The relationship between parental psychological well-being and preadolescents’ social media use

Although research is extensively exploring adolescent social media usage, little is known about the relationship between parental psychological well-being, perceived family climate and preadolescents’ screen time. This study draws on data from a survey conducted in 2024 among 3,044 parents of Italian middle school students. Using a research design based on an interdisciplinary approach, we combined descriptive analyses with logit generalized linear models (logit GLMs) to investigate how socio-demographic characteristics, parental psychological well-being, and perceived family climate influence preadolescents’ social media use. The results show that a negative climate, elevated parental psychological distress, and heightened negative emotional intensity are significantly associated with prolonged screen time, regardless of parental education and economic resources. Our findings offer an interdisciplinary understanding of the phenomenon and its relevance even among families with highly educated parents. This underscores that the time adolescents spend on social media is not primarily influenced by parental education or income, as often assumed, but rather by the quality of family relational well-being and parents’ mental health. In view of these findings, interventions addressing youth hyperconnection should prioritize fostering a positive family environment and strengthening parental mental health to prevent the adverse consequences linked to excessive social media use in early adolescence.