UWSpace has migrated to a new version of its software. The UWSpace team invites all UWaterloo community members to review the newly created help documentation available on the UWSpace homepage.
 

Are screens to blame? Children’s digital media use and emotional problems during the COVID-19 pandemic

Thumbnail Image

Files

Zhang_Jasmine.pdf (1.25 MB)

Date

2022-08-03

Authors

Zhang, Jasmine (Yuxin)

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Waterloo

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between digital media (“screen use”) and mental health in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. A multinational sample of caregivers (n = 549) provided bi-monthly reports on their families and two children aged 5–18 (n = 1098) between May and November 2020. Measures included children’s screen time, mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, anger), and lifestyle factors, as well as family-wide COVID-19 disruptions and parental screen time. A longitudinal, multilevel sibling comparison design was employed to disentangle child-specific versus family-wide associations, in addition to the direction of effects. Specifically, associations were assessed via multilevel cross-lagged panel models, in which siblings (Level 1) were nested within families (Level 2). Three-level growth curve models were also fit to examine child-specific and family-wide predictors of children’s screen time. The directional associations between mental health symptoms and screen time were inconsistent within families. Between families, sibling pairs with higher depressive and anxiety symptoms in July showed more screen use two months later. Additionally, higher screen time in July predicted more anxiety in September. Growth models revealed that mental health challenges had little predictive effect on screen time in the context of other lifestyle factors, but parental screen use was a salient predictor. These results collectively demonstrate that family-wide contextual effects cast important influences on screen use, emotional well-being, and their associations. Moreover, the findings emphasize the need for a whole-family approach to studying and managing children’s screen use.

Description

Keywords

screen time, digital media use, emotional difficulties, sibling comparison, multilevel model

LC Keywords

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10012/18485

Collections

Theses
Psychology