A Population-Based Study of Associations Among Child Screen Media Use, Social-Contextual Factors, and School Readiness.

Abstract

Results of studies examining relations between child media use and school readiness have been inconsistent. Importantly, studies often focus on a single outcome domain (e.g., academic, social, or behavioral), making the comparison of relative importance difficult; fail to account for confounding variables; and fail to investigate social-contextual moderators. This study investigated relations among child media use exposure, social-contextual factors, and multiple domains of school readiness in preschool-aged children. Multivariate regression analyses were used to examine relations between child media use and 3 domains of school readiness (early learning, social-emotional skills, and self-regulation), controlling for demographic and social-contextual factors, and to investigate differential susceptibility by examining family income and 4 social-contextual factors (sleep, exposure to adverse childhood events, frequency of shared reading, and parent stress) as moderators in a large US population-based sample (N = 9323) of 3 to 5 year olds. After controlling for confounding variables, higher screentime was negatively related to children's social-emotional skills and self-regulation, but less so for early learning. Effect sizes were small. The relation between screentime and self-regulation was significantly moderated by family income, such that the relation was stronger for children from low-income backgrounds. No other evidence of significant moderation was found. Results add to evidence that the relation between screen media use and outcomes in young children is likely complex. Future work should prioritize examining impacts of screen media use on social and behavioral functioning to further inform the evaluation of relative benefits and costs of child screen media use.