Preschoolers' total daily screen time at home and by type of child care
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 7, 2026
Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior
Published on: November 14, 2018
Pooja S Tandon1, Chuan Zhou, Paula Lozano
1Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA. pooja@u.washington.edu
Insights
Preschoolers exceed recommended daily screen time, averaging 4.1 hours, with most occurring at home. Children in center-based care had less screen time than those in other settings.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Child Development
- Screen Time Research
Background:
- Preschoolers' screen time is a growing concern.
- Understanding screen time contributions from home and child care is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- Assess cumulative daily screen time in preschoolers.
- Determine screen time contributions from home vs. child care settings.
- Identify risk factors for excessive screen time.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort.
- Calculated daily screen time using parent and caregiver reports.
Main Results:
- Analyzed data from 8950 children (approx. 4 million).
- Average daily screen time was 4.1 hours (3.6 at home, 0.4 in child care).
- Center-based care (3.2 hours) had less screen time than parental care (4.4 hours) or home-based care (5.5 hours).
Conclusions:
- Preschoolers' screen time surpasses current recommendations.
- Home and home-based child care settings contribute significantly to excessive screen time.
- Pediatric clinicians should guide families on screen time and advocate for quality child care.
Objective:
To assess preschoolers' cumulative daily screen time, measure the contributions of the home and the child care setting to this total, and characterize children that are most at risk for excessive screen time.
Study Design:
We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, to calculate daily screen time based on reports by preschooler's parents and care providers.
Results:
The sample size of 8950 represented approximately 4 million children. By preschool age, >80% of children were in some child care. On average, children in this study were exposed to 4.1 hours of screen time daily, including 3.6 hours at home and 0.4 hours in child care. Children in centers had the lowest screen time (3.2 hours) compared with children in parental care only (4.4 hours), home-based care (5.5 hours), and Head Start (4.2 hours). Even when adjusted for relevant covariates, these differences remained significant (P < .001).
Conclusions:
Preschoolers' cumulative screen time exceeds recommendations and most previous estimates. Pediatric clinicians are uniquely positioned to encourage families to discuss screen time with their children's caregivers and to advocate for high quality child care. Efforts to decrease screen time in homes and home-based child care settings are needed.
Related Concept Videos
00:55Parental Care
01:30Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-I
Daycare centers
They provide several functions. Some facilities care for healthy newborns and children whose parents work, while others are medically focused and care for...
01:29Drug Dosing: Infants and Children