CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 92Child Development and Digital TechnologyPhysical Activity and HealthChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Association of Trajectory and Covariates of Children’s Screen Media Time

Open access
Trinh, Mai-Han, Sundaram, Rajeshwari, Robinson, Sonia L., Lin, Tzu-Chun, Bell, Erin M., Ghassabian, Akhgar, Yeung, Edwina H.·2020·JAMA Pediatrics
DOI 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.4488PMC PMC6902189
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Importance: Many children begin interacting with screen media as early as infancy. Although screen time is associated with negative developmental consequences, few longitudinal studies in the United States have examined covariates of screen time among children under 3 years of age. Objectives: To identify trajectories of screen time among children aged 1 to 3 years, to examine their association with screen use at 8 years of age, and to assess potential determinants of screen time. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective birth cohort study included 3895 children (3083 singletons and 812 unrelated multiples) in New York State who had screen time data available for at least 1 time point from 1 to 3 years of age; 1156 children had data at 8 years. The study spanned September 4, 2007, through June 12, 2014, in the first phase, and August 29, 2014, through November 15, 2019, in the second phase. Data analysis for the present study was conducted from September 28, 2018, to July 15, 2019. Main Outcomes and Measures: Maternal reports of children's television, movie, and computer game times were summed for total daily screen time at 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. Two screen time trajectories (low and increasing use) were classified by cluster analysis, and logistic regression was used to model risk factors for the increasing trajectory. Children exhibiting the highest 10th percentile of screen use at each point were examined, and linear mixed models were used to identify risk factors of this high exposure category. Results: Among the 3895 children included in the analysis (2031 boys [52.1%] and 1864 girls [47.9%]), median daily screen time increased from 30 (interquartile range, 0-60) minutes at 12 months of age to 120 (interquartile range, 75-200) minutes at 36 months of age. Of 1045 children with complete data at all 5 time points, 279 (26.7%) had an increasing screen time trajectory. Female child sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.90; 95% CI, 0.81-0.99) and graduate school levels of paternal (aOR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.56-0.95) and maternal (aOR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.47-0.77) education, compared with having completed college, were associated with lower risk of increasing trajectory. Maternal nulliparity was associated with higher risk of increasing trajectory (aOR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.00-1.30). Children with an increasing trajectory from 1 to 3 years of age had an additional 22 (95% CI, 11-33) minutes per day of screen time at 8 years of age. Covariates associated with the highest 10th percentile of screen exposure included paterman graduate school education compared with college (aOR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.39-0.99), maternal graduate school education compared with college (aOR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.37-0.82), maternal nulliparity (aOR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.50-2.61), twins compared with singletons (aOR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.05-1.91), non-Hispanic black compared with non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity (aOR, 4.77; 95% CI, 2.25-10.10), and type of care (home-based care aOR, 2.17 [95% CI, 1.38-3.41]; parental care aOR, 2.11 [95% CI, 1.41-3.15]) compared with center-based care. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that a range of parental and child characteristics are associated with screen time. Screen time habits appear to track from as early as infancy, emphasizing the need for earlier interventions.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.4488

Cites

53 of 53 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [11]11. American Academy of Pediatrics. Children and media tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics. https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the- aap/aap-press-room/news-features-and-safety- tips/Pages/Children-and-Media-Tips.aspx. Published May 1, 2018. Accessed October 1, 2018.
  2. [13]13. Media CS. Zero to eight: Children's media use in America 2013 [press release]. https://www. commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-to-eight- childrens-media-use-in-america-2013. Published October 28, 2013. Accessed October 1, 2018.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Trinh, M.-H., Sundaram, R., Robinson, S. L., Lin, T.-C., Bell, E. M., Ghassabian, A., & Yeung, E. H.
Affiliations
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Glotech (United States) (US)
  • University at Albany, State University of New York (US)
  • NYU Langone Health (US)
Corresponding author
Yeung, Edwina H.
ORCID
Venue
JAMA Pediatrics
Publisher
American Medical Association (AMA)
Published
2020-01-01
Volume
174
Issue
1
Pages
71
ISSN
  • 1072-4710 (ISSN-L)
  • 2168-6203
DOI
10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.4488
PMC
PMC6902189
OpenAlex
W2991442430
Semantic Scholar
6a32cda6200de80498f00f4ef293c559c353b13e
Cited by
92
References
53
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 6
FWCI
28.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HHSN267200700019C, HHSN275201200005C)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
screen time, children under 3 years, television viewing, computer game use, maternal education, maternal employment, maternal depression, maternal smoking, maternal alcohol use, maternal depression screening, birth cohort, New York State, birth cohort studies
MeSH terms
Screen Time, Child, Child, Preschool, Family, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Infant, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Television

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review