In the digital age, the rise of screen time among young children has become a topic of significant concern, especially given the rapid expansion of electronic media over the past two decades. This transformation in media consumption habits, accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, has fundamentally changed how children learn and explore their environment. A recent study published in Psychological Medicine sheds light on this issue, revealing the potential long-term impacts of screen time during infancy on brain development and socio-emotional competence in children.
Previous studies have highlighted the negative associations between excessive screen time and various behavioral and cognitive outcomes, including socio-emotional competence. However, these studies predominantly focused on preschool and school-aged children, leaving a gap in our understanding of how screen time affects infants—a crucial period for brain development.
This study aimed to bridge that gap by examining the outcomes associated with screen time in infancy, considering the expeditious pace of brain development during the first two years of life.
“As parents in the 21st century, we are constantly being bombarded with unsubstantiated articles claiming that doing this is bad, or doing that will stunt your child’s development,” said study author Ai Peng Tan, principal investigator of the Translational Neuroscience Program at the A*STAR’s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS) and a senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore.
“Screen time is frequently highlighted as a common concern. A quick Google search will bring up multitudes of websites with advisories or claims on how screen time adversely impacts the child. However, with the advent of technology and social media, it’s inevitable that they will play an increasingly important role in a child’s life.”
“As such, it is important to carry out carefully designed, structured analysis to scientifically verify if there is truly an effect of screen time on children. Furthermore, with our neuroimaging data, we hoped to probe the neural mechanisms that underlie this pathway.”
For their new study, the researchers recruited 1,026 participants from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study, a collaboration between A*STAR’s SICS, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, National University Health System and National University of Singapore.
This cohort comprised mother-child dyads followed from the mothers’ first trimester of pregnancy through the children’s early childhood. The study focused on children with no pre-existing neurodevelopmental conditions, born at gestational ages of 34 weeks or later, with a birth weight of 2000 grams or more, and a 5-minute Apgar score of 8 or higher.
This cohort comprised mother-child dyads followed from the mothers’ first trimester of pregnancy through the children’s early childhood. The study focused on children with no pre-existing neurodevelopmental conditions, born at gestational ages of 34 weeks or later, with a birth weight of 2000 grams or more, and a 5-minute Apgar score of 8 or higher.
Screen time exposure was tracked at the ages of 1, 2, 3, and 4 years through parent-reported data on the total amount of screen viewing time per week. In addition to screen time, the study collected data on parent-child reading time at age 3, aiming to examine its potential moderating effects on the relationship between screen time and brain development. Socio-demographic information was also gathered to control for environmental quality in the analyses.
At age 6, participants underwent diffusion MRI scans to assess brain network topology, a key focus of the study. The researchers used graph-theoretical models to quantify brain networks, selecting specific regions of interest within the emotion processing, reward processing, and cognitive control networks. This approach aimed to understand how early screen time exposure might affect the structural connectivity and organization of these critical brain networks.
Finally, at age 7, the children’s socio-emotional competence was evaluated using two measures: the Emotional Regulation Index (ERI) of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, 2nd Edition (BRIEF-2), and the total score from the Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales (SEARS), as reported by parents. These assessments provided insights into the children’s emotional regulation and overall socio-emotional competence.
The researchers observed a significant association between screen time in infancy and the integration of the emotion processing-cognitive control network at age 6. This finding suggests that early and excessive screen exposure might disrupt the typical developmental trajectory of these brain networks, which are crucial for managing emotions and executing control over cognitive processes.
The integration of these networks was found to mediate the relationship between screen time and socio-emotional outcomes, indicating that changes in brain network topology could be a mechanism through which screen time exerts its long-term effects.
Interestingly, the study did not find a direct effect of screen time on measures of emotional dysregulation or socio-emotional competence when these factors were considered in isolation. Instead, it was the mediating role of brain network integration that linked screen time to these outcomes. This suggests that the impact of screen time on socio-emotional development is not straightforward but is instead mediated by its influence on the brain’s structural and functional organization.
“Increased screen time in early childhood, specifically in the first two years of life, leads to changes in brain networks that are involved in emotional processing and regulation, and this in turn is linked to poorer emotional regulation and socio-emotional resilience in later childhood,” Tan told PsyPost. “This provides evidence that screen time affects the child’s brain development and leads to poorer socio-emotional outcomes.”
Importantly, the researchers found evidence of a moderating effect of parent-child reading time on the relationship between screen time and brain network integration. Specifically, higher levels of parent-child reading time were associated with a reduction in the impact of screen time on the integration of the emotion processing and cognitive control networks. This suggests that engaging in enriching, interactive activities like reading can provide a buffer against the potential disruptions caused by screen exposure.
“Discovering that high levels of parent-child reading could help mitigate the negative impact of screen time on future socio-emotional development was a pleasant surprise, although not entirely unexpected,” Tan said. “These results suggest the possibility that the lack of social activities (play, reading, etc) that arise from excessive screen time could be (part of) the underlying cause of subsequent poor outcomes. This, however, needs to be further examined in future studies.”
The study offers crucial insights into the long-term impacts of screen time in infancy on brain development and socio-emotional competence. But, like all research, it includes some limitations.
“Due to experimental limitations, screen time data was only collected between 1-4 years of age,” Tan explained. “While our results are conclusive for this time period, we caution against extrapolating to later timepoints. We also did not differentiate between the types of screen time, nor between active or passive viewing. It is possible that active screen time, if used properly, could positively contribute to a child’s learning and development.”
Nevertheless, by highlighting the moderating role of parent-child reading, the findings underscore the importance of balancing screen time with enriching, interactive activities like reading. As we navigate the challenges of the electronic media age, understanding and mitigating the potential adverse effects of screen time on our youngest generation will be essential for promoting healthy development and well-being.
“We are interested in understanding the impact of screen time at different developmental stages as well as to study the impact of screen time on other cognitive domains as well as subsequent mental health outcomes in later childhood and adolescence,” Tan said. “In addition, we hope to entangle the differential effect of active and passive screen time of the brain developmental trajectories across childhood.”
The study, “Screen time, brain network development and socio-emotional competence in childhood: moderation of associations by parent–child reading,” was authored by Pei Huang, Shi Yu Chan, Zhen Ming Ngoh, Zi Yan Ong, Xi Zhen Low, Evelyn C. Law, Peter D. Gluckman, Michelle Z.L. Kee, Marielle V. Fortier, Yap Seng Chong, Juan H. Zhou, Michael J. Meaney, and Ai Peng Tan
