Journal Article

Screen-time is associated with inattention problems in preschoolers: Results from the CHILD birth cohort study

Tamana, Sukhpreet K., Ezeugwu, Victor, Carson, Valerie, Pei, Jacqueline, Sears, Malcolm R., Azad, Meghan B., Moraes, Theo J., Subbarao, Padmaja, Chikuma, Joyce, Mandhane, Piush J., Lefebvre, Diana L., Becker, Allan B., Turvey, Stuart E., Rasmussen, Carmen, Dick, Bruce D.

2019

Overview

Pre-school children spend an average of two-hours daily using screens. We examined associations between screen-time on pre-school behavior using data from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study. CHILD participant parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at five-years of age. Parents reported their child's total screen-time including gaming and mobile devices. Screen-time was categorized using the recommended threshold of two-hours/day for five-years or one-hour/day for three-years. Multiple linear regression examined associations between screen-time and externalizing behavior (e.g. inattention and aggression). Multiple logistic regression identified characteristics of children at risk for clinically significant externalizing problems (CBCL T-score≥65). Screen-time was available for over 95% of children (2,322/2,427) with CBCL data. Mean screen-time was 1·4 hours/day (95%CI 1·4, 1·5) at five-years and 1·5 hours/day (95%CI: 1·5, 1·6) at three-years. Compared to children with less than 30-minutes/day screen-time, those watching more than two-hours/day (13·7%) had a 2·2-point increase in externalizing T-score (95%CI: 0·9, 3·5, p≤0·001); a five-fold increased odd for reporting clinically significant externalizing problems (95%CI: 1·0, 25·0, p = 0·05); and were 5·9 times more likely to report clinically significant inattention problems (95%CI: 1·6, 21·5, p = 0·01). Children with a DSM-5 ADHD T-score above the 65 clinical cut-off were considered to have significant ADHD type symptoms (n = 24). Children with more than 2-hours of screen-time/day had a 7·7-fold increased risk of meeting criteria for ADHD (95%CI: 1·6, 38·1, p = 0·01). There was no significant association between screen-time and aggressive behaviors (p>0.05). Increased screen-time in pre-school is associated with worse inattention problems.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adolescent / Adult / Aggression / Attention (Psychology) / Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder / Behavior / Biology and Life Sciences / Canada / Child behavior / Child Development / Child health / Child, Preschool / Children / Children & youth / Childrens health / Cognition / Cohort analysis / Computers and children / Electronic devices / Elementary school students / Families & family life / Female / Health aspects / Hospitals / Humans / Hyperactivity / Infant / Male / Medicine / Medicine and Health Sciences / Mental health / Mobile devices / Mobile gaming / Parents / Parents & parenting / Pediatrics / People and Places / Preschool children / Preschool education / Psychological aspects / Questionnaires / Regression analysis / Screens / Signs and symptoms / Sleep / Social Sciences / Socioeconomic factors / Television and children