Growing up in the digital age: Early learning and family media ecology

Toddler's memory and media-Picture book reading and watching video content are associated with memory at 2 years of age

Memory develops across the course of the first years of life and is influenced by daily experiences, such as exposure to media like books and television. Memory as tapped by Deferred imitation (DI) requires that toddlers form a representation of the target actions that they can later use to reproduce the actions and in addition to measuring memory for real live events, it can also be used to measure memory for events viewed through media. Toddlers are frequently exposed to multiple forms of digital media in addition to more traditional forms of picture book reading. In a within-subjects design, memory was assessed with a DI task in 2-year-olds (n = 89) using the Frankfurt Imitation Test. Deferred imitation was assessed after live and video demonstrations. Parents completed a survey about children's media use. Picture book reading for less than 30 min a day predicted lower memory scores for actions demonstrated live. Watching video content for more than 1 h a day predicted lower memory scores for actions demonstrated on video. Results are interpreted in terms of individual differences in experiences of traditional and digital media and the development of symbolic understanding.

Developing language in a digital world

Young children's screen time is increasing, raising concerns about its negative impact on language development, particularly vocabulary. However, digital media is used in a variety of ways, which likely differentially impact language development. Instead of asking 'how much' screen time, the focus should be on how digital media is used.

Sleep-dependent memory consolidation of televised content in infants

Infants face the constant challenge of selecting information for encoding and storage from a continuous incoming stream of data. Sleep might help in this process by selectively consolidating new memory traces that are likely to be of future relevance. Using a deferred imitation paradigm and an experimental design, we asked whether 15- and 24-month-old infants (N = 105) who slept soon after encoding a televised demonstration of target actions would show higher imitation scores (retention) after a 24-h delay than same-aged infants who stayed awake for ≥4 h after encoding. In light of infants' well-known difficulties in learning and remembering information from screens, we tested if increasing the relevance of the televised content via standardised caregiver verbalisations might yield the highest imitation scores in the sleep condition. Regardless of sleep condition, 24-month-olds exhibited retention of target actions while 15-month-olds consistently failed to do so. For 24-month-olds, temporal recall was facilitated by sleep, but not by parental verbalisations. Correlational analyses revealed that more time asleep within 4 h after encoding was associated with better retention of the target actions and their temporal order in 24-months-olds. These results suggest that sleep facilitates memory consolidation of screen-based content in late infancy and that this effect might not hinge on caregivers' verbal engagement during viewing.

Look at Grandma! Joint visual attention over video chat during the COVID-19 pandemic

Social interactions are crucial for many aspects of development. One developmentally important milestone is joint visual attention (JVA), or shared attention between child and adult on an object, person, or event. Adults support infants' development of JVA by structuring the input they receive, with the goal of infants learning to use JVA to communicate. When family members are separated from the infants in their lives, video chat sessions between children and distant relatives allow for shared back-and-forth turn taking interaction across the screen, but JVA is complicated by screen mediation. During video chat, when a participant is looking or pointing at the screen to something in the other person's environment, there is no line of sight that can be followed to their object of focus. Sensitive caregivers in the remote and local environment with the infant may be able to structure interactions to support infants in using JVA to communicate across screens. We observed naturalistic video chat interactions longitudinally from 50 triads (infant, co-viewing parent, remote grandmother). Longitudinal growth models showed that JVA rate changes with child age (4 to 20 months). Furthermore, grandmother sensitivity predicted JVA rate and infant attention. More complex sessions (sessions involving more people, those with a greater proportion of across-screen JVA, and those where infants initiated more of the JVA) resulted in lower amounts of JVA-per-minute, and evidence of family-level individual differences emerged in all models. We discuss the potential of video chat to enhance communication for separated families in the digital world.

The Relationship of Parent-Child Technoference and Child Problematic Smartphone Use: The Roles of Parent-Child Relationship, Negative Parenting Styles, and Children's Gender

Purpose

With the increasing ubiquity of smartphones in our daily lives, technoference has emerged as a novel threat to family relationships and child development. This study explored the impact of parent-child technoference on child problematic smartphone use and its underlying mechanism and potential gender difference among children.

Participants and Methods

The participants were 3032 fourth-grade students (42.6% female; 80.6% one-child families; 32.9% lower income level families, 33.3% middle income level families; Mage = 10.59 years, SD=0.32) from 535 primary schools. Students in the target classes were invited to participate anonymously in the questionnaire survey in classrooms. Then, SPSS, AMOS and other software were used to analyze the data.

Results

1) Parent-child technoference, negative parenting styles and child problematic smartphone use were positively correlated with each other, while they were negatively correlated with parent-child relationship; 2) Parent-child technoference can not only directly and positively predict child problematic smartphone use, but also indirectly and positively predict child problematic smartphone use through parent-child relationship and negative parenting styles respectively; 3) Parent-child relationship and negative parenting styles play a chain mediating role between parent-child technoference and child problematic smartphone use; 4) There are significant gender differences in the chain mediation model.

Conclusion

The results showed that parent-child technoference significantly affected child problematic smartphone use through a chain mediation of parent-child relationship and negative parenting styles. Gender differences were observed, with girls experiencing a more pronounced disruption in the parent-child relationship, while boys were more likely to develop problematic smartphone use. In cases of strained parent-child relationships due to technoference, girls also tended to perceive more negative parenting styles. These findings promote parents' understanding of the influencing factors and mechanisms of child problematic smartphone use, especially helpful for follow-up measures to prevent and intervene child problematic smartphone use from the perspective of families and parents.

A longitudinal study of the relationship between children's exposure to screen media and vocabulary development

AIM

This study addresses the scarcity of longitudinal research on the influence of screen media on children. It aims to explore the longitudinal relationship between children's vocabulary development and their exposure to screen media.

METHODS

The study, initiated in 2017, included 72 children (37 boys) in Östergötland, Sweden, at three key developmental stages: preverbal (9.7 months), early verbal (25.5 months) and preliterate (5.4 years). Parents completed online surveys at each time point, reporting their child's screen time. At 10 months and 2 years, age-appropriate vocabulary assessments were conducted online. At age 5, children's vocabulary was laboratory assessed.

RESULTS

Correlational analysis revealed a negative relationship between language scores and screen media use across all time points. Furthermore, a cross-lagged panel model demonstrated that screen media use showed significant continuity over time, with screen use at age 2 predicting language development at ages 2 and 5.

CONCLUSION

This longitudinal study, spanned from 9 months to 5 years of age, established a predictive negative association between children's exposure to screen media and their vocabulary development. These findings underscore the need to consider the impact of screen media on early childhood development and may inform guidelines for screen media use in young children.

Do parent media habits contribute to child global development?

Background/objective

Parents of preschoolers' report using screen media frequently. More frequent screen use by parents may undermine child development by displacing time for foundational parent-child interactions. The objective of the present study is to examine the extent to which parent screen use contributes to child global development 1 year later.

Methods

Data are from a cohort of 315 preschoolers from Nova Scotia, Canada and their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents reported the number of hours per day they spent using screens, as well as child screen time and sex, and parent educational attainment. Our outcome is child global development scores, which combine assessments of communication, cognitive, personal-social, and motor skills measured at 4.5 using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) (N = 249, 79% retained).

Results

Parents in our sample spent on average 6.35 h per day using screen media outside of work (SD = 3.07) and children spent on average 3.43 h per/day using screens. Multivariate linear regression indicated that each 1-h increase in parents daily screen media use, corresponded to a 1.25 decrease in child global development scores, B = -1.25 p < 0.05, 95% CI between -2.37 and -0.13.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that parent screen use may represent a key component of children's media ecology. Given the importance of global development in early childhood for later health and achievement, the present results suggest that interventions should include parent screen use habits in media wellness interventions.

The Relationship between Language and Technology: How Screen Time Affects Language Development in Early Life-A Systematic Review

Screen time refers to the amount of time a child is exposed to a screen, that is, television, computer, smartphone, or any other digital medium. Prolonged screen time in the first years of life may affect a child's cognitive abilities, especially language acquisition. A systematic review was conducted, following the PRISMA-P guidelines, with the aim to explore the available literature relating to the impact of screen time on children's language development. This review identified 18 articles. The articles reviewed showed that prolonged screen time and exposure to screens in the first 2 years of life can negatively affect language development and communication skills, in terms of comprehension and vocabulary range. In addition, overexposure to screens in the early years can affect overall cognitive development, especially attention to environmental stimuli, social experiences, problem solving, and communication with others, e.g., the alternance of rhythms and roles in a conversation. In conclusion, our systematic review supports the idea that preschool screen time has negative effects on children's cognitive and language development. Television seems to be the medium most detrimental to children's skills, as it is used in a passive manner and is often characterised by language and content that do not suit the child's processing mode. Future studies should increasingly focus on the digital media that children possess at an early age, such as mobile phones and tablets, and on how children relate to the online world, such as social networks.

Ground Rules for Preschooler Exposure to the Digital Environment: A Review of Studies

Background

The range of digital technologies that children use from an early age has expanded significantly. Most studies demonstrate that preschoolers now spend substantially longer on digital devices and start using them at a younger age. Finding a solution for this challenge has research merits and relevance, as the data on benefits and harm of early preschoolers' exposure to digital devices is contradictory. This poses a need to determine theoretically sound and practically validated criteria that could guide the duration and quality of children's exposure to the digital environment.

Objective

To review studies that contain recommendations on preschoolers' exposure to the digital environment, namely, exposure limits and evidence to justify the limitation of preschoolers' time on digital media.

Design

The analysis starts by identifying theoretical foundations that researchers use in their studies of children's behavior in the digital environment. This is followed by an overview of 40 studies that include research papers, official reports, and methodological recommendations made by healthcare and governmental organizations.

Results

The review identified the following ground rules for children's exposure to the digital environment: to provide for child's interaction with a digital device, to use educational applications that will develop skills appropriate to the child's age, to ensure mandatory supervision of children's engagement by an adult who limits the exposure according to child's age-related capabilities and creates conditions for active exploration of the real rather than a virtual world. Children's cognitive development suffers the most from passive intake of digital content.

Conclusion

The data herein can help to develop strategies to promote healthy and educational engagement of children with digital devices and media; however, the review highlights the insufficiency of psychophysiological research that would make it possible to practically validate the recommendations on the duration of preschoolers' exposure to the digital environment.

Reexamining models of early learning in the digital age: Applications for learning in the wild

Young children are growing up in an increasingly complicated digital world. Laboratory-based research shows it is cognitively demanding to process and transfer information presented on screens during early childhood. Multiple explanations for this cognitive challenge have been proposed. This review provides an updated comprehensive framework that integrates prior theoretical explanations to develop new testable hypotheses. The review also considers the how the research can be generalized to the "wild" where children engage with multiple commercial products daily. It includes real-world applications for improving children's learning and memory from screen-based media by adding supportive cues and reducing distraction and interference. The review concludes with a call for future collaborative research between researchers, content developers, and families to better understand age-related changes in both short-term and long-term learning from digital media. Finally, policy makers need to be involved to ensure equitable access and to create a safe digital space for all families.

Meeting preschool screen time recommendations: which parental strategies matter?

Background

High levels of screen use by preschoolers may contribute to adverse health and developmental outcomes. Little is known about which parental strategies may be protective against intensive screen use by children. Our aim is to estimate whether parent strategies for mediating child screen time including restrictive and instructive mediation and social coviewing, predict preschooler adherence to the screen time recommendation of ≤1 h/day during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examine if parent restrictive mediation interacts with child temperament characteristics.

Methods

Our sample is composed of 315 Canadian parents of preschoolers surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents provided measures of child adherence to screen time guidelines at ages 3.5 (baseline) and 4.5 years. Parents also reported how often they used restrictive and instructional mediation, and social coviewing to manage their child's screen use. Control variables include child sex and temperament (effortful control, negative affectivity, extraversion), educational attainment, and parenting stress at age 3.5.

Results

A logistic regression revealed that parental restrictiveness was associated with a 4 time increase in the odds of adherence to screen time guidelines, OR = 4.07 (95% CI [1.70-13.03]). Parental social coviewing decreased the chances of adherence by 80% (OR = 0.20, 95% CI [0.09-0.48]). Furthermore, children not meeting recommendation at 3.5 were 98% less likely to respect the recommendation 1 year later (OR = 0.02, 95% CI [0.01-0.07]). Results were adjusted for child sex, temperament, baseline screen time, and parent education and stress The interaction between the restriction mediation and child temperament on later screen time was not significant.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that some parental strategies may be more effective than others for managing preschooler screen time. Parent use of restrictive mediation was most likely to forecast child adherence to later screen time recommendations. The present results may contribute to the development of targeted family-based interventions designed to promote healthy development from a young age.

Relationship Between Speech Delay and Smart Media in Children: A Systematic Review

The increasing prevalence of smart media usage among children has raised concerns about its potential impact on various aspects of child development. One such area of worry is speech delay, as early language acquisition is critical for cognitive, social, and educational development. The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate and synthesize available research data in order to determine the association between speech delay and the usage of smart media in children. To perform this systematic review, a thorough literature search was conducted using relevant keywords in electronic databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Embase. We included studies published during the last 10 years investigating the impact of smart media on children's speech delay using various research designs. The findings showed that extended exposure to electronic media for children was negatively associated with expressive vocabulary and language skills in children, in addition to decreased language scores and speech delays. Educational apps and shared media engagement with parents correlated with stronger language skills. The introduction of smart devices at a later stage of development (24 months of age and older) was associated with positive language development, whereas early introduction was associated with speech delay. However, six-month abstinence from devices led to speech improvement in the affected children. These findings highlight the need to balance interactive screen time and other forms of interaction to enhance speech development.

The effect of picture book reading on young children's use of an emotion regulation strategy

Picture book reading is an enjoyable everyday activity for many young children with well-known benefits for language development. The present study investigated whether picture book reading can support young children's social-emotional development by providing a learning opportunity for the usage of emotion regulation strategies. Three-year-old children participated in two waiting situations designed to elicit negative affect. Between these waiting situations they read a picture book. In two experimental conditions, the book depicted how a protagonist (same-aged peer or young adult, respectively) waited for a desired object and distracted herself with toys while waiting. Children in an additional control condition read a picture book that was unrelated to waiting. Use of distraction did not differ between conditions. Parents often read picture book interactively with their children. Therefore, in an additional condition (Exp. 2), the experimenter read the picture book featuring the same-aged peer protagonist in an interactive way intended to facilitate transfer. Apart from the reading style, the design was identical to experiment 1. Experiment 2 intended to test whether changes in reading style lead to differences in three-year old children's social-emotional learning from picture books. When controlling for the children's picture book experience, children in the experimental conditions exhibited an increase in distraction in contrast to children in the control condition. In sum, results suggest that picture book reading could be an ecologically valid and versatile method for supporting 3-year-old children in their use of an age-appropriate adaptive emotion regulation strategies such as distraction.

Measuring effects of screen time on the development of children in the Philippines: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Screen time in young children is discouraged because of its negative effects on their development. However, excessive screen media use has been rising, particularly during the global pandemic when stay-at-home mandates were placed on young children in several countries. This study documents potential developmental effects of excessive screen media use.

METHOD

This is a cross-sectional study. Participants were 24 to 36 month old Filipino children recruited through non-probable convenience sampling from August to October 2021. Regression analyses were performed to test the association between screen time and changes in scaled scores for skills and behaviors determined from the Adaptive Behavior Scale and to identify factors associated with increased screen media use.

RESULTS

Increased odds of excessive use of screen media of children by 4.19 when parents watch excessively and 8.56 times greater odds when children are alone compared to watching with a parent or other children. When adjusted for co-viewing, more than 2 h of screen time is significantly associated with decrease in receptive and expressive language scores. The effects on personal skills, interpersonal relationships and play and leisure skills were only statistically significant at 4 to 5 or more hours of screen time use.

CONCLUSION

The study found that spending no more than 2 h screen time had minimal negative effects on development and that use beyond 2 h was associated with poorer language development among 2 year olds. There is less excessive screen media use when a child co-views with an adult, sibling or other child and when parents likewise have less screen time themselves.

Screen media exposure and behavioral adjustment in early childhood during and after COVID-19 home lockdown periods

There is ample evidence that young children's screen media use has sharply increased since the outbreak of the novel 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the long-term impact of these changes on children's adjustment is currently unclear. The goals of the current study were to assess longitudinal trajectories of young children's screen media exposure through a series of national COVID-19 home lockdowns and to examine the predictive associations between different aspects of media exposure and post-lockdown behavioral adjustment. Data were collected at four timepoints during and after home lockdown periods in Israel. Longitudinal data measuring various aspects of media use, behavioral conduct and emotional problems were gathered from a sample of 313 Israeli children (54% females) between the ages two to five years (Mage at T1 = 3.6), by surveying their mothers at 5 points in time. Child overall screen time use, exposure to background television, use of media to regulate child distress and maternal mobile device use all changed throughout the lockdown periods. Moreover, during lockdowns children's behavior problems were concurrently and positively correlated with screen time, use of media to regulate child distress, and exposure to background television. However, these were not longitudinally related to child behavior problems in the post-lockdown period. Possible implications for family media use during a public health crisis are discussed.

Toward a dimensional model of risk and protective factors influencing children's early cognitive, social, and emotional development during the COVID-19 pandemic

Variation in infants' home environment is implicated in their cognitive and psycho-social development. The pandemic has intensified variations in home environments through exacerbating socioeconomic inequalities, and increasing psychological stressors for some families. This study investigates the effects of parental (predominantly maternal) mental health, enriching activities and screen use on 280 24- to 52-month-olds' executive functions, internalising and externalising problems, and pro-social behaviour; with socioeconomic status and social support as contextual factors. Our results indicate that aspects of the home environment are differentially associated with children's cognitive and psycho-social development. Parents who experienced sustained mental distress during the pandemic tended to report higher child externalising and internalising problems, and executive function difficulties at follow-up. Children who spent more time engaged in enriching activities with their parents showed stronger executive functions and social competence six months later. Screen use levels during the first year of the pandemic were not associated with outcomes. To mitigate the risk of persistent negative effects for this 'pandemic generation' of infants, our study highlights the importance of supporting parents' mental health. As our results demonstrate the impact of social support on mental health, investing in support services and interventions promoting building support networks are likely to be beneficial.

Predictors of Preadolescent Children's Recreational Screen Time Duration During the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE

Research suggests that children's screen use during the COVID-19 pandemic has doubled. There is a need to understand factors associated with increased use to more adequately inform COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts aimed at promoting healthy device habits. The objective of this multi-informant study of children aged 9 to 11 years was to examine whether duration of screen use during the COVID-19 pandemic was predicted by sociodemographic factors (e.g., child age and sex), COVID-19 pandemic family stressors, daily routines (e.g., sleep and physical activity), and device use factors (e.g., parent management strategies and content and context of use).

METHODS

Participants included 846 children (M = 9.85, SD = 0.78) and their mothers from the All Our Families cohort, Calgary, Canada. Mothers reported (May-July 2020) on child screen use and COVID-19 pandemic impacts (e.g., job/income loss and stress), and children self-reported (July-August 2020) on their screen use and daily routines (e.g., sleep, physical activity, and device-free activities).

RESULTS

Screen use during the COVID-19 pandemic was highest among male and minoritized children and families reporting high levels of stress. Children had lower durations of screen time when device limits were set by mothers. Children also had lower durations of screen time when they used screens to connect with others and when they engaged in higher levels of physical activity or device-free recreational activities.

CONCLUSION

This study sheds light on children's screen use during the COVID-19 pandemic and supports the current screen use guidelines for school-aged children, suggesting that parents monitor use and foster high-quality screen use (e.g., coviewing or used for connection) and device-free recreational activities when possible.

Screen time and developmental and behavioral outcomes for preschool children

BACKGROUND

One pressing question in the field of pediatrics is whether a dose-response relation is observed between hours of screen time and child outcomes. This study examined the association between hours of screen time (≤1 vs 2 vs ≥3 h/day) and children's developmental and behavioral outcomes.

METHODS

This study included data from 1994 mothers and children in Calgary, Canada, drawn from the All Our Families cohort. At 36 months, children's screen time (h/day), behavior problems, developmental milestones, and vocabulary acquisition were assessed via maternal report. Socio-demographic factors and baseline levels of performance at 24 months were included as covariates.

RESULTS

Compared to ≤1 h/day (47%; n = 935), children using screens 2 h (36%; n = 725) or ≥3 h/day (17%; n = 333) had an increased likelihood of reported behavioral problems (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.30-1.90), delayed achievement of developmental milestones (AOR 1.41-1.68), and poorer vocabulary acquisition (AOR 1.94).

CONCLUSIONS

At 36 months, an association was observed between screen time and children's developmental, language, and behavioral outcomes, suggesting that duration of screen time is associated with poor child development outcomes. Findings provide support for screen time guidelines and emphasize the need for childcare professionals to discuss screen time guidelines with families.

IMPACT

International guidelines recommend that preschoolers spend no more than 1 h/day viewing screens. Research is needed to determine if there is a relation between screen time levels and child developmental and behavioral outcomes. Compared to ≤1 h/day, children viewing screens 2 or ≥3 h/day had an increased likelihood of behavioral problems, delayed achievement of developmental milestones, and poorer vocabulary acquisition. Findings highlight the association between duration of screen time and factors of child development.

Children's screen use and school readiness at 4-6 years: prospective cohort study

Background

The primary aim of this study was to determine if screen use in early childhood is associated with overall vulnerability in school readiness at ages 4 to 6 years, as measured by the Early Development Instrument (EDI). Secondary aims were to: (1) determine if screen use was associated with individual EDI domains scores, and (2) examine the association between screen use and EDI domains scores among a subgroup of high screen users.

Methods

This prospective cohort study was carried out using data from young children participating in a large primary care practice-based research network in Canada. Logistic regression analyses were run to investigate the association between screen use and overall vulnerability in school readiness. Separate linear regression models examined the relationships between children’s daily screen use and each separate continuous EDI domain.

Results

A total of 876 Canadian participants participated in this study. Adjusted logistic regression revealed an association between increased screen use and increased vulnerability in school readiness (p = 0.05). Results from adjusted linear regression demonstrated an association between higher screen use and reduced language and cognitive development domain scores (p = 0.004). Among high screen users, adjusted linear regression models revealed associations between increased screen use and reduced language and cognitive development (p = 0.004) and communication skills and general knowledge domain scores (p = 0.042).

Conclusions

Screen use in early childhood is associated with increased vulnerability in developmental readiness for school, with increased risk for poorer language and cognitive development in kindergarten, especially among high users.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-12629-8.

Screen Time as a Mechanism Through Which Cumulative Risk is Related to Child Socioemotional and Developmental Outcomes in Early Childhood

Socio-demographic risks are associated with higher child screen time and higher screen time is associated with poor socioemotional and developmental health. Existing studies have not examined children's screen time as a mechanism through which distal risks may be associated with child outcomes. In the current study, we examined whether two proximal factors, screen time and parenting quality, mediate the relation between distal cumulative risk and child outcomes. Participants (N = 1992) were drawn from a birth cohort of mothers and their children (81% white; 46% female). Mothers reported on cumulative risk factors (maternal income, education, depression, stress, marital status, housing instability, unemployment, and maternal history of childhood adversity) during the prenatal period. Parenting quality (ineffective/hostile, positive interactions) and children's screen time (hours/week) were assessed when children were three years of age. Child socioemotional (internalizing and externalizing problems) and developmental (achievement of developmental milestones) outcomes were measured at five years of age. Path analysis revealed indirect effects from cumulative risk to internalizing symptoms and achievement of developmental milestones via screen time. Indirect effects were observed from cumulative risk to internalizing and externalizing behavior via hostile parenting behavior. Over and above the effects of parenting, screen time may be a factor that links structural forms of social disadvantage during the prenatal period to child socioemotional and developmental outcomes. Due to modest effect sizes of screen time, it remains the case that child socioemotional and developmental health should be conceptualized within the context of distal cumulative risk factors such as caregiver psychological and material resources.

Infants' and toddlers' digital media use and mothers' mental health: A comparative study before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study compared children's and mothers’ digital media use and mothers’ mental health in two samples: one accessed before (Group 1; N = 257; M = 33.18 years; SD = 4.79) and the other accessed during (Group 2; N = 256; M = 33.51 years; SD = 4.96) the COVID‐19 pandemic in Brazil. Mothers of children up to 3 years old (Group 1: M = 17.95 months, SD = 9.85; Group 2: M = 16.48 months, SD = 10.15) answered an online survey. Bivariate analysis, factorial ANOVA tests, and multiple linear regression were performed. Results suggest that mothers’ and children's media use duration was higher during the pandemic only among children over 12 months. Mothers’ media use duration (β = .18) and mothers’ intention to offer media (β = .23) contributed to the explanation of children's media use duration (F(4, 474) = 16.81; p < .001; R² = .12; R² adjusted = .117). Higher mothers’ common mental disorders symptoms were also positively correlated to mothers’ intention to offer media to children both before and during the pandemic. Results suggest that interventions focusing on infants and toddlers screen time reduction should target maternal aspects such as mental health, maternal screen time, and intention to offer media, taking into account the mothers’ needs when planning these actions.

Screen time and child behaviour and health-related quality of life: Effect of family context

This study investigated family contextual effects on the association between screen time, behaviour and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in child siblings. Data were from 1772 participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health 1973-78 cohort and their three youngest children (N = 4010 siblings) aged two to 12, collected in Mothers and their Children's Health cross-sectional sub-study (2016/17). The exposure was average daily recreational screen time (televisions, computers, tablets, mobile phones, electronic games). Outcomes were child overall behaviour and prosocial behaviour, and psychosocial and physical HRQOL. Multilevel models were used to test 1) the absolute effect of screen time, and 2) change in the child's outcomes when their own screen time changes relative to their siblings (within-family contextual effects) and change in the child's outcomes when the sibling average screen time changes (between-family contextual effects). The children were average 7.37 years (SD 2.76). There was an absolute effect of screen time on behaviour and HRQOL. Between-family effects were found for child total behaviour (0·22 (95%CI, 0.06, 0.37)) and prosocial behaviour (-0.10 (-0.17, -0.04)), but there were no within-family effects. For HRQOL, within-family effects were found for psychosocial (-0.97 (-1.91, -0.02)) and physical (-1.32 (-2.25, -0.39)) HRQOL, but no between-family effects were found. In conclusion, the higher the average screen time by all children in the family, the worse the child's behaviour, while the greater the deviation of the child's screen time from their siblings, the poorer their HRQOL. Family contextual factors should be considered in screen time research and screen time recommendations.

Cumulative Social Risk and Child Screen Use: The Role of Child Temperament

OBJECTIVES

It is critical to understand what children, and in which context, are at risk for high levels of screen use. This study examines whether child temperament interacts with cumulative social risk to predict young children's screen use and if the results are consistent with differential susceptibility or diathesis-stress models.

METHODS

Data from 1,992 families in Calgary, Alberta (81% White; 47% female; 94% >$40,000 income) from the All Our Families cohort were included. Mothers reported on cumulative social risk (e.g., low income and education, maternal depression) at <25 weeks of gestation, child's temperament at 36 months of age (surgency/extraversion, negative affectivity, effortful control), and child's screen use (hours/day) at 60 months of age. Along with socio-demographic factors, baseline levels of screen use were included as covariates.

RESULTS

Children high in surgency (i.e., high-intensity pleasure, impulsivity) had greater screen use than children low in surgency as social risk exposure increased. In line with differential susceptibility, children high in surgency also had less screen use than children low in surgency in contexts of low social risk. Children with heightened negative affectivity (i.e., frequent expressions of fear/frustration) had greater screen use as social risk increased, supporting a diathesis-stress model.

CONCLUSIONS

Young children predisposed to high-intensity pleasure seeking and negative affectivity in environments characterized as high in social risk may be prone to greater durations of screen use. Findings suggest that an understanding of social risks and individual characteristics of the child should be considered when promoting healthy digital health habits.

Infant media use: A harm reduction approach

There are a myriad of potentially harmful developmental outcomes associated with infant digital media use. Studies revealing risk associated with early media use have informed the current American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations that discourage most digital media use among children under 18 months of age. Recent research advances, however, suggest potential benefits of technology engagement in this age group. Additionally, surveys of parents reveal that most infants engage with digital media for at least 30 min a day, exceeding the AAP recommendations. In response to these discoveries and cultural trends, some scholars have made compelling cases to adapt the AAP guidelines for infants. A helpful model for developing infant digital media use guidelines for families may be the harm reduction approach. The intent of this review is to suggest adaptations to the AAP guidelines for infant media engagement using a harm reduction framework. This review describes the challenge of restrictive guidelines, briefly summarizes the harm reduction approach, provides a review of risks and benefits associated with infant media use in each developmental domain (physical, cognitive, and socioemotional), summarizes correlates of infant screen media use, and examines intervention strategies for reducing screen time. The paper concludes with examples of possible adaptations to current AAP infant media use recommendations using harm reduction and bioecological frameworks.

Enhancing spatial skills of preschoolers from under-resourced backgrounds: A comparison of digital app vs. concrete materials

Spatial skills support STEM learning and achievement. However, children from low-socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds typically lag behind their middle- and high-SES peers. We asked whether a digital educational app-designed to mirror an already successful, spatial assembly training program using concrete materials-would be as effective for facilitating spatial skills in under-resourced preschoolers as the concrete materials. Three-year-olds (N = 61) from under-resourced backgrounds were randomly assigned to a business-as-usual control group or to receive 5 weeks of spatial training using either concrete, tangible materials or a digital app on a tablet. The spatial puzzles used were an extension of items from the Test of Spatial Assembly (TOSA). Preschoolers were pretested and posttested on new two-dimensional (2D) TOSA trials. Results indicate that both concrete and digital spatial training increased performance on the 2D-TOSA compared to the control group. The two trainings did not statistically differ from one another suggesting that educational spatial apps may be one route to providing early foundational skills to children from under-resourced backgrounds.

Does physical activity moderate the association between screen time and psychosocial development in early childhood? Analysis of a longitudinal infant cohort study in Ireland

The objective of this study was to explore the extent to which the association between screen time and psychosocial development in preschool children differed between the sexes and according to their frequency of engagement in physical activity. Data are based on a prospective cohort of Irish children, collected between 2010 and 2013 when children were ages 3 (n=9786) and 5 years (n=9001). Children's screen time (h/day), psychosocial development (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), and physical activity (bouts/week) were assessed via caregiver report. The magnitude of the association between screen time and changes in behavioural difficulties differed significantly between the sexes. For boys, the association between increased screen time and the onset of behavioural problems coincided directly with a reduction in their frequency of engagement in physical activity. The association between screen time and changes in behavioural difficulties was not moderated by girls' engagement in physical activity, however; and there was no difference in the association between screen time and prosocial behaviours at different frequencies of engagement in physical activity for either boys or girls.Conclusions: Results support recommendations to establish greater balance between physical activity and sedentary behaviours in token economy systems to minimise the negative effects of excessive screen time. What is Known: • Provision of screen time has become normalised as a behavioural reinforcer for use with young children. • Screen viewing above recommended guidelines is associated with behavioural problems that reflect poor self-regulation. What is New: • Boys' levels of engagement in physical activity moderated the relationship between screen time and changes in behavioural difficulties between the ages of 3 and 5 years. • Neither screen time nor physical activity was significantly associated with changes in prosocial behaviours between the ages of 3 and 5 years for either boys or girls.

Toddlers Using Tablets: They Engage, Play, and Learn

Although very young children have unprecedented access to touchscreen devices, there is limited research on how successfully they operate these devices for play and learning. For infants and toddlers, whose cognitive, fine motor, and executive functions are immature, several basic questions are significant: (1) Can they operate a tablet purposefully to achieve a goal? (2) Can they acquire operating skills and learn new information from commercially available apps? (3) Do individual differences in executive functioning predict success in using and learning from the apps? Accordingly, 31 2-year-olds (M = 30.82 month, SD = 2.70; 18 female) were compared with 29 3-year-olds (M = 40.92 month, SD = 4.82; 13 female) using two commercially available apps with different task and skill requirements: (1) a shape matching app performed across 3 days, and (2) a storybook app with performance compared to that on a matched paper storybook. Children also completed (3) the Minnesota Executive Functioning Scale. An adult provided minimal scaffolding throughout. The results showed: (1) toddlers could provide simple goal-directed touch gestures and the manual interactions needed to operate the tablet (2) after controlling for prior experience with shape matching, toddlers’ increased success and efficiency, made fewer errors, decreased completion times, and required less scaffolding across trials, (3) they recognized more story content from the e-book and were less distracted than from the paper book, (4) executive functioning contributed unique variance to the outcome measures on both apps, and (5) 3-year-olds outperformed 2-year-olds on all measures. The results are discussed in terms of the potential of interactive devices to support toddlers’ learning.

Enacting Media. An Embodied Account of Enculturation Between Neuromediality and New Cognitive Media Theory

This paper argues that the still-emerging paradigm of situated cognition requires a more systematic perspective on media to capture the enculturation of the human mind. By virtue of being media, cultural artifacts present central experiential models of the world for our embodied minds to latch onto. The paper identifies references to external media within embodied, extended, enactive, and predictive approaches to cognition, which remain underdeveloped in terms of the profound impact that media have on our mind. To grasp this impact, I propose an enactive account of media that is based on expansive habits as media-structured, embodied ways of bringing forth meaning and new domains of values. We apply such habits, for instance, when seeing a picture or perceiving a movie. They become established through a process of reciprocal adaptation between media artifacts and organisms and define the range of viable actions within such a media ecology. Within an artifactual habit, we then become attuned to a specific media work (e.g., a TV series, a picture, a text, or even a city) that engages us. Both the plurality of habits and the dynamical adjustments within a habit require a more flexible neural architecture than is addressed by classical cognitive neuroscience. To detail how neural and media processes interlock, I will introduce the concept of neuromediality and discuss radical predictive processing accounts that could contribute to the externalization of the mind by treating media themselves as generative models of the world. After a short primer on general media theory, I discuss media examples in three domains: pictures and moving images; digital media; architecture and the built environment. This discussion demonstrates the need for a new cognitive media theory based on enactive artifactual habits-one that will help us gain perspective on the continuous re-mediation of our mind.

From screen time to the digital level of analysis: a scoping review of measures for digital media use in children and adolescents

OBJECTIVES

This scoping review aims to facilitate psychometric developments in the field of digital media usage and well-being in young people by (1) identifying core concepts in the area of "screen time" and digital media use in children, adolescents, and young adults, (2) synthesising existing research paradigms and measurement tools that quantify these dimensions, and (3) highlighting important areas of need to guide future measure development.

DESIGN

A scoping review of 140 sources (126 database, 14 grey literature) published between 2014 and 2019 yielded 162 measurement tools across a range of domains, users, and cultures. Database sources from Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus were extracted, in addition to grey literature obtained from knowledge experts and organisations relevant to digital media use in children. To be included, the source had to: (1) be an empirical investigation or present original research, (2) investigate a sample/target population that included children or young persons between the ages of 0 and 25 years of age, and (3) include at least one assessment method for measuring digital media use. Reviews, editorials, letters, comments and animal model studies were all excluded.

MEASURES

Basic information, level of risk of bias, study setting, paradigm, data type, digital media type, device, usage characteristics, applications or websites, sample characteristics, recruitment methods, measurement tool information, reliability and validity.

RESULTS

Significant variability in nomenclature surrounding problematic use and criteria for identifying clinical impairment was discovered. Moreover, there was a paucity of measures in key domains, including tools for young children, whole families, disadvantaged groups, and for certain patterns and types of usage.

CONCLUSION

This knowledge synthesis exercise highlights the need for the widespread development and implementation of comprehensive, multi-method, multilevel, and multi-informant measurement suites.

Processes and pathways in development via digital media: Examples from word learning

Word learning unfolds over multiple, cascading pathways which support in-the-moment processing and learning. The process is refined with each exposure to a word, and exposures to new words occur across a variety of forms and contexts. However, as children are exposed to more and more digital media, the ways in which children encounter, learn, and build on their vocabulary is also shifting. These shifts represent changes in context, content, and at the level of the child that can lead to negative outcomes. Less work, however, has discussed what these differences mean for how things change in the underlying developmental cascade and learning processes. Here, we suggest that the increasing presence of digital media may shift the developmental pathways for learning (the chain of events that support future learning) but not necessarily the developmental processes (the mechanisms underlying learning). Moreover, the interaction of the two may lead to different behavior and outcomes for learning in a digital era. We argue it is imperative for researchers to not only study how digital media differs from everyday learning, but directly measure if the well-worn pathways, processes, and variables found with decades of research with real items translate to a digital media era.

How Infant and Toddlers' Media Use Is Related to Sleeping Habits in Everyday Life in Italy

Background

Heavy media use has been linked to sleep problems in children, which may also extend to the infancy period. While international parent-advisory agencies, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (2016), advise no screen time before 18 months, parents often do not follow this recommendation. Research on Italian infants’ early access to media is sparse, and only very few studies have investigated links with sleeping habits.

Method

To address this gap, we examined concurrent associations between parent-reported surveys of child technology use and sleeping patterns. The Italian version of the 60 item Comprehensive Assessment of Family Media Exposure (CAFE) Survey, developed as part of a larger international study, (Barr et al., 2020), the Brief Screening Questionnaire for Infant Sleep Problems (BISQ) Sadeh, 2004) were completed online by 264 Italian parents of 8- to 36-month-olds and a subset (n = 134) completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) Abidin, 1995) between April 2017 and April 2018.

Results

More devices located in the child’s room and the more time spent watching TV or using an iPad were associated with less hours of sleep at night. Furthermore, more time spent watching TV or using a smartphone, as well as the number of devices in the room was associated with going to sleep later at night. Instrumental media use was associated with less sleep.

Conclusion

Like other countries, Italian infants have high levels of exposure to media, and differences in media patterns were associated with sleep patterns. Cultural factors influence both instrumental reasons for media use and sleep practices. Further research should explore how media use may serve to regulate emotion as a function of both contextual factors and individual differences.

Growing Up in a Digital World Digital Media and the Association With the Child's Language Development at Two Years of Age

Digital media (DM), such as cellphones and tablets, are a common part of our daily lives and their usage has changed the communication structure within families. Thus, there is a risk that the use of DM might result in fewer opportunities for interactions between children and their parents leading to fewer language learning moments for young children. The current study examined the associations between children’s language development and early DM exposure.

Participants: Ninety-two parents of 25months olds (50 boys/42 girls) recorded their home sound environment during a typical day [Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA)] and participated in an online questionnaire consisting of questions pertaining to daily DM use and media mediation strategies, as well as a Swedish online version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory, which includes a vocabulary scale as well as a grammar and pragmatics scale.

Results: Through correlations and stepwise regressions three aspects of language were analyzed. The child’s vocabulary was positively associated with interactional turn-taking. The child’s vocabulary and grammar were negatively associated with the likelihood of parent’s device use during everyday child routines and the amount of TV watched by the child. The child’s pragmatic development was also positively associated with the parent’s device use in child routines but also with the parent’s joint media engagement (JME), as well as the child’s gender (where girls perform better).

Conclusion: Our study confirms that specific aspects of the 2-year old’s DM environment are associated with the child’s language development. More TV content, whether it is viewed on a big screen or tablet, is negatively associated with language development. The likelihood of parents’ use of DM during everyday child routines is also negatively associated with the child’s language development. Positive linguistic parental strategies such as interactional turn-taking with the child, JME, and book reading, on the other hand, are positively associated with the child’s language development.

A qualitative case study about overuse of digital play at home

The prevalence of digital play devices, including tablets and smartphones, has led to overuse among some young children. The purpose of this research is to examine the overuse cases among young children. Participants of this qualitative case study were five children aged five to seven years, their parents, and a psychiatrist. The data were mainly obtained through semi-structured interviews. Interviews were further supported by close observations, a collection of digital play diaries, as well as an interview with a psychiatrist who specializes in childhood gaming addiction. Then data analyzed using content analysis techniques. The results are presented in five themes: practices, reasons, feelings about overuse, restricting playtime, and content. The first three themes described the nature of the overuse, while the last two themes described the parents' efforts to restrict their children's digital play. Findings revealed that the joint effects of different factors triggered children's overuse, that parents and children felt a range of emotions from happiness to aggression, and that parents' restrictive mediation strategies were mostly infective.

2-Year-Olds Learning From 2D Media With and Without Parental Support: Comparing Two Forms of Joint Media Engagement With Passive Viewing and Learning From 3D

The study investigates to what degree two different joint media engagement (JME) strategies affect children's learning from two-dimensional (2D)-media. More specifically, we expected an instructed JME strategy to be more effective than a spontaneous, non-instructed, JME strategy. Thirty-five 2-year old children saw a short video on a tablet demonstrating memory tasks together with a parent. The parents were randomized into two groups: One group (N = 17) was instructed to help their child by describing the actions they saw on the video while the other group (N = 18) received no specific instruction besides "do as you usually do." The parents in the instructed group used significantly more words and verbs when supporting their child but both groups of children did equally well on the memory test. In a second step, we compared the performance of the two JME groups with an opportunistic comparison group (N = 95) tested with half of the memory tasks live and half of the tasks on 2D without any JME support. Results showed that the JME intervention groups received significantly higher recall scores than the no JME 2D comparison group. In contrast, the three-dimensional (3D) comparison group outperformed both JME groups. In sum, our findings suggest that JME as implemented here is more effective in promoting learning than a no JME 2D demonstration but less so than the standard 3D presentation of the tasks.

Sleep Through Toddlerhood: The Distinct Roles of Overall Media Use and Use of Media to Regulate Child Distress

OBJECTIVE

Excessive media exposure has been associated with various sleep disturbances in early childhood. However, previous research mostly addressed the overall amount of media use while neglecting the role of media use practices. The purpose of this study was to examine whether media use practices (specifically, maternal use of media to regulate child distress) and overall media use predict distinct aspects of children's sleep. We hypothesized that frequent maternal use of media to regulate child distress will predict difficulties in sleep regulation, whereas higher child screen time will predict lower sleep duration.

METHODS

One-hundred fifty-one mothers (predominantly from the United Kingdom) completed anonymous online questionnaires via the Prolific platform that assessed child sleep latency and duration, use of media to regulate child distress, overall child screen time, and demographic covariates at 2 time points: 22 months (T1) and 26 months (T2) of children's age.

RESULTS

Maternal use of media to regulate child distress at T1 (but not screen time) predicted longer sleep latency at T2. Conversely, screen time (but not media to regulate distress) at T1 predicted shorter sleep duration at T2. These results were obtained while controlling for multiple covariates and sleep and media use at both time points.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that media use practices and overall use have differential effects on sleep. Specifically, the use of media-based regulation strategies may interfere with the development of children's ability to self-soothe and regulate arousal in contexts that require the use of regulatory skills, such as transition to sleep.

Longitudinal Links Between Media Use and Focused Attention Through Toddlerhood: A Cumulative Risk Approach

Previous studies that examined the links between media use and children's attention abilities have yielded inconclusive findings. In the current study, we aimed to move beyond the focus on isolated aspects of media use to a comprehensive assessment of both direct and indirect media use and practices in early childhood. Drawing from the cumulative risk literature, we examined whether cumulative media use is related to children's subsequent attention abilities. Participants were 199 mothers of toddlers (60% male) who completed questionnaires assessing various aspects of children's media use, as well as children's focused attention abilities at three time points: 18 months (T1), 22 months (T2), and 26 months (T3) of age. Cumulative media use scores were computed based on four indicators: (1) child average daily screen time; (2) household background television; (3) maternal use of media to regulate child distress; and (4) maternal use of mobile devices while spending time with the child. An autoregressive cross-lagged (ARCL) path model controlling for child sex, maternal education, and general parenting practices showed that cumulative media use at 18 months negatively predicted children's focused attention at 22 months. Moreover, there was a significant negative indirect effect from cumulative media use at 18 months to focused attention at 26 months via focused attention at 22 months. Finally, the cumulative media index appeared to be a better predictor of focused attention than any of the singular media use indicators. Children's focused attention did not predict subsequent cumulative media use across time, providing no evidence for bidirectional links. Findings suggest that exposure to multiple (rather than single) aspects of media use is related to decreased subsequent focused attention abilities during toddlerhood. Family media plans that designate media-free time and increase parental awareness to media use habits in the household should therefore be encouraged.

The moral, or the story? Changing children's distributive justice preferences through social communication

Can social communication alter children's preexisting inclinations toward equality-based or merit-based forms of resource distribution? Six- to eight-year-old children's (N = 248) fairness preferences were evaluated with third-party distribution tasks before and after an intervention. Study 1 indicated that stories about beavers dividing wood had no impact on children's fairness preferences, while Study 2 indicated that brief, direct testimony was highly influential. Study 3 matched storybooks and testimony in content, with each discussing a situation resembling the distribution task, and both formats exerted a significant impact on children's fairness preferences that persisted across several weeks. There were some indications that interventions preaching the superiority of equality-based fairness were particularly effective, but there were no differences between reason-based and emotion-based interventions. Overall, storybooks and testimony can powerfully and enduringly change children's existing distributive justice preferences, as long as the moral lessons that are conveyed are easily transferable to children's real-world contexts.

Maternal Use of Media to Regulate Child Distress: A Double-Edged Sword? Longitudinal Links to Toddlers' Negative Emotionality

Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not to heavily rely on screen media devices to regulate children's distress, many parents often resort to this regulatory strategy. However, little is known about the long-term implications of using this strategy for children's emotional functioning. To address this issue, this study examined the longitudinal links between the use of media to regulate distress and children's negative emotionality (NE) during toddlerhood, a period in which children strongly rely on external regulation. We also examined whether children with initially high NE were more sensitive to the effects of this regulatory strategy on subsequent NE. Participants were 207 mothers who completed questionnaires assessing child NE, use of media to regulate distress, child screen time, and demographic covariates at 2 time points: 18 months (T1) and 26 months (T2) of children's age. Use of media to regulate child distress at T1 did not directly predict child NE at T2, and vice versa. However, there was a significant interaction between child NE and use of media to regulate distress at T1 in predicting NE at T2. Simple slopes analysis indicated that maternal use of media to regulate distress was positively related to increases in children's NE, but only for children with initially low NE, and not for children with initially high NE. Our findings can inform family-based prevention initiatives that may be delivered in community pediatric settings, aiming at promoting thoughtful use of media in young children's everyday lives.

Prevalence of Preschoolers Meeting vs Exceeding Screen Time Guidelines

This study examines the prevalence of Canadian children ages 2 and 3 years meeting vs exceeding screen time guidelines and the strongest individual and family-level factors associated with failing to meet these guidelines.

From 'screen time' to the digital level of analysis: protocol for a scoping review of digital media use in children and adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Research on the relationship between digital media exposure and child development is complex, inconsistent and fraught with debate. A highlighted area of inadequacy surrounds the methodological limitations of measuring digital media use for both researchers and clinicians, alike. This protocol aims to (1) identify core concepts in the area of screen time and digital media use in children and adolescents (2) map existing research paradigms and screening/measurement tools that serve to underpin and operationalise core concepts and (3) provide an initial step in integrating these findings into a consolidated screening toolkit. It is expected this enterprise will help advance research and clinical evaluation in fields concerned with digital media use, namely medicine, child development and the social sciences.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The planned scoping review will search relevant electronic databases, including Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus, in addition to grey literature. All empirical investigations and presentation of original research will be considered, and measurement/screening tools for digital media usage in children and adolescents will be identified and reported on. Two reviewers will pilot test the screening criteria, and data extraction forms prior to independently screening all relevant literature and extracting the data. A three-stage synthesis process will be used to map the existent measurement and screening tools for digital media usage in children and adolescents.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

There are no ethical considerations for this scoping review. Plans for dissemination include publication in a top-tier, open-access journal, public presentations and conference proceedings. Presentation of the full scoping review has been accepted to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 66th Annual Meeting.