Poster #238 - Profiles of Electronic Media Use and Expressive and Receptive Language Skills for Low-Income Preschoolers

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

Electronic media (e-media) use, on platforms ranging from televisions to mobile phones, has become ubiquitous in the twenty-first century, including by households experiencing economic challenges (Kabali et al., 2015). Research linking the amount and quality of children’s television viewing, specifically, with language development has been mounting, albeit with mixed findings (e.g., Alloway, Williams, Jones, & Cochrane, 2014; Duch et al., 2013). The present study characterizes preschoolers’ e-media use, comprehensively, and examines the extent to which e-media use relates to children’s preschool language competencies.

Participants included 380 racially/ethnically diverse preschool-age children (M = 52.5 months; SD = 3.72 months), part of a multiple-cohort longitudinal observational study examining school readiness. The average maternal education was 13.40 years (SD = 1.74), and the average income-to-needs ratio was 1.46 (SD = 1.08), where an income-to-needs ratio of 1.0 indicates federal poverty line.

Parents reported on children’s e-media use as part of a family survey administered during the first month of preschool. We adapted survey items from the Zero to Eight Common Sense Media Research Study (Rideout, 2013). Questions concerned children’s age of exposure to various e-media types, the frequency and the amount of time children use various forms of e-media and the amount of background television in the home. Other questions addressed e-media co-use (the extent to which children use e-media alone, with sibling(s), or with parents). Parents also indicated the specific children’s shows/cartoons and adult/general audience shows their child watches and the specific apps and games their child plays on mobile devices. We classified the content of each show/game either as EDUCATIONAL (with clear intent to educate; explicit cognitive, academic, or prosocial component) or ENTERTAINMENT (adapted from Christakis & Zimmerman, 2007; Zimmerman & Christakis, 2007). We assessed receptive language with the PPVT-4 (Dunn & Dunn, 2007), expressive language with the WJ-III Picture Vocabulary task (Woodcock, McGrew & Mather, 2001), and narrative language with the Narrative Assessment Protocol-2; (Bowles et al., 2016).

Bivariate correlations (see Table 1) indicated that children who watch more educational children’s shows/cartoons have stronger receptive vocabulary skills at preschool entry, and children who play more educational games/apps have stronger expressive vocabulary skills at preschool entry. Conversely, children who watch more entertainment children’s TV show have weaker receptive and expressive language stills at preschool entry. Additionally, we used latent profile analysis, conducted using full information maximum likelihood estimation (FIML), to examine patterns of e-media use. A three-profile solution (see Figure 1) fit the data and revealed relatively modest e-media use overall for 71% of children (N = 268). The remaining profiles describe patterns of use characterized by high educational game/app use (14%; N = 52), and high adult/general audience TV viewing and exposure to background TV (16%; N = 60). Further analyses will use logistic regression to explore the extent to which e-media use patterns explain variation in children’s preschool language competencies. Given the widespread availability and use of diverse e-media platforms among lower-income families, e-media use represents a malleable factor that may serve as an intervention target for families.

Authors

• Khara Lynn Pence Turnbull, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Pilar Alamos Valenzuela, University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author