Adverse Childhood Experiences and Problematic Media Use: Perceptions of Caregivers of High-Risk Youth
Open accessAbstract
Youth with a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are more likely to develop risky health behaviors. With the increase of media use in the general population, it is likely that these high-risk youth are developing maladaptive behaviors associated with media use (i.e., problematic media use). The goals of this article are (1) to describe symptoms of problematic media use in high-risk youth and (2) to determine whether ACEs are related to problematic media use in this population. Data were collected through online questionnaires from 348 parents or legal guardians of children ages 5 to 18 years, the majority of whom had been adopted. Parents and guardians reported on the child’s history of ACEs and completed the Problematic Media Use Measure-Short Form (PMUM-SF). Almost half of the participants reported that their child had a history of four or more ACEs (48.9%). Caregivers of foster or adopted children reported more symptoms of problematic media use than those reporting on their biological children. After adjusting for covariates, the number of ACEs predicted problematic media use above and beyond variance explained by demographic factors or screen time amount. Children with a history of ACEs had higher problematic media use compared to children without ACEs.
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General early adversity is linked to challenges with executive functioning, atypical behavioral development, and mental health concerns.
“Furthermore, general early adversity has been linked to challenges with executive functioning (Lund et al., 2020), atypical behavioral development (Domoff et al., 2021; Howard et al., 2020; Ross et al., 2020; Wilke et al., 2020), and mental health concerns (Atluri et al., 2018; Pham et al., 2021).”
From The relationship between spirituality and resilience and well-being: a study of 529 care leavers from 11 nations. (2023) · cites this paper as Domoff et al., 2021
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- Authors
- Domoff, S. E., Borgen, A. L., Wilke, N., & Hiles Howard, A.
- Affiliations
- Central Michigan University (US)
- Applied Research and Best Practice Initiative, Christian Alliance for Orphans, Arequipa 04017, Cayma, Peru
- Department of Psychology, Samford University, Homewood, AL 35229, USA
- Corresponding author
- Domoff, Sarah E.
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-06-22
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 6725
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8297195
- OpenAlex
- W3175107295
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 4 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 5.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- adverse childhood experiences, problematic media use, at-risk youth, foster children, adopted children, caregiver perceptions, screen time, health risk behaviors
- MeSH terms
- Child, Adopted, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Adolescent, Child, Child, Preschool, Humans, Perception, Surveys and Questionnaires, Caregivers
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