Screen Use and Emotional, Behavioral, and Social Development in Children

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Digital Media Studies
• Public Health

Background:

• The relationship between electronic screen use and psychosocial development in children is not well understood.
• Few studies have examined longitudinal associations or controlled for crucial factors like family functioning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the cross-sectional association between screen use and psychosocial development at ages 5, 10, and 15.
• To evaluate the longitudinal association between screen use at age 5 and psychosocial development at ages 10 and 15.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of a large Scottish birth cohort with data collected at ages 5, 10, and 15.
• Screen use was reported by parents/participants; psychosocial development was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).
• Multivariable regression models analyzed cross-sectional and longitudinal associations, considering total difficulties scores and prosocial scores.

Main Results:

• No significant cross-sectional associations between screen use and total difficulties were found at ages 5 or 10.
• At age 15, >5 hours/day of gaming was linked to higher odds of difficulties (OR, 2.61), while >1 hour/day of social media/messaging was linked to lower odds (ORs 0.57-0.61).
• Longitudinally, >5 hours/day of screen use at age 5 predicted higher difficulties at age 10 (OR, 2.68), but this effect diminished by age 15.

Conclusions:

• Screen use was not consistently associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes in this cohort.
• Current guidelines focusing solely on screen time duration may have limited impact on psychosocial development.
• The type of screen activity (e.g., gaming vs. social media) may be more relevant than total screen time for psychosocial outcomes.