Longitudinal associations between early childhood externalizing behavior, parenting stress, and media use

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

Integrative Statement

Background: Prior research on television (TV) indicates longitudinal associations of high daily viewing duration and low-quality media content with toddler externalizing behavior (Tomopoulos et al, 2007) and preschooler behavioral problems (e.g., Verlinden et al, 2012). However, child characteristics and parenting stress might also influence media use behaviors. Cross-sectional associations between difficult temperament (Nabi & Krcmar, 2016), self-regulation problems (Radesky et al., 2014), social-emotional delays (Radesky et al., 2016), parent well-being (Pempek & McDaniel, 2016) and excessive childhood media use suggest that parents may use TV or mobile devices to calm children with intense emotionality. This study aimed to test the hypotheses that, over 6 months, (H1) child externalizing behavior would predict later media use, mediated by parenting stress, and (H2) media use would predict later externalizing behavior.

Method: Participants included parents (mothers and fathers) from 183 heterosexual couples with a child 1-5 years of age, followed for 6 months—assessed at baseline (T0), 1 month (T1), and 6 months (T6). We utilized data from all parents who responded at least once (n = 337); 70% had data at all assessments. Missing data were handled utilizing maximum likelihood. The frequency of child media use was assessed at baseline and 6 months via parent report across 8 items (e.g., “watching TV,” “using a smartphone,” “using a tablet”). Child externalizing behavior was assessed via the Child Behavioral Checklist, and parent stress via the Parenting Stress Index. Items on each measure were averaged to produce overall scores. On average, mothers were 31.8 (SD = 4.2), fathers 33.3 (SD = 4.9), and children 3.0 years old (SD = 1.2). Median yearly household income was $69,500 (SD = $39,320; range $0 to $250,000).

Results: We tested our hypotheses (Figure 1) utilizing structural equation modeling with (H1) T0 child externalizing behavior predicting T1 parenting stress which then predicted T6 child media use; we also tested our hypothesis (H2) that T0 child media use would predict T6 child externalizing behavior. We judged good model fit (χ² (11) = 13.85, p = .24; RMSEA = .03; CFI = .99); paths were constrained to be equal across parent gender when no differences emerged. As hypothesized, we found that (H1) greater child externalizing behavior predicted greater parenting stress, which predicted increases in child media use; however, (H2) contrary to our expectations, child media use did not predict increases in child externalizing behavior.

We also ran post-hoc models (results not reported) examining specific types of child media use (i.e., TV watching, video game playing, tablet use, smartphone use). Results were similar for child externalizing behavior predicting parenting stress, and we found that greater parenting stress predicted increases in child video game playing and tablet use; however, parenting stress did not predict increases in child TV watching and smartphone use.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that child behavior problems have a stronger influence on media use habits, possibly as a parent coping strategy, than media has on child behavioral outcomes. However, future longitudinal research should take into account media content and interactive design.

Authors

• Jenny Radesky, Medical School, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Brandon T. McDaniel, Illinois State University
  Non-Presenting Author