Media and preschool children in Slovenia, 2022

The study focuses on media habits that preschool children develop. The collected data includes the views, opinions and assessments of parents and educators of children aged from 11 months to 6 years old, who are enrolled in the preschool education and care system in Slovenia in 2022, in this field. The authors identified two key environments of influence on the development of preschool children's media habits: home and kindergarten. Two target groups were formed on this basis: parents and educators. The collection of data consisted of a review of relevant literature and existing databases, preparation and testing of a survey questionnaire, acquisition, editing, archiving and analysis of data using descriptive statistics methods, and conclusively a presentation of the results in the form of a final report. Using an online questionnaire, estimates of media and screen exposure timeframes of preschool children and their parents and educators were obtained. Moreover, the attitudes of parents and educators regarding the setting of limits, their observations in the context of health, mood, body weight, aggressiveness, and preschool children’s imitation of heroes were examined. Furthermore, the authors inquired about familiarity with recommendations regarding the use of media for preschool children and precise directions regarding the use of media by the management for educators. A set of questions also referred to the area of respondents’ reflexivity, their own verification of information obtained from various media and their personal trust in the media. It is a repetition of the research from 2016.