Beyond screen time: complex factors shaping child development

New Curtin University research challenges views on screen time, revealing factors such as parental mental health and the type of screen being used may have some impact on child development. 

Led by Dr Amber Beynon and Dr Juliana Zabatiero from the Curtin School of Allied Health, the research looked at how children’s and parents’ use of various types of screens impacted infant development at 12 months of age and also considered factors such as parental mental health and socioeconomic status.

Participants were from the longitudinal ORIGINS study, a collaboration between The Kids Research Institute Australia and Joondalup Health Campus which is following the health of 10,000 families to reduce chronic health conditions.

The study revealed parental technology use was not associated with development at 12 months, nor was infants watching TV.

Infants using mobile touch devices such as smartphones and tablets for just five minutes per day were weakly associated with lower developmental scores, however Dr Beynon said mental health, particularly of both parents, was a stronger factor influencing outcomes.

“We’re increasingly finding ‘screen time’ doesn’t tell us the full story; we need to focus more on the context and the content of the screen use,” Dr Beynon said.

“We need to look at if parents and babies are watching content together, whether they’re passively watching content or interacting with it – and also of course what the content is.

“There’s a complex relationship emerging between technology, infant development and other family factors; for example, we found a mother’s mental health was also related to the amount of time an infant used technology.”

Dr Beynon said she hoped the study and future research could help paint a clearer picture for how parents can navigate an increasingly technological world, while also looking after their children’s development.

“Screens are all around us, children are engaging with them from a young age — and the screens aren’t going anywhere so we need to try to work out how this could impact development,” Dr Beynon said.

“The message is often that small children shouldn’t have any screen time whatsoever, but it’s not as simple as that: it’s really about how you’re using the screen time and how the interaction is with the parents.

“So hopefully we see less pressure and parental guilt around the use of screens because that’s really unhelpful and can affect mental health itself; we really need to work on supporting whole families with a more holistic approach.”

‘Influence of maternal and infant technology use and other family factors on infant development’ was published in BMC Pediatrics.