Validation of the German version of the problematic media use measure (PMUM-short form) and its relation to child and parental mental health

Problematic media use in children and adolescents has been linked to various mental health concerns. Given the increasing prevalence of media use among German children, it is crucial to have a valid tool to assess problematic media use. The present study validated the 9-item short form of the problematic media use measure PMUM-SF (Domoff et al., 2019) in a German sample of N = 240 parents of 4-16-year-old children and explored its relationship with child and parental mental health. Parents completed questionnaires on their child's problematic media use (PMUM-SF, Domoff et al., 2019; BSMAS, Andreassen et al., 2016), psychosocial functioning (SDQ; Goodman, 1997), their own mental health (DASS bubbles, Brailovskaia et al., 2024) and media use online (CAFE MAQ, Barr et al., 2020; DISRUPT, McDaniel, 2021). The German version of the PMUM-SF demonstrated high internal consistency, and good convergent and incremental validity. Problematic media use was significantly associated with age and with child functioning such as externalizing and internalizing problems. Problematic media use, not duration, predicted child psychosocial functioning. Furthermore, parental media use and parental stress and depression were positively correlated with child problematic media use. The more problematic the media use, the more media rules were set by the parents, when controlling for the child's age. The study thus supports the use of the German version of the PMUM-SF as a measure of problematic media use in children ages 4 through 16 years old. • The German PMUM-SF version is a reliable tool to assess problematic media use. • Problematic media use, not the duration of use, predicts child psychosocial functioning. • Child problematic media use is associated with parental mental health.