Structures for Screens: Longitudinal associations between parental media rules and problematic media use in early childhood

• In Event: Promoting Positive Media Use Across Development

Abstract

Many parents wonder how to best help their children navigate the increasingly media-saturated world (e.g., Nikken & Schols, 2015), and although researchers have presented guidelines to help parents structure children’s media use (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics, 2022), many parents either are not aware of these guidelines, or struggle to implement them into children’s daily routines (Funk et al., 2009). One developmental outcome of early media use that merits particular concern is problematic media use (PMU), or a developing maladaptive dependence on media (Domoff et al., 2020). Little is known about how specific parenting practices are associated with child PMU, particularly over time. This research aims to examine what rules parents of young children are implementing to structure their children’s media use and to examine the relationship between specific media rules implemented by parents and the development of children’s PMU longitudinally from ages 2-4 in a sample of 437 children (52.87% male; 70.57% White-non-Hispanic; children’s average age at Time 1 = 29.68 months, SD = 3.73 months).

Parents responded to an open-ended question about the media rules they implemented at Time 1 for children’s tablet and television use, which were then individually coded. Parents reported their children’s PMU at Time 1, 2, and 3 (each 1 year apart). Using an OLS regression framework, we constructed two models, one predicting children’s PMU at Time 2 by media rules at Time 1, and a second predicting children’s PMU at Time 3 by media rules at Time 1. Children’s PMU at Time 1, household income, and time spent using tablets and TV at Time 1 were included as covariates.

Results indicate that more parents had rules around their child’s TV use than tablet use and a sizable minority of parents did not allow their child to use tablets at Time 1 (see Table 1). Parents who did not have rules around their child’s TV use had higher levels of child PMU than children whose parents did have rules about their child’s TV use (see Table 2). These findings suggest that perhaps it is not the specific rules around TV use that are protective, but rather the simple act of creating structures helps to protect children from the development of PMU. It is also possible that the effects of specific rules, such as limits on the amount of time children spend watching TV or limiting TV to specific contexts, do not manifest until later. There was no relationship between media rules and child PMU at Time 2, however, parents who did not allow their child to use tablets at Time 1 had lower levels of child PMU at Time 3 (see Table 2). This suggests that from a practical standpoint, waiting to give children access to a personal media device may be a protective context against developing a maladaptive dependence on media. Overall, these findings suggest that parents can create protective contexts for their children against the development of PMU via the creation of structures around their children’s use of tablets and television.

Authors

• Jane Shawcroft, Brigham Young University
  Presenting Author

• Hallie Blake

• Alexi Gonzalez

• Sarah M Coyne, Brigham Young University