Global Trends in Parent-Child Communication Research in the Digital Age: A Bibliometric Analysis of Scopus 2022–2026

Abstract

Digital transformation has fundamentally changed the dynamics of parent–child communication, but scientific developments in this field have not been systematically mapped in the recent period. This study aims to reconstruct the global landscape of parent–child communication research in the digital era during the period 2022–2026 through a comprehensive bibliometric approach. Data were collected from the Scopus database in January 2026 using the PRISMA protocol. From the initial 5,875 documents, after applying the inclusion criteria (journal articles, English language, open access, period 2022–2026), 418 articles were analysed using Biblioshiny (R Studio) through performance analysis and science mapping. The results show that this field is experiencing dynamic growth with a high level of scientific collaboration (1,706 authors; an average of 4.26 authors per article), but knowledge production is still concentrated in Global North countries such as the United States, Australia, and Canada. The conceptual structure is dominated by demographic and relational themes such as human, child, female, and parents, while digital issues have not yet emerged as a dominant thematic cluster. Citation analysis shows strong integration with developmental psychology, interpersonal communication, and public health. These findings indicate that although the research context is in the digital age, the theoretical paradigm still relies on the classical family communication model. The contribution of this research lies in mapping the intellectual architecture and identifying methodological and conceptual gaps, which provides a basis for developing a digital ecology-based family communication model and enriches the global literature on parent-child communication dynamics in an era of technological transformation.