Association between screen time and cognitive and socioemotional outcomes in Chilean children

• In Event: Parent practices and socio-emotional, cognitive, and linguistic outcomes in young Chilean children

Abstract

Introduction. The pandemic for COVID-19 implied for most countries the implementation of sanitary measures that directly affected children, such as the closure of schools, and parks, which entail for children to do more activities at home, with the consequence of an increase in the use of screens. International institutions such as UNICEF showed their concerns about the effects of increased screen use during this period on physical and emotional children’s health (Fore, 2021). These effects have been studied (Gavoto et al., 2020; Madigan et al, 2020; Cheung et al., 2017); however, there is still a lack of evidence that accounts for the repercussions on both cognitive and socio-emotional development. The present research aims to identify possible thresholds in the relationship between children’s screen use and their cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes.

Hypotheses. We expected at some amount of time a threshold between children’s exposure to screens with their cognitive and socio-emotional results.

Study population. The sample used if from the Chilean Longitudinal Study One Thousand First Days, implemented between 2019 and 2021 (N = 819; 49% girls; Aged = 41.3 months).

Methods. Generalized Additive Modeling (GAM) analysis was used to identify possible thresholds. GAM analysis allows the strength of associations to vary across the distributions and empirically determines the forms of associations between independent and dependent variables through the inspection of smoothed plots depicting results from fitted models. The predictor was the number of hours of children’s screen exposure reported by the mother in 2021 (N=819; less than 1 hour=14.0%; 1 to 2 hours=31.6%; 2 to 3 hours=19.8%; 3 to 4 hours=15.3%; 4 to 5 hours=10.5%; and more than 5 hours=8.8%) and the dependent variables for cognitive children’s results was Bayley III (Bayley, 2006) cognitive, expressive and receptive scales. The dependent variable for socioemotional children’s results was CBCL 1 (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) internalization, externalization, and total scales. Covariates such as children’s cognitive and socioemotional results from the first wave (2019), mothers’ education, immigrant status, children’s age in months, and gender were included.

Results. The Figure presents the results from GAM analyses, showing the fitted associations between children’s screen time reported by the mother on the x-axis, and the non-linear smoothed contribution of screen time to the cognitive or socioemotional children results on the y-axis. The shading represents the confidence intervals for the estimated associations.
Visual inspection of the plot depicting the association between children’s screen time and the cognitive, expressive, and receptive Bayley results (top of the Figure) showed a generally positive association (higher cognitive results) that shifted to a negative slope (lower cognitive results) for 2 to 3 hours of screen in cognitive results, and for 4 to 5 hours in expressive and receptive results. The association between children’s screen hours and socioemotional outcomes appeared to be positive, with an increase in the slope at 2 to 3 hours for internalization and total, and 5 or more hours for externalization which could indicate a possible threshold associated to worse socio-emotional results.

Authors

• Pamela Soto Ramirez, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
  Presenting Author

• Marigen Narea, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile