reported measure of social-emotional competence and behavioral problems in preschool-aged children. Each item is rated from 1 to 6. The scale includes three 10-item subscales: Social Competence, Anger-Aggression, and Anxiety-Withdrawal. Each subscale score ranges from 10 to 60. Higher Social Competence scores indicate better social competence, whereas higher Anger-Aggression and Anxiety-Withdrawal scores indicate more severe behavioral or emotional problems
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