In our study investigating the relationship between father-child factors, media-usage characteristics, and ECD, we found that 89.7% of children in Ankara, Turkey, were ECDI-on-track. This prevalence is higher than that reported in previous studies in Turkey. The Turkey Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS) 2018 reported an ECDI-on-track prevalence of 74% among children aged 36–59 months [48], while a 2023 study in Afyonkarahisar found 78.1% among mother-child pairs [13]. The higher prevalence observed in our study may reflect the higher education levels of the fathers, an improvement over time or be attributed to advantages such as living in Ankara, the capital city. Differences in ECD outcomes could also be influenced by local factors and the involvement of fathers in learning activities. Another key factor contributing to the high rate of children being ECDI-on track in our study group is their increased access to sufficient books and toys. In our study, 75.4% of children had three or more books, and 96% had at least two toys, which is notably higher than the TDHS figures of 29% and 76% [48], respectively. Furthermore, more children in our study participated in learning activities with their fathers compared to the TDHS (58.2% vs. 16.0%) [48]. This likely contributed to the better ECD outcomes seen in our study. ECD interventions should prioritize access to learning materials such as toys and books. Globally, 43% of children under five in low- and middle-income countries fail to achieve their developmental potential each year, highlighting the local importance of our findings [49].

In our multivariate analysis of father-child pairs, several factors emerged as significant predictors of ECDI-on-track status. Older child age, higher paternal education, female gender, later initiation of screen time, appropriate child reactions when denied screen use, and having more than two books were all associated with higher odds of passing the ECDI. These findings align with previous research emphasizing the importance of parental education, child behaviors, and the home environment in ECD [50]. A previous study of mother-child pairs in Turkey also found that the child’s age, birth order, mother’s education, mother’s reading frequency, and screen time were related to children being ECDI-on-track [13].

In our study, 71.3% of fathers spent 3 h or more with their children daily. This level of paternal involvement reflects a significant engagement in childcare activities. A comparative study in Japan revealed a similar trend, where the time spent by fathers with their children increased gradually over the years, reaching 4.36 h per day in 2021, up from 4 h in previous years [51]. However, despite the initial positive association observed in the univariate analysis between children whose fathers spent 3 h or more with them and higher frequencies of ECDI-on-track status, this significance diminished in further analyses. This suggests that the quality rather than just the quantity of time spent with children may be more crucial for developmental outcomes. Furthermore, our study highlighted that only 58.2% of children engaged in at least four activities promoting learning. This finding underscores the need to enhance opportunities for stimulating interactions and educational activities between fathers and their children. Regarding media usage, our findings revealed that 83.6% of fathers spent two hours or more daily on screens, with one-third spending four hours or more. Additionally, joint screen use between children and fathers constituted at least half of all screen time in 35.6% of cases. It is also known that there is a relationship between parents’ media usage time and their children’s usage time [52]. These results emphasize the pervasive role of digital media in father-child interactions and the potential impact on child development, warranting further investigation into its implications. These findings also underscore the importance of encouraging meaningful interactions and educational activities between fathers and children, while also highlighting the risks posed by intense screen time in the context of modern parenting. Future studies should continue to explore these dynamics to identify strategies that optimize developmental outcomes for children.

In our study, more than half of the children were found to have daily screen times of 2 h or more. Approximately one-fifth of the children watched screens with one parent, while 28.7% spent at least half of their screen time alone. We did not find a significant relationship between screen time duration and parental accompaniment with being on track for the ECDI. However, it’s possible that fathers’ screen time could negatively impact the quality of time spent with their children. Father’s excessive screen use is reported to be associated with lower scores on the preschool language scale for both receptive and expressive language [34]. Recently, a mother-child pair study demonstrated that children who used screens for 2 h or less were 2.04 times more likely to be on track for the ECDI [13]. Additionally, our study reported that 5.8% of children engaged in inappropriate media use, and in univariate analyses, these children had significantly lower rates of being ECDI-on-track. Moreover, among 3-4-year-old children with prolonged and solitary screen time, exposure to educational videos might explain why their ECDI outcomes were not adversely affected.

Furthermore, we found that children whose fathers spent 3 h or more with them had higher rates of being ECDI-on-track compared to those whose fathers spent less than 2 h. Conversely, children whose fathers provided inadequate care, including leaving them alone, were less likely to be ECDI-on-track, even after adjusting for confounding factors. This underscores the positive impact of fathers’ involvement in childcare and spending quality time with their children on ECD, aligning with findings from several other studies [29, 43, 53]These results highlight the complex interplay between screen time, parental involvement, and developmental outcomes in children. While the content of the programs (e.g., educational vs. entertainment) children watch may also play a role in their development, our study focused solely on screen time duration, limiting our ability to comment on this aspect. The importance of promoting balanced screen use and active parental involvement is emerging as important factors in supporting healthy ECD. Moreover, despite only 7.1% of fathers reporting a lack of knowledge about smart signs, only a fifth of them allowed their children to use screens alone, and 5.8% were unaware of what their children were watching. This highlights a knowledge gap among fathers regarding the impact of media usage on child health.

It is well-established that stimuli such as books and toys play a crucial role in ECD [14, 16, 17]. In our study, we observed that a significant proportion of children lacked adequate cognitive stimulation. Specifically, 24.6% of children had fewer than 2 books, and 3.2% did not have two or more types of toys. This finding suggests limited access to cognitive enrichment resources among the children in our sample. Our analysis revealed that children who had access to toys and books were significantly more likely to pass the ECDI in univariate analysis. However, when considering multiple factors simultaneously, having 3 or more books emerged as the most influential predictor of ECDI success, maintaining its significance even after adjusting for potential confounders. Comparatively, a study focusing on mother-child pairs reported that 75.0% of children did not have access to books, and 10.4% lacked toys, highlighting these deficits as risk factors for developmental delays [17]. Allel et al. examined data from 68 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) using multivariate regression analysis to explore how various ecological, socioeconomic, and health-related factors are linked to the ECDI [54]. The research revealed that factors like attending early childhood education, having books at home, and more equitable income distribution positively influence development. The study highlights the importance of socioeconomic conditions and nurturing care in shaping developmental outcomes for children aged 3–5 [54]. Limited access to books and toys in the absence of interaction with the father has been consistently associated with delayed development, especially in children under 3 years of age. These findings underscore the critical importance of ensuring children have adequate access to stimulating materials such as books and toys early in life [16]. On the other hand, the father’s reading belief is related to the child’s media usage habits [45]. Addressing these gaps can potentially mitigate developmental delays and promote healthier cognitive development in young children. Future research and interventions should prioritize improving access to cognitive stimulation resources, especially for vulnerable populations, to support optimal ECD outcomes.

The richest households had less father stimulation for their children than the poorest households [23]. The literature suggests that fathers who are more educated and economically advantaged tend to be more involved in childcare [55, 56]. In our study, we observed a non-significant increase in the ECDI pass rate as income levels rose. We excluded fathers experiencing extreme poverty, domestic conflict, single parenthood, or diagnosed mental health issues from our sample. These exclusions were based on previous findings indicating that conditions such as extreme poverty, suboptimal parenting, marital conflict, and poor caregiver mental health can significantly hinder healthy ECD [10, 11]. These factors were carefully considered to ensure that our study focused on a more homogeneous group, minimizing potential confounding variables that could obscure the relationship between income and ECD outcomes. Therefore, access to learning materials, which may be related to income status and likely to affect ECD results, may have been found to be higher in our study. At the same time, father participation may have been higher because extremely poor fathers were not included in the study. While we did not find a statistically significant association between income and being ECDI-on-track percentages in our study involving educated fathers, the impact of income on child development remains a critical area for further investigation and intervention.

In our study, we did not find a significant relationship between the number of children and being ECDI-on-track. This may be attributed to the fact that the families included in our study typically had between 1 and 4 children, thus limiting the variability needed to detect such a relationship.

When screen was banned and after being told they can’t use screens, 54.4% of children were found to throw a tantrum, crying and protesting loudly. We observed a positive relationship between several factors and appropriate child behavior in relation to screen time management. Specifically, children who had less than 1 h of daily screen time, did not use screens while eating, had fathers with less than 2 h of screen time, possessed three or more books, received adequate childcare, and scored on track in ECDI literacy-numeracy were more likely to engage alternative activities when not allowed to use screens. This suggests that these associated factors contribute positively to children’s behavioral development by reducing excessive screen use. In addition, increased risks for child’s tantrums over screen time restrictions tantrum were associated with using screens as rewards or punishments and children predominantly using screens alone. Interestingly, these associations were not significant when covariants included, possibly indicating that these cases engage in more prolonged screen time and uncontrolled screen usage behaviors of fathers. Research on how parents manage their children’s screen time is limited [30, 46, 57,58,59]. Halpin et al. study has examined children’s behavior when screen time was banned, finding that dysfunctional parenting styles, such as laxity and overreactivity, were associated with increased behavioral problems related to screen use [30]. Griffith et al. demonstrated that integrating screen media interventions with adapted parenting programs can effectively manage screen use in young children with externalizing behavior problems in a priliminary study [58]. Similarly, a scoping review (n = 16 studies) found that parents who reported higher self-efficacy in task-specific areas related to screen time tended to have children with less screen time and were more likely to implement mediation strategies in accordance with public health guidelines [59]. Further research focusing specifically on fathers could provide deeper insights into their role in managing screen use and its impact on ECD. This observation highlights the need for further exploration into how different screen time management strategies impact children’s behavior and whether effective methods can mitigate these negative responses. Comparing these findings with behavioral management practices in other settings could provide valuable additional insights.

As a strenghts, the examination of individual characteristics such as paternal screen usage, participation in fatherhood or child-rearing courses, and paternal child caregiving provides valuable insights into their impact on child development. The study uniquely investigates the child’s reaction, tantrums, when denied screen use alongside paternal factors, which contributes novel perspectives to understanding behavioral development. However, a notable limitation is the high level of education among the majority of fathers in our sample. This demographic skew may limit the generalizability of our findings to the broader population, particularly those with lower educational attainment. Data were primarily gathered through self-reporting by fathers, which introduces subjectivity. The level of paternal involvement was assessed solely through paternal reports, which could be influenced by paternal perspectives and memory biases. Research in refugee and low-resource communities in Lebanon has shown discrepancies between maternal and paternal perceptions of paternal involvement in childcare; fathers tend to rate themselves as 13% more involved than reported by mothers [51].

On the other hand, the shift from a significant univariate association between paternal involvement (spent time) and ECDI-on-track status to a non-significant result in multivariate analyses suggests that the quality of paternal involvement, rather than just its presence, may be a key factor. We assessed father involvement as time spent with the child, which is consistent with our current study [43]. However, we did not assess the quality of engagement in detail. Further exploration of what constitutes high-quality paternal involvement and how it could be measured would provide a more nuanced understanding. Incorporating qualitative data or case studies in future research could offer deeper insights into the effectiveness of paternal interactions. Additionally, there might be unmeasured confounding variables, previously unforeseen factors, and biases in the self-reported data which represent limitations and these could impact the results. These factors underscore the importance of interpreting our findings carefully and highlight the need for future studies to employ more objective measures and include diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to enhance the robustness and applicability of the results.