Association Between Parental Attitudes Towards Screen Time and Children's Language Skills in Four European Countries

This study examined associations between parental attitudes towards children's screen time, children's screen use, and their language skills.

Subjects were 315 children aged 36 to 42 months and their parents from Croatia, Estonia, Finland and Poland. The Screen Time Inventory was used to collect information on parental attitudes towards screen time in relation to the development of speaking, communication skills, and acquiring knowledge, and information on the amount of children's screen time (alone, co-viewing, total). Information on children's language skills (vocabulary, grammatical skills) was collected using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory III. Analysis of covariance was used.

Parental attitudes towards screen time were mostly consistent across countries, although Finnish parents considered screen time more beneficial than parents in other countries. Across countries, the more beneficial parents considered screen time, the more screen time their children spent co-viewing and in total, after controlling for children's age, gender, and parental educational level. Furthermore, the more screen time children had alone and in total, the lower their language skills.

Parental attitudes were associated with children's screen habits, which in turn were linked to language skills. Identifying parental attitudes and informing parents of potential risks of screen time is important.