University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2020 Sep;59(9):1080-1088. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2019.06.017. Epub 2019 Aug 7.
Previous studies have offered mixed results regarding the link between digital screen engagement and the psychosocial functioning of young people. In this study, we aimed to determine the magnitude of this relation, to inform the discussion regarding whether amount of digital screen time has a subjectively significant impact on the psychosocial functioning of children and adolescents.
We analyzed data from primary caregivers participating in the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), an annual nationally representative survey fielded by the US Census Bureau between June 2016 and February 2017. NSCH uses an address-based sampling frame and both Web- and paper-based data collection instruments to measure psychosocial functioning and digital engagement, including a modified version of the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire and caregiver estimates of daily television- and device-based engagement, respectively.
The expected parabolic inverted-U-shaped relationship linking digital screen engagement to psychosocial functioning was found. These results replicated past findings suggesting that moderate levels of screen time (1-2 hours a day) were associated with slightly higher levels of psychosocial functioning compared to lower or higher levels of engagement. Furthermore, it indicated that children and adolescents would require 4 hours 40 minutes of television-based engagement and 5 hours 8 minutes of daily device-based engagement before caregivers would be able to notice subjectively significant variations in psychosocial functioning.
The possible influence of digital screen engagement is likely smaller and more nuanced than we might expect. These findings do not rule out the possibility that parents might only notice very high levels of screen time when their child manifests pronounced psychosocial difficulties. Future work should be guided by transparent and confirmatory programs of research.
先前的研究对于数字屏幕使用与年轻人的心理社会功能之间的关系提供了不一致的结果。在这项研究中，我们旨在确定这种关系的程度，以说明数字屏幕时间的数量是否对儿童和青少年的心理社会功能有主观上的显著影响。
我们分析了参与国家儿童健康调查（NSCH）的主要照顾者的数据，这是美国人口普查局在 2016 年 6 月至 2017 年 2 月期间进行的一项年度全国代表性调查。NSCH 使用基于地址的抽样框架和网络和纸质数据收集工具来衡量心理社会功能和数字参与度，包括对《长处和困难问卷》的修改版和照顾者对日常电视和设备参与度的估计。
发现数字屏幕使用与心理社会功能之间存在预期的抛物线倒 U 形关系。这些结果复制了过去的发现，表明适度的屏幕时间（每天 1-2 小时）与较低或较高的参与度相比，与更高的心理社会功能水平相关。此外，这表明儿童和青少年需要每天进行 4 小时 40 分钟的电视参与度和 5 小时 8 分钟的设备参与度，照顾者才能注意到心理社会功能的主观显著变化。
数字屏幕使用的可能影响可能比我们预期的要小而微妙。这些发现并不排除父母可能只有在孩子表现出明显的心理社会困难时才会注意到非常高的屏幕时间的可能性。未来的工作应该由透明和确证性的研究计划来指导。
