Novel Profiles of Family Media Use: Latent Profile Analysis

Over the past 3 decades, digital and screen media have evolved from broadcast, stationary platforms to a complex environment of interactive, omnipresent, mobile media. Thus, clinical guidance centered around unidimensional concepts such as "screen time" must be modernized to help families navigate the intricate digital ecosystems of readily available entertainment and information.

This study aimed to identify and examine distinct latent profiles of media use in families with young children. We hypothesized that latent profile analysis (LPA) would identify different media use profiles characterized by more heavy, reactive, individual, and permissive media use and more intentional, regulated, or shared uses of media.

We analyzed data from 398 preschool-aged children. English-speaking parents were recruited through community settings. Participants completed surveys regarding several aspects of family media use, such as child device use or activities, parent concerns and attitudes, limit setting and mediation, parent media use, and technology interference, examined in an LPA. The number of latent media profiles was determined using Bayesian Information Criteria. Parents also completed validated scales of parenting stress, depression symptoms, parenting style, child behavior, child sleep, and household disorganization. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine parent, child, and household predictors of group membership.

The LPA yielded 2 distinct groups that differed in the duration of media used by parents and children, to calm children or help them fall asleep. Statistically significant differences between groups included: families in group 1 (n=236, which we termed social-emotional drivers) had parents who preferred interactions via text or email to in-person (P=.01) and were more likely to use media to calm their children (P=.03); in contrast, families in group 2 (n=162, intentional media) used more task-oriented media, like audio and nongame apps (P=.01), had more concerns about effects of media on child language development (P=.04), and used more media restrictions (P=.01). In regression models, female sex of the parent respondent, greater number of siblings, and later child sleep midpoint independently predicted group 1 membership.

Findings suggest divergent family media use patterns that can be categorized into 2 main media user groups: those using media to buffer social situations or regulate emotions and those planning mobile device use around functional purposes and concerns around media exposure. Profiles were associated with household size and child sleep. More research is needed to examine the impact of social and emotional uses of media on child outcomes.