Does Home Media Use Predict Preschoolers' Skill Gains? A Time Diary Study

We examined whether media use measured using time diaries is related to preschoolers' academic and social/behavioral skills. Children (N = 179) completed direct assessments of academic skills in the fall and spring, and teachers reported on social and behavioral skills. Parents/caregivers completed a 24-hr time diary in the spring, from which children's total media use, nighttime media use, educational media use, and joint media engagement were obtained. Results showed that children who had high levels of media use tended to have smaller social skill gains than children with low or moderate levels of media use. A similar effect was found for nighttime use on assertiveness. Overall, children who used more educational media tended to have larger gains in task orientation and assertiveness, whereas children who used more educational media specifically focusing on social-emotional content tended to have larger gains in task orientation and behavioral control. Children who used more entertainment media tended to have smaller gains in assertiveness, social skills, and task orientation, but these effects mostly emerged at high rather than moderate levels of use. Children who had more joint media engagement with peers tended to have smaller gains in vocabulary skills, whereas no such effect was seen for joint media engagement with adults. These findings suggest that there may be some important links between media use and children's social and behavioral skills, but that in general media use may not be overwhelmingly and uniformly harmful to young children's development.