Technology Use and Emerging Executive Functioning in Early Childhood

ABSTRACT The rapid adoption of mobile and interactive technologies by American families has outpaced research on their potential effects on child development and health. Much prior research on television (TV) and older forms of media relied upon parent recall of global constructs such as “screen time,” which may not be a complete representation of family media use now that parents and children use mobile and interactive devices in an intermittent, on-demand manner throughout the day. As highlighted at the 2018 NICHD scientific workshop on Media Exposure and Early Child Development, the design affordances of mobile and interactive media differ from TV in several important ways, and deserve novel scientific paradigms to describe how children and families use media. The proposed project will fill these gaps in scientific knowledge by testing a conceptual framework informed by human-computer interaction that examines how parent and child mobile media use influence the development of child executive functioning (EF). We will examine mechanisms of these associations, including changes in quality of parent-child interaction and frequency of EF-building activities, and test whether effects are moderated by child sex and family psychosocial stress. The proposed research comprises 2 studies. Study 1 involves semi-structured interviews with 40 parents from diverse backgrounds, to explore parents’ conceptualizations of problematic design affordances and inform our measures for Study 2, a longitudinal cohort study of 400 parent-toddler dyads followed yearly from age 2 to age 4. At each yearly home visit, we will assess media use via surveys, mobile sampling, and app design coding, as well as standardized video-recorded assessments of child executive functioning (EF) and parent-child interaction. In specific aim 1, we will use structural equation models to examine bidirectional, longitudinal associations between parent mobile media use (duration, frequency, and problematic design affordances) and child EF, testing both direct pathways and mediation by quality of parent-child interaction and frequency of EF-building activities. In specific aim 2, we will examine bidirectional longitudinal associations between child mobile media (use for regulatory purposes, duration, and problematic design affordances) and EF, testing both direct pathways and mediation by quality of parent-child interaction and frequency of EF-building activities. Finally, we will examine how child sex and psychosocial stressors moderate associations between parent and child media use and EF. Our findings will contribute to the evidence base upon which digital media guidelines are based, as well as digital design approaches that reflect the needs of families with young children. In addition, our attention to modeling bidirectional associations and articulating individual child, parent, and design affordance factors in the context of early EF development will inform development of both precise behavioral interventions and recommendations for population-level digital design and policy.