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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Decades of research have focused on the impact of television on parent-child interactions and young children’s development. However, infants and toddlers are now raised in homes with many forms of screen media, including TV, smartphones, tablets and eReaders. With the high and rapid proliferation of devices, research has not kept pace with understanding how these screens are used by very young children, how parents might contribute to that use, or the association between use and family interactions, play, behavior, or social-emotional and language development. Understanding the role of family context, child individual differences, and specific aspects of media design are crucial for crafting media-related guidance for families, policy, and industry. This session brings together four unique studies of young children’s media use, family contributions to their use, and impacts and correlates of use on child behaviors and development. The first presentation is a longitudinal study exploring prenatal predictors of media use and infant media habits. The second presentation examines the longitudinal associations of mobile media use, parenting stress, and externalizing behaviors in early childhood. The third presentation experimentally tests the impact of background adult-directed television on toddlers’ play. The final presentation describes the early media habits of infants and how solo and co-use of devices are associated with their social-emotional and language development. Collectively, this symposium brings diverse theoretical perspectives and methodologies to better understand the use of screen media for children in the first two years of childhood, an often excluded age group.

Sub Unit

• Technology, Media & Child Development

Chair

• Stephanie Reich, University of California, Irvine

Individual Presentations

• Prenatal predictors of media use during the first year of life: A longitudinal study - Presenting Author: Sarah Coyne, Brigham Young University; Non-Presenting Author: Laura Stockdale, Brigham Young University; Non-Presenting Author: Laura M Padilla-Walker, Brigham Young University

• Longitudinal associations between early childhood externalizing behavior, parenting stress, and media use - Presenting Author: Jenny Radesky, Medical School, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Author: Brandon T. McDaniel, Illinois State University

• Not all Background TV is Created Equal: Formal-Feature Density Moderates the Impact of Adult-Directed TV on Toddlers’ Play - Presenting Author: Tiffany Pempek, Hollins University; Non-Presenting Author: Heather Kirkorian, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Non-Presenting Author: Mengguo Jing, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Non-Presenting Author: Seung Heon Yoo, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Infant media use, alone and with parents, and their social-emotional and language development - Presenting Author: Stephanie Reich, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Wendy Ochoa, UC Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Guadalupe Diaz, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Natasha Cabrera, University of Maryland