JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting

Social integration has been shown to predict physical activity (PA), diet, and sleep in adults. However, these associations have not been well-studied in youth samples. Using a life course perspective, it is imperative to study this in youths as social and health behaviors are established early in life.

The shift in the last decades to screen-based and increasingly web-based gaming activity has raised concerns about its impact on the development of children and adolescents. Despite decades of research into gaming and related psychosocial effects, the question remains how best to identify what degree or context of gaming may be a cause for concern.

Following increases in smartphone access, more parents seek parenting advice through internet sources, including blogs, web-based forums, or mobile apps. However, identifying quality apps (ones that respond to the diverse experiences of families) for guidance on child development can be challenging.

Given that today’s adolescents are digital front-runners, technology-based obesity prevention strategies are age-appropriate for this population. The use of remote and wireless technologies may be suitable for extending the reach and engagement of obesity prevention efforts among high-risk Hispanic youths, as this subgroup is disproportionately affected by barriers that limit participation in traditional, in-person interventions.

Generation Health (GH) is a 10-week family-based lifestyle program designed to promote a healthy lifestyle for families with children who are off the healthy weight trajectory in British Columbia, Canada. GH uses a blended delivery format that involves 10 weekly in-person sessions, and self-guided lessons and activities on a web portal. The blended program was adapted to be delivered virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the effectiveness of the virtual GH program compared with that of the blended GH program remains unclear.

There is growing concern about the short- and long-term impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of children and families. There are no existing studies about feasibility and outcomes using internet-based parent training programs with telephone coaching for disruptive behavioral problems in childhood during the COVID-19 pandemic in clinical settings.

The FeverApp registry uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to collect parental data on pediatric fever for scientific research. The mobile app FeverApp educates parents on safe fever management and serves as a fever diary.

Despite increasing prevalence of phone ownership in early adolescence, there is a deficit of evidence-based guidance on the appropriate time to provide youth their first phone.

Rapid advances in mobile apps for clinical data collection for pain evaluation have resulted in more efficient data handling and analysis than traditional paper-based approaches. As paper-based visual analogue scale (p-VAS) scores are commonly used to assess pain levels, new emerging apps need to be validated prior to clinical application with symptomatic children and adolescents.

While a variety of health apps abound, less than half of adults in the United States report using a health app, despite the ubiquity of smartphones among users aged 18 to 49 years. Several studies have examined the use of breastfeeding apps; however, less is known about the types of features found on these apps and what factors might influence app ratings.

Problematic internet use (PIU) is prevalent among Chinese adolescents. There is a need to better understand how the quality of parent-adolescent relationship is associated with adolescent PIU to guide the development of effective prevention and early intervention programs.

Digital peer support is an increasingly used form of mental health support for young people. However, there is a need for more research on the impact of digital peer support and why it has an impact.