Associations among Screen Time, Subjective Socioeconomic Status, and Self-regulation in Early Childhood

The World Health Organization (WHO) guideline on screen time during early childhood is no more than 1 hour of high-quality programming daily, yet the evidence if meeting screen time recommendations influences children’s self-regulation is unclear. PURPOSE: To examine associations among meeting screen time guidelines, socioeconomic status, and self-regulation. METHODS: Caregivers reported on children’s (n = 72 children; 35 girls, 5.4 ± 1.8 years) screen time and self-regulation 10 times per day across 14 days using smartphones. Self-regulation was measured using the Daily Self-Regulation survey from Ludwig et al. (2018), which has attentional, emotional, and behavioral subscales. Screen time was measured adapting NHANES questions for daily use. Socioeconomic status was measured using the community ladder of the McArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status. Daily screen time and self-regulation were calculated as the intraindividual mean across 140 reports. Screen time was coded for meeting the WHO guideline (0 = did not meet; 1 = meet) if the intraindividual mean screen was ≥1 hour. The best-fitting stepwise regression model was selected based on AIC, Variance Inflation Factor, and R2. RESULTS: Children spent 77.4 ± 58.4 mins on screen-based activities daily and 50% of children met screen time guidelines. SES, meeting screen time guidelines, and the interaction between SES and meeting screen time guidelines significantly predicted children’s self-regulation, F’s(3,67) ≥ 5.9, p’s ≤ 0.001, R’s2 ≥ 0.21. Simple slopes analyses revealed that meeting the screen time guideline was associated with higher emotional (b’s ≥ 7.58), attentional (b’s ≥ 10.18), and behavioral (b’s ≥ 9.31) self-regulation for children with lower and average SES, p’s ≤ 0.05. Meeting screen time and self-regulation was unrelated for children with higher SES, p’s ≥ 0.50. CONCLUSION: While these findings preclude causal inference, our results suggest a potential role for policies and programs that help children meet screen time guidelines, which seems particularly protective for children living in households with low-SES.