Prenatal predictors of media use during the first year of life: A longitudinal study

• In Event: 2-161 - Influences on very young children’s screened media use and their development

Integrative Statement

Background. Parental attitudes and behavior are associated with child media use and parenting practices surrounding such use (Bank et al., 2012; Domoff et al., 2017; Duch, et al., 2013; Kostyrka‐Allchorne, et al., 2017). For example, Wartella and colleagues (2015) found that young children have more daily screen time in families with media-centric parents.

The existing research typically examines parenting predictors after the child is born and already using media. However, prenatal attitudes and behavior have been shown to be important in predicting many parenting practices including decisions around feeding (Gregory, et al., 2016; Martin-Anderson, 2013), sleeping (Nowkicki, et al., 2017), daycare (Powell & Karraker, 2017), and circumcision (Montano et al., 2018). Accordingly, is likely that there are significant prenatal predictors of infant media use.
Method. Participants included 170 pregnant women (46% primigravida) who completed a number of questionnaires regarding mental health, media use, attitudes toward child media use, and other behaviors (Wave 1). Participants also completed a number of questionnaires (e.g., child media use, maternal technoference) approximately 1 year after their child was born (Wave 2). Children averaged 5.83 months (SD = 3.50 months). There was a 99% retention rate between the two years. It should be noted that we are finalizing a Wave 3 data collection this week and we will present additional results when infants are approximately 18 months old in this paper at SRCD.

Results. Approximately 27% of infants had used some sort of media (with television being the most common). Just over 15% used media to educate their infant and 11% of parents used media to calm their infant down when upset.

A structural equation model was conducted using mplus v. 8.0. The model was saturated so fit statistics are not reported. There were several prenatal predictors of note. Infants were more likely to use media (wave 2) if their mothers did not believe that media was related to attention problems (wave 1) (β = -.42, p < .001).
Additionally, mothers were more likely to use media while playing with their child (technoference) when they had higher levels of prenatal media use (β = .37, p < .001) or if they believed the media was effective in educating (β = .42, p < .01) or calming their child (β = .41, p < .01). Additionally, mothers were more likely to use media to calm their child down if they prenatally believed that media was effective in calming their child (β = .45, p < .001). Maternal depression, anxiety, efficacy, and media addiction at the prenatal levels did not predict child media use or parenting practices surrounding media.

Discussion. Prenatal attitudes surrounding media use (as opposed to other maternal characteristics) were most predictive of child media use and parenting practices surrounding media during the first year of life. Discussions regarding media use may be effective at prenatal OB-GYN visits or in prenatal classes.

Authors

• Sarah Coyne, Brigham Young University
  Presenting Author

• Laura Stockdale, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura M Padilla-Walker, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author