Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ Profiles
Contemporary mobile technologies offer tablets and smartphones that elicit young children’s active participation in various educational apps, dramatically transforming playing, learning, and communication. Even the most knowledgeable users face difficulties in deciding about the value and appropriat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Behavioral Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/11/6/82 |
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| author | Julie Vaiopoulou Stamatios Papadakis Eirini Sifaki Dimitrios Stamovlasis Michail Kalogiannakis |
| author_facet | Julie Vaiopoulou Stamatios Papadakis Eirini Sifaki Dimitrios Stamovlasis Michail Kalogiannakis |
| author_sort | Julie Vaiopoulou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Contemporary mobile technologies offer tablets and smartphones that elicit young children’s active participation in various educational apps, dramatically transforming playing, learning, and communication. Even the most knowledgeable users face difficulties in deciding about the value and appropriateness of the so-called educational apps because of many factors that should be considered. Their importance for children’s attitudes is affected by the perceived positive and negative aspects, which vary across a multiplicity of criteria. Filling the gap in the relevant literature, a new instrument, named PEAU-p (Perceptions about Educational Apps Use–parents), was developed and validated in the present study designed to measure parents’ perception of educational apps for kindergarten pupils. Data (<i>N</i> = 435) were collected via online procedures, and the psychometric properties of PEAU-p were studied via exploratory and confirmatory methods. Principal Components Analysis extracted six factors, namely Usability, Enjoyment, Involvement, Learning, Worries, and Values, which explained 72.42% of the total variance. Subsequently, by implementing Latent Class Analysis based on the above factors, four Clusters (i.e., parents’ Profiles) were extracted corresponding to their perceptions and attitudes towards the educational apps used for kindergarten pupils. Those were named as ‘mild attitude’, ‘negative attitude’, ‘positive attitude’, and ‘indifferent attitude’. This categorization, besides the statistical support, is fully interpretable, and the profiles were associated with certain covariates, such as age, the number of children, knowledge on new technologies, or distal outcomes, e.g., the frequency of using apps, the general position towards apps or their intention to recommend apps use. The findings are discussed within the current research field, investigating the influential role parents play in young children’s media selection and use. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:59:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c7af336bc0a144049af427ef8eb4c0cf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-328X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:59:48Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Behavioral Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-c7af336bc0a144049af427ef8eb4c0cf2023-11-21T21:36:10ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2021-05-011168210.3390/bs11060082Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ ProfilesJulie Vaiopoulou0Stamatios Papadakis1Eirini Sifaki2Dimitrios Stamovlasis3Michail Kalogiannakis4Department of Education, University of Nicosia, 2417 Nicosia, CyprusDepartment of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, 74100 Crete, GreeceDepartment of Cultural Organisations Management, Hellenic Open University, 26222 Patras, GreeceDepartment of Philosophy and Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, GreeceDepartment of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, 74100 Crete, GreeceContemporary mobile technologies offer tablets and smartphones that elicit young children’s active participation in various educational apps, dramatically transforming playing, learning, and communication. Even the most knowledgeable users face difficulties in deciding about the value and appropriateness of the so-called educational apps because of many factors that should be considered. Their importance for children’s attitudes is affected by the perceived positive and negative aspects, which vary across a multiplicity of criteria. Filling the gap in the relevant literature, a new instrument, named PEAU-p (Perceptions about Educational Apps Use–parents), was developed and validated in the present study designed to measure parents’ perception of educational apps for kindergarten pupils. Data (<i>N</i> = 435) were collected via online procedures, and the psychometric properties of PEAU-p were studied via exploratory and confirmatory methods. Principal Components Analysis extracted six factors, namely Usability, Enjoyment, Involvement, Learning, Worries, and Values, which explained 72.42% of the total variance. Subsequently, by implementing Latent Class Analysis based on the above factors, four Clusters (i.e., parents’ Profiles) were extracted corresponding to their perceptions and attitudes towards the educational apps used for kindergarten pupils. Those were named as ‘mild attitude’, ‘negative attitude’, ‘positive attitude’, and ‘indifferent attitude’. This categorization, besides the statistical support, is fully interpretable, and the profiles were associated with certain covariates, such as age, the number of children, knowledge on new technologies, or distal outcomes, e.g., the frequency of using apps, the general position towards apps or their intention to recommend apps use. The findings are discussed within the current research field, investigating the influential role parents play in young children’s media selection and use.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/11/6/82educational appsparent’s perceptionPEAU-pLCAparents’ profiles |
| spellingShingle | Julie Vaiopoulou Stamatios Papadakis Eirini Sifaki Dimitrios Stamovlasis Michail Kalogiannakis Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ Profiles Behavioral Sciences educational apps parent’s perception PEAU-p LCA parents’ profiles |
| title | Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ Profiles |
| title_full | Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ Profiles |
| title_fullStr | Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ Profiles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ Profiles |
| title_short | Parents’ Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents’ Profiles |
| title_sort | parents perceptions of educational apps use for kindergarten children development and validation of a new instrument peau p and exploration of parents profiles |
| topic | educational apps parent’s perception PEAU-p LCA parents’ profiles |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/11/6/82 |
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