Neighborhood Quality and Screen Use: Findings From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study

To determine the relationship between various measures of neighborhood quality and adolescent screen use in a demographically diverse, US cohort of early adolescents.

We analyzed cohort data of 8446 adolescents (aged 9-10 at baseline in 2016-2018) with 2 years of follow-up from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Mixed-effects models adjusted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, household income, parents' highest education, and study site were used to examine the associations of baseline indices of children's neighborhood quality measures based on geospatial location data with daily screen time measures at baseline, Year 1, and Year 2.

Lower child opportunity index (COI), higher social vulnerability index (SVI), and higher area deprivation index (ADI) at baseline were associated with higher total screen time, particularly higher television/movie watching, video game playing, and video streaming. Specifically, compared to the highest COI quintile, lower COI quintiles (1st-4th) were associated with higher total screen time (B = 0.39-0.64, P<.05). Compared to the first SVI quintile, higher SVI quintiles (2nd-5th) were associated with higher total screen time (B = 0.28-0.64, P<.01). Similarly, compared to the first ADI quintile, higher ADI quintiles (2nd-5th) were also associated with higher total screen time (B = 0.46-1.17, P<.001).

Overall, this study found that neighborhood quality is associated with higher screen time, over and above other factors, suggesting it is important to consider the role of environmental factors and identify potential targets for intervention at the neighborhood level.