Dore Rebecca A, Logan Jessica, Lin Tzu-Jung, Purtell Kelly M, Justice Laura
Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.
Department of Educational Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 9;11:2224. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02224. eCollection 2020.
Media use could be detrimental to children's language and literacy skills because it may displace other language-enhancing activities like shared reading and caregiver-child interactions. Furthermore, the extent to which children use media with adults (joint media engagement), the extent to which they use interactive media (apps/games), and the time of the day and week during which media use occurs may attenuate any negative effects. The current study examines the relation between characteristics of children's media use and gains in first graders' language and literacy skills. Children ( = 488) completed direct assessments of language and literacy skills in the spring of kindergarten and the spring of first grade. Parents reported how many hours children used both interactive and non-interactive media during different times of the day on the most recent weekday and weekend day and responded to items about the extent to which they engage with their children during media use. A quadratic relationship between media use and language gains showed that a moderate amount of media use was related to larger language gains, whereas high use was related to smaller gains. For literacy, an interaction between media use and joint media engagement showed a small negative effect of media use at low levels of joint media engagement and little to no relation between media use and literacy gains at higher levels of joint media engagement. Children's language and literacy skills were not predicted by either the proportion of media time that was spent with apps/games or morning and weekday media use. These results show that moderate amounts of media use may not be a negative influence on children's developing language skills, whereas high levels may displace other language-enhancing activities. Additionally, joint media engagement may play an important buffering role in the relation between media use and early literacy skills, aligned with current recommendations encouraging co-viewing.
使用媒体可能对儿童的语言和读写能力有害，因为它可能会取代其他有助于提高语言能力的活动，如亲子共读和照顾者与孩子之间的互动。此外，儿童与成人一起使用媒体的程度（共同媒体参与度）、他们使用互动媒体（应用程序/游戏）的程度，以及使用媒体的日期和时间，可能会减弱任何负面影响。本研究考察了儿童媒体使用特征与一年级学生语言和读写能力提升之间的关系。488名儿童在幼儿园春季和一年级春季完成了语言和读写能力的直接评估。家长报告了孩子在最近工作日和周末的不同时间段使用互动和非互动媒体的时长，并回答了关于他们在孩子使用媒体期间与孩子互动程度的问题。媒体使用与语言能力提升之间呈二次关系，表明适度使用媒体与更大的语言能力提升相关，而大量使用则与较小的提升相关。对于读写能力，媒体使用与共同媒体参与度之间的交互作用表明，在共同媒体参与度较低时，媒体使用有较小的负面影响，而在共同媒体参与度较高时，媒体使用与读写能力提升之间几乎没有关系。儿童的语言和读写能力既不能通过花在应用程序/游戏上的媒体时间比例来预测，也不能通过早晨和工作日的媒体使用情况来预测。这些结果表明，适度使用媒体可能不会对儿童正在发展的语言能力产生负面影响，而大量使用可能会取代其他有助于提高语言能力的活动。此外，共同媒体参与度可能在媒体使用与早期读写能力之间的关系中发挥重要的缓冲作用，这与目前鼓励共同观看的建议一致。
