A Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Parental Mental Health and Handheld Devices on Child Outcomes

Abstract

Children have been thrust into a “portable age” where handheld devices, such as smartphones, tablets or iPads, have become a part of the daily norm. Parental factors and early life experiences, such as engaging in screen devices, have been widely established as major influences on children’s outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between the mental health of parents, parental and child screen time (ST), and child outcomes. A longitudinal study of mothers and fathers (<I>N = </I>214) were recruited at two time points (T1, April 2019-February 2020; T2, September 2020-February 2021). Due to loss to follow-up, the final sample consisted of 101 participants (97 mothers, 4 fathers) with a mean age of 37.55 (<I>SD</I> = 4.14). Children of participants had a mean age of T1 = 5.25 (<I>SD </I>= .44) and T2=6.51 (<I>SD </I>= .52). Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires regarding their own mental health, their child’s and their own engagement with handheld devices, as well as their child’s internalising and externalising behaviour. The study demonstrated that parental anxiety significantly predicted child internalising symptoms, whereas both parental anxiety and depression significantly predicted child externalising symptoms, across time. These findings suggest that after controlling for ST, parental mental health is predictive of temporal child outcomes. Future studies should consider early intervention programs that target parents with mental health concerns, examining children who engage in excessive ST, and consider context and content of ST amongst these trends.