ABSTRACT
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly entering family life, reshaping how young children learn, play, and interact with technology. Yet little is known about how parents interpret these changes or organize AI use at home. This qualitative study generates a process framework of family AI use in early education and care, capturing Chinese parents’ perspectives through inductive thematic analysis. Sixteen parents whose children attended nurseries and kindergartens across nine Chinese cities were purposefully selected for in-depth interviews. Through inductive analysis, we constructed a process framework suggesting that parents first articulate beliefs about AI, which inform the functions they intend AI to serve, and these functions in turn shape their mediation strategies. Parents emphasized both the significance of AI and the irreplaceability of human roles, while envisioning AI as a tool for relieving workload, offering parenting advice, entertaining, and supporting playful learning. Mediation strategies reflected ongoing negotiation, including managing AI’s presence, interface, exposure, screen use, and content. This process framework illustrates how families balance opportunity with caution by shaping children’s encounters with AI in ways consistent with parental values. It offers a conceptual tool for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers concerned with supporting healthy family engagement with AI in the digital age.