Poster #236 - Maternal Depressive Symptoms and use of Media as Regulator Interact to Predict Child Screen Time

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

Prolonged exposure to screen media in early childhood crucially affects children's health and well-being (Tomopoulos et al., 2010). Although the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends not to expose children under 18-months to screen media, many parents expose their children to screens on a daily basis (Domingues-Montanari, 2017). Thus, understanding parental behaviors surrounding media use is crucial for the development of prevention programs aimed to reduce children screen time and benefit child development (Coyneet et al., 2017). Research suggests that distal familial such as ethnicity and parental education are related to children's media use patterns (Anand & Krosnick, 2005). In the current study, we focused on potentially modifiable parental factors that may be related to toddlers' screen time, namely mothers’ depressive symptoms (MDS) and behaviors surrounding children’s’ media use. We specifically examined the links between MDS, maternal use of media to regulate children's negative emotions and children's screen time.
One-hundred and five mothers of toddlers participated in the study at two time points: 18 months (time 1) and 22 months (time 2) of children’s age. Mothers completed several on-line questionnaires. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed using The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D; Radloff, 1977). The use of media to regulate distress was assessed at time 1 using a modified version of the Coping with Toddlers' Negative Emotion Scale (Spinrad et al., 2007), in which mothers rated the likelihood of responding to several scenarios of child distress with the provision of media. Finally, children’s daily screen time was assessed at both time points using maternal report on average screen time during weekdays and weekends.
Regression analysis revealed no significant main effects of MDS (β=.073, p=.401) and media as regulator (β=.05, p=.628) on children’s screen time at time 2. However, moderation analysis (Hayes, 2017), with 5,000 resamples and 95% Cis revealed a significant interaction between MDS and maternal use of media as regulator in predicting child’s screen time at time 2 (b=-23.21, 95% CI [-41.22; -5.19]). A simple slopes analysis revealed that maternal use of media to regulate child distress was positively related to child screen time only for mothers with low depressive symptoms (b=28.22, SE= 13.7, 95% CI [1.03; 55.41]), and not with average or high depressive symptoms (b=-7.23, SE=10.33, 95% CI [-13.28; 27.75], b=-18.61, SE=13.87, 95% CI [-46.15; 8.92])). These results were obtained while controlling for maternal education and child screen time at time 1.
The link between media use as regulator and children's screen time was moderated by maternal depressive symptoms: when mothers did not exhibit depressive symptoms, frequent use of media to regulate children’s distress predicted elevated child screen time. However, when mothers experienced high levels of depressive symptoms, media as regulator was not related to children’s screen time. These findings demonstrate the complex interplay between maternal emotional distress and behavior in child’s habits formation. Our findings can inform family-based interventions aiming to reduce toddlers' screen time. Future longitudinal research is needed to understand directionality and transactional processes between maternal behavior and child screen time.

Authors

• Avigail Gordon Hacker, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Presenting Author

• Noa Gueron-Sela, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author