The Effect of the “My Parent is My Digital Game Guide” Family Education Program on Children s Digital Game Addiction and Parental Mediation

Playing games occupies an essential place throughout life, particularly in childhood. With technological advances, urbanization, and the reduction of playgrounds, children’s engagement with digital games has steadily increased. This shift highlights the importance of raising parental awareness about children’s digital game preferences and gaming processes. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the “My Parent is My Digital Game Guide” Family Education Program in enhancing parental digital game guidance strategies among parents of preschool-age children. A one-group pre-test–post-test experimental design was employed. The study group consisted of 200 parents, selected through convenience sampling, from preschool children’s families in the central district of Ankara, Türkiye. Data were collected using the Digital Game Addiction Tendency Scale, the Digital Game Parental Guidance Strategies Scale, and a Personal Information Form. The program was implemented over seven weeks, totaling seven instructional hours. Data were analyzed through Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z, Homogeneity of Variances, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H, and Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests. Results indicated a significant difference between pre- and post-test scores, showing that the program effectively improved parental guidance strategies regarding digital gaming. Moreover, boys exhibited higher digital game addiction tendencies compared to girls. Parent education programs that incorporate digital game guidance can contribute to strengthening parental strategies and reducing children’s risk of digital game addiction. Expanding such programs may benefit wider populations.