Children, Screens, and COVID-19: Early Findings from Longitudinal, Interdisciplinary, Multi-Institutional Studies

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

COVID-19 and associated stay-at-home orders have changed every aspect of family life, including digital media habits. This symposium explores how the pandemic has altered screen use, what we know about how these changes have impacted children in the short run, and the long-term outcomes we might predict. Featuring three cohort studies from Canada and the United States that extend and complement previous longitudinal research with COVID-19 data collection, this symposium will address how quarantine-related shifts in screen use affect various developmental periods (toddlerhood, middle childhood, and adolescence) and different constructs of development (learning, behavior, and brain development). Beginning with the youngest cohort, the first paper focuses on a group of roughly 400 infants and toddlers from low-income homes and investigates the manner in which household functioning and digital media use during COVID-19 affect social, emotional, cognitive, physical and language development. Moving on to middle childhood, the second study follows approximately 1,300 families’ digital media use before and during the pandemic, and considers features that might leave children particularly vulnerable to psychological challenges. Closing with older children, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study® (ABCD) study, a national, multi-site study that evaluates changes in screen use among a group of more than 10,000 adolescents. The ABCD study will also monitor structural and functional changes in the subjects’ brains over time. A renowned developmental pediatrician will synthesize findings from these three studies and discuss the importance of understanding digital media use amidst this historic shift in the family’s digital media ecology.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Chair

• Ellen Wartella, Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development

Discussant

• Dimitri Christakis, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Parent engagement at home with children during a pandemic - Presenting Author: Stephanie M Reich, University of California - Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park

• Tweens and screens during COVID-19: Longitudinal data from the All Our Families cohort - Presenting Author: Sheri Madigan, University of Calgary (U of C); Non-Presenting Author: Brae Anne McArthur, University of Calgary (U of C); Non-Presenting Author: Nicole Racine, University of Ottawa; Non-Presenting Author: Dillon Browne, University of Waterloo; Non-Presenting Author: Suzanne Tough, University of Calgary (U of C); Non-Presenting Author: Sheila McDonald, Alberta Children’s Hospital Institute

• Screen Time during COVID-19, a review of subjects from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study ® - Non-Presenting Author: Florence Breslin, Laureate Institute for Brain Research; Non-Presenting Author: Kara Kerr, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater; Non-Presenting Author: Kelly Cosgrove, Laureate Institute for Brain Research; Presenting Author: Susan Tapert, University of California - San Diego