Digital Parenting Fatigue: Pengalaman Orang Tua dalam Menghadapi Kecanduan Gadget pada Anak di Era Pengasuhan Digital

Abstract

Parenting in the digital era presents an increasingly complex challenge managing gadget addiction in school-age children while simultaneously meeting occupational and relational demands. This qualitative study employed a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of four parents of gadget-addicted elementary school-age children: two dual-income couples and two single-income families where only the father worked. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis framework. Six major themes emerged: (1) layered physical and emotional exhaustion; (2) parental guilt and ambivalence; (3) helplessness in enforcing digital limits; (4) coping strategies employed by parents; (5) preventive approaches to gadget use; and (6) differential coping resources based on family structure. Findings indicate that dual-income parents experienced more severe digital parenting fatigue due to compounding occupational and caregiving demands, while single-income families, though also stressed, possessed greater availability to implement preventive and engagement-based strategies. These findings suggest that effective support programs for digital parenting fatigue must be structurally sensitive  tailored to parents’ occupational conditions, with dual-income families requiring workplace-integrated relief strategies and single-income families benefiting from structured parental engagement programs.

References

Abidin, F. A., Roskam, I., Mikolajczak, M., & Kustanti, E. R. (2024). Parental burnout assessment: Validation in Indonesian parents. Mental Health & Prevention, 36, 200372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhp.2024.200372

Adwiah, A. R., & Diana, R. R. (2023). Strategi orang tua dalam mengatasi dampak penggunaan gadget terhadap perkembangan sosial anak usia dini. Jurnal Obsesi: Jurnal Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 7(2), 2463–2473. https://doi.org/10.31004/obsesi.v7i2.3700

Ardiansyah, A., & Rejeki, H. S. (2024). Tantangan orang tua dalam mendampingi anak usia sekolah dasar kelas rendah pada era perkembangan teknologi. Jurnal Obsesi: Jurnal Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 8(2), 381–388. https://doi.org/10.31004/obsesi.v8i2.5426

Jung, G., Ha, J. S., Seong, M., & Song, J. H. (2023). The effects of depression and fear in dual-income parents on work-family conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic. SAGE Open, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231157662

Kattein, E., Schmidt, H., Witt, S., Jörren, H. L., Menrath, I., Rumpf, H.-J., Wartberg, L., & Pawils, S. (2023). Increased digital media use in preschool children: Exploring the links with parental stress and their problematic media use. Children, 10(12), 1921. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10121921

Jalal, N. M., Syam, R., Istiqamah, S. H. N., Irdianti, & Piara, M. (2022). Psikoedukasi mengatasi kecanduan gadget pada anak. PaKMas: Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat, 2(2), 420–426. https://doi.org/10.54259/pakmas.v2i2.1311

Mulyana, E. H., Aprily, N. M., & Zaenab, A. S. (2023). Perilaku kecanduan bermain gadget pada anak usia dini. Ceria: Jurnal Program Studi Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 12(2), 11. https://doi.org/10.31000/ceria.v12i2.9926

Nurillah, N. (2022). The pandemic and parental mental health: A conceptual review of parental burnout. Psikoborneo: Jurnal Ilmiah Psikologi, 10(4), 545–550. https://doi.org/10.30872/psikoborneo.v10i4

Nugroho, R., Artha, I. K. A. J., Nusantara, W., Cahyani, A. D., & Patrama, M. Y. P. (2022). Peran orang tua dalam mengurangi dampak negatif penggunaan gadget. Jurnal Obsesi: Jurnal Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 6(5), 5425–5436. https://doi.org/10.31004/obsesi.v6i5.2980

Rachmayanti, S., Agustiani, H., Novianti, L. E., & Qodariah, L. (2023). Gambaran kecanduan gadget anak usia 9–12 tahun. Jurnal Studia Insania, 10(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.18592/jsi.v10i2.7296

Santoro, R., & Heikal, J. (2023). Perilaku pola asuh pasangan muda yang memberikan gadget kepada anak balita: Studi etnografi pada kedua orang tua muda yang sama-sama bekerja. Jurnal Media Akademik, 2(11). https://doi.org/10.62281/jma.v2i11.547

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Hobfoll, S. E., Halbesleben, J., Neveu, J. P., & Westman, M. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organizational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 103–128. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104640

Mikolajczak, M., & Roskam, I. (2018). A theoretical and clinical framework for parental burnout: The balance between risks and resources (BR2). Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 886. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00886

Mikolajczak, M., Gross, J. J., & Roskam, I. (2019). Parental burnout: What is it, and why does it matter? Clinical Psychological Science, 7(6), 1319–1329. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702619858430

Modecki, K. L., Goldberg, R. E., Wisniewski, P., & Orben, A. (2022). What is digital parenting? A systematic review of past measurement and blueprint for the future. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(6), 1673–1691. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211072458

Lo Presti, A., Molino, M., Emanuel, F., Landolfi, A., & Ghislieri, C. (2020). Work-family organizational support as a predictor of work-family conflict, enrichment, and balance: Crossover and spillover effects in dual-income couples. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 16(1), e1931. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v16i1.1931

Roskam, I., & Mikolajczak, M. (2021). The slippery slope of parental exhaustion: A process model of parental burnout. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 77, 101354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2021.101354

Roskam, I., Aguiar, J., Akgun, E., Arikan, G., Artavia, M., Avalosse, H., … Mikolajczak, M. (2021). Parental burnout around the globe: A 42-country study. Affective Science, 2(1), 58–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-020-00028-4

Scovell, A. (2025, June 24). The hidden struggle: Parents’ mental health in the digital age. Bark. https://www.bark.us/blog/parents-mental-health-digital-fatigue/

Seligman, M. E. P. (1972). Learned helplessness. Annual Review of Medicine, 23(1), 407–412. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.me.23.020172.002203

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 2 (2026): Insight: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Penelitian Psikologi