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Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale

Katrina McLaughlin Orcid Logo, Lisa Bunting Orcid Logo, Paul Connolly Orcid Logo, Karen Winter Orcid Logo, Rosie Flewitt Orcid Logo, Sandra El Gemayel Orcid Logo, Lorna Arnott Orcid Logo, Andrea Dalziell Orcid Logo, Julia Gillen Orcid Logo, Janet Goodall Orcid Logo, Min‐Chen Liu, Sabina Savadova Orcid Logo, Sarah Timmins

Child: Care, Health and Development, Volume: 52, Issue: 1, Start page: e70199

Swansea University Authors: Janet Goodall Orcid Logo, Sarah Timmins

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DOI (Published version): 10.1111/cch.70199

Abstract

Background: This paper reports on the development and validation of the 15-item Parental Attitudes to Digital Technology Scale (PADTS), a brief, psychometrically validated measure assessing parents' beliefs confidence, and concerns about their very young children's use of digital technolog...

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Published in: Child: Care, Health and Development
ISSN: 0305-1862 1365-2214
Published: Wiley 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70641
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spelling 2026-01-30T14:04:46.9104279 v2 70641 2025-10-13 Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale ff88a186bd447a1af286d2468fc61688 0000-0002-0172-2035 Janet Goodall Janet Goodall true false 4a367f4903e655997c24e694d7478ede Sarah Timmins Sarah Timmins true false 2025-10-13 SOSS Background: This paper reports on the development and validation of the 15-item Parental Attitudes to Digital Technology Scale (PADTS), a brief, psychometrically validated measure assessing parents' beliefs confidence, and concerns about their very young children's use of digital technologies. Method: Developed as part of the UK-wide Toddlers, Tech and Talk (TTT) study, PADTS addresses a gap in existing research by focusing on children from birth to 3 years, a stage often overlooked in digital parenting literature. Co-developed with parents and early years experts, the scale was tested with a nationally balanced UK sample (N = 934). Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a four-factor structure: perceived risks, perceived learning benefits, parental confidence and technology-related anxiety. The PADTS showed strong model fit and measurement invariance across parent gender, ethnicity and region, with some variation by child age. Correlational analyses indicated that benefits, perceptions and confidence were associated with supportive digital parenting, while anxiety was more weakly linked. Conclusion: PADTS shows potential as a practical tool for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers and may support a more nuanced understanding of how parental attitudes shape early digital experiences. Journal Article Child: Care, Health and Development 52 1 e70199 Wiley 0305-1862 1365-2214 digital parenting, early years education, parental attitudes, psychometric scale development, young childrens technology use 21 1 2026 2026-01-21 10.1111/cch.70199 COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/W001020/1). 2026-01-30T14:04:46.9104279 2025-10-13T09:34:05.2935911 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies Katrina McLaughlin 0000-0002-8400-0184 1 Lisa Bunting 0000-0002-1857-0074 2 Paul Connolly 0000-0001-9176-9592 3 Karen Winter 0000-0002-1229-7150 4 Rosie Flewitt 0000-0003-1986-0644 5 Sandra El Gemayel 0000-0003-4024-0415 6 Lorna Arnott 0000-0003-0304-778x 7 Andrea Dalziell 0000-0003-1112-7181 8 Julia Gillen 0000-0003-2356-3423 9 Janet Goodall 0000-0002-0172-2035 10 Min‐Chen Liu 11 Sabina Savadova 0000-0002-5254-5921 12 Sarah Timmins 13 70641__36149__5ee1c658f9f04e1d9b82fde72577407c.pdf 70641.VOR.pdf 2026-01-30T13:56:51.7240988 Output 301111 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale
spellingShingle Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale
Janet Goodall
Sarah Timmins
title_short Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale
title_full Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale
title_fullStr Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale
title_full_unstemmed Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale
title_sort Parental Attitudes and Digital Parenting in the Early Years: Development and Validation of the PADTS Scale
author_id_str_mv ff88a186bd447a1af286d2468fc61688
4a367f4903e655997c24e694d7478ede
author_id_fullname_str_mv ff88a186bd447a1af286d2468fc61688_***_Janet Goodall
4a367f4903e655997c24e694d7478ede_***_Sarah Timmins
author Janet Goodall
Sarah Timmins
author2 Katrina McLaughlin
Lisa Bunting
Paul Connolly
Karen Winter
Rosie Flewitt
Sandra El Gemayel
Lorna Arnott
Andrea Dalziell
Julia Gillen
Janet Goodall
Min‐Chen Liu
Sabina Savadova
Sarah Timmins
format Journal article
container_title Child: Care, Health and Development
container_volume 52
container_issue 1
container_start_page e70199
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 0305-1862
1365-2214
doi_str_mv 10.1111/cch.70199
publisher Wiley
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies
document_store_str 1
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description Background: This paper reports on the development and validation of the 15-item Parental Attitudes to Digital Technology Scale (PADTS), a brief, psychometrically validated measure assessing parents' beliefs confidence, and concerns about their very young children's use of digital technologies. Method: Developed as part of the UK-wide Toddlers, Tech and Talk (TTT) study, PADTS addresses a gap in existing research by focusing on children from birth to 3 years, a stage often overlooked in digital parenting literature. Co-developed with parents and early years experts, the scale was tested with a nationally balanced UK sample (N = 934). Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a four-factor structure: perceived risks, perceived learning benefits, parental confidence and technology-related anxiety. The PADTS showed strong model fit and measurement invariance across parent gender, ethnicity and region, with some variation by child age. Correlational analyses indicated that benefits, perceptions and confidence were associated with supportive digital parenting, while anxiety was more weakly linked. Conclusion: PADTS shows potential as a practical tool for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers and may support a more nuanced understanding of how parental attitudes shape early digital experiences.
published_date 2026-01-21T05:33:11Z
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score 11.096191

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