Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 36 (2015) 11–17

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Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Young children's screen time: The complex role of parent and

child factors
Alexis R. Lauricella a, Ellen Wartella a, Victoria J. Rideout b
a
Northwestern University, Communication Studies, 2240 Campus Drive Evanston, IL 60208, USA
b
VJR Consulting 165 Newman Street San Francisco, CA 93110, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Many children are spending more time with screen media than has been recommended by the American Acad-
Received 26 July 2013 emy of Pediatrics. There is evidence that parent television use is associated with higher levels of child television
Received in revised form 9 November 2014 time, but we know little about what predicts children's media use with other technology. Using a nationally
Accepted 9 December 2014
representative sample of more than 2300 parents of children ages 0–8, children's time spent with four digital
Available online 12 January 2015
media devices – television, computers, smartphones, and tablet computers – was examined. Results from linear
Keywords:
regression analyses indicate across all four platforms that parents' own screen time was strongly associated with
Media child screen time. Further analyses indicate that child screen time use appears to be the result of an interaction
Children between child and parent factors and is highly influenced by parental attitudes. Results suggest that policymakers
Parents should consider the family environment as a whole when developing policy to influence children's screen media
Screen time use at home.
Mobile devices © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Long gone are the days when a sole television set sat in a living room
surrounded by children, parents, and grandparents. Today, 96% of
families have at least one television, and 36% of children age 8 and
under have a television in their bedroom (Rideout, 2013). Beyond tele-
vision, children have access to a range of digital media in their home
that allow them to stream television content, play games, search the In-
ternet, and engage in other types of screen-based activities. In just the
past 2 years, mobile media devices like smartphones and tablets have
increased dramatically with 75% of families now owning some type of
mobile device (Rideout, 2013). In an age when more families of young
children own a smartphone (63%) than not and with tablet device own-
ership at 40% (Rideout, 2013), it is important to examine what factors
are associated with children's technology use of screen media devices.
Many studies have explored predictors of child screen time based on
concerns that “too much” use results in negative consequences and the
idea that determining what predicts use could lead to better interven-
tions to reduce child screen time (e.g., Bleakley, Jordan, & Hennessy,
2013; Lee, Bartolic, & Vandewater, 2009). These studies largely
focus on demographic factors like child age (e.g., Rideout, 2011), race
(e.g., Rideout, Wartella, & Lauricella, 2011), and socioeconomic status
or parent education (e.g., Bittman, Rutherford, Brown, & Unsworth,
2011) and have demonstrated that these variables are predictive of
child screen time, particularly for television. However, few studies have
examined newer mobile media devices or the more psychosocial factors
that may influence children's media use more generally. Thus, this study
uses a nationally representative sample of parents of children age 0 to
8 years to examine the relation between child age and parent variables,
including parent screen media use and media use attitudes, and child
time spent using television, computers, smartphones, and tablet
computers.
Parent media use and attitudes
Children's time with media technology can be explained using two dif-
ferent theoretical perspectives. First, Bandura (1977) posits that learn-
ing and behavior occur as a result of observing behaviors. Young
children spend much of their early years watching and learning from
their parents and siblings in their home. Children observe as their par-
ents cook dinner, interact with each other, and use media. Furthermore,
with more individualized media use, young children likely watch their
parents model media use in a range of scenarios throughout the day
and with multiple devices. With increased access to multiple types of
mobile technology devices, children may no longer need to wait for a
parent to finish using a device in order to imitate the modeled behavior.
For example, a parent may be using a smartphone to find a recipe for
dinner and a child could be mimicking that exact behavior on a tablet
simultaneously.
Beyond modeling media use for their children, parents' own media
use and attitudes about the impact of media use may set the stage
for how the home media environment is created. According to
Bronfenbrenner (1979), child development occurs in a series of concen-
tric systems. The microsystem is the system that directly impacts the
child and includes the child's family, peers, and school. Of particular
importance is the way in which the developing child experiences the
different interactions, activities, and roles within their microsystem
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Bronfenbrenner (1979) explains that not all

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2014.12.001
0193-3973/© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
12 A.R. Lauricella et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 36 (2015) 11–17
activities or experiences in the microsystem play equal roles in the
development of the child. Some behaviors or actions only occur infre-
quently or are less significant, whereas other activities are considered
“molar” in that they are forms of behavior and can have substantial
influences on development. Given the vast amount of time that adults
spend with media technology and its presence across the various
contexts within the child's ecological system, it is reasonable to suggest
that parental media use may be a molar activity as it is ongoing, some-
thing that the child repeatedly sees the parent and others engage
with, and something that may be used together by parent and child,
such as co-watching TV or co-playing a game on a tablet device. Thereby
the parents' own media use and attitudes toward media technology
may directly influence the home life and the media experiences of the
young child.
Evidence demonstrates that most (83%) parents of children age 6
and under use some sort of screen media in a typical day (Rideout &
Hamel, 2006), spending, on average, an hour and a half watching TV
and an hour and a half using a computer. Supporting social cognitive
theory and Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, research demonstrates
that parents' media habits likely influence those of their young children
(Bleakley et al., 2013). This is particularly evident when parents are
heavier media users (e.g., Rideout & Hamel, 2006; Woodard & Gridina,
2000). Children whose parents use screen media for more than
2 hours per day spend an average of 28 minutes more per day watching
TV compared to children of parents who watch less than 2 hours per day
(Rideout & Hamel, 2006). More recent research indicates that children
are more likely to watch more than 4 hours of TV per day if their parents
spend more time watching TV (Jago, Fox, Page, Brockman, & Thompson,
2010). To date, no study has examined how parents' specific use of new
screen media technology like computers and mobile devices relate to
their child's use of these devices. Therefore, in this study we predict:
H1. Parent time with media technologies will be positively associated
with the amount of time the child spends with the same type of
technology.
Parents' own technology use and attitudes toward technology use
will likely influence the home environment and the child. In addition
to the microsystem, the child is influenced by the mesosystem,
exosystem, and macrosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). These other sys-
tems impact the child less directly, but are still influential. The
macrosystem is the broader cultural attitudes, beliefs, or ideologies of
the family members and those around the child. The ideas and beliefs
that filter through the systems via the parents likely influence the
ways in which parents think about and value media in the home.
From this perspective, family characteristics including parental
attitudes and morals about media use may play a role in children's tech-
nology use by filtering through the various systems around the child
and impacting the microsystem directly as a function of the home
media environment.
Parents in the United States express mixed attitudes toward media,
especially toward television. In 2006, parents of children 6 and under
were closely divided between those who said TV “mostly helps
children's learning” (38%) and those who said it “mostly hurts children's
learning” (31%; Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Parent attitudes are more pos-
itive toward computers; almost 70% of parents think that computers
“help learning” (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Research by Vandewater
et al. (2007) found that for younger (0–2 years) and slightly older (5–
6 years) children, positive parental attitudes toward media were signif-
icant predictors of whether the child watched more TV than recom-
mended by the 2001 American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on
Public Education (2001). Further, a recent study of preschool-aged
children found that parent attitudes and beliefs about children's media
use predicted how much time their child spent with screen media
(Cingel & Krcmar, 2013).
If parents believe that watching TV, using the computer, and utilizing
smartphones and tablets have positive impacts on their children's
cognitive, emotional, and physical development, they may further
encourage their children to use screen technology or be less likely to
limit exposure. Unlike parents of older children and teens, parents of
younger children still have control over much of what their children
do in their home; therefore their own attitudes about the technology
may play a very powerful role in their children's amount of use. As
such, we hypothesize:
H2. Child screen time for each technology will be positively associated
with parental attitudes about each specific technology's impact.
The role of the child
Among children from birth to age 8, research consistently shows
that very young children spend less time with media than older children
(Condry, 1989; Rideout, 2011; Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Most of the
research has focused on TV and indicates that time spent watching
TV/DVDs plateaus between 2 and 3 years at close to two hours per
day (Rideout, 2011; Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Time spent on computers
also increases with age. Infant use of computers is largely non-existent
but children between the ages of 2 and 4 years spend 16 minutes per
day and children between 5 and 8 years spend 24 minutes per day
using a computer (Rideout, 2011). Among all children age 8 and
under, time spent on mobile media increases slightly, but not signifi-
cantly with age (Rideout, 2011). As of 2013, the number of children
who have used a mobile device for any media activity increased for
all three age groups; 38% of all children under 2, 80% of children 2- to
4- years old, and 83% of 5- to 8-years-old (Rideout, 20103). Access to
mobile media devices has increased significantly in the past 2 years,
which may result in more young children using these devices for
more time than before. Therefore we predict:
H3. Across all devices, child screen time will differ as a function of the
child's age, with older children exhibiting higher screen time across all
platforms.
Again, given Bronfenbrenner's theory (1979), we would expect that
these parental variables and child demographic variables might be
working together and influencing the amount of time children spend
using media devices. For example, parent attitudes may vary as a func-
tion of the age of the child and may be partially influenced by the par-
ents own technology behaviors. Therefore we ask:
RQ1: Is there an interaction between parent technology use, parent
attitudes, and child age that predicts children's media use for these
four technology devices?
Present study
In order to understand factors that are associated with children's
screen use, this study uses a large nationally representative sample of
United States parents to explore the role of parental and child variables
on child media use across four screen media platforms: television,
computer, smartphones, and tablets. Further, we examine how the
interactions between parent technology use, parent attitudes, and
child age are associated with child technology use.
Method
Participants
Participants were a sample of 2326 parents of children between
the ages of 0 and 8 years who drawn from GfK's probability-based
Knowledge Panel of participants. The sample data was then weighted
to resemble a U.S. population based on a set of study-specific post-
stratification variables including gender, age, Race/Hispanic ethnicity,
 A.R. Lauricella et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 36 (2015) 11–17
education, census region, household income, home ownership status,
metropolitan area, Internet access, and primary language.
Parent demographics
Both mothers (58%) and fathers (42%) completed the survey. Aver-
age parent age was 35 years (SD = 7.38) with a range from 18 to 72
years. Most parents were White (63%); 12% Black, non-Hispanic; 18%
Hispanic; 5% Other, non-Hispanic; and 3% mixed race. Most parents
were married (74%), 11% live with their partner, 8% were never married,
6% were separated or divorced, and less than 1% were widowed. Parent
education varied; 11% had less than high school education, 25% had a
high school education, 30% had some college, and 35% had a Bachelor's
degree or higher. Average household income was between $40,000 and
$59,999, and median income was between $60,000 and $74,999.
Child demographics
Each parent entered the age and gender of all children age 8 and
under and a computer algorithm randomly selected the child about
which the parent would answer the remaining survey questions. Boys
and girls were equally represented (boys, 50%).
Procedure
Participants were all members of Knowledge Network/GfK's online
panel, which is recruited using a probability-based sampling methodol-
ogy (see Knowledge Networks for more panel recruitment methodolo-
gy). According to the procedures used by Knowledge Networks/GfK,
prospective panelists who did not own their own computer were
provided a laptop with Internet access in order to complete surveys.
To participate in the present study, respondents had to be a parent of
a child age 8 years or younger living in the household, age 18 +, and
were required to consent to participate in the survey. Each participant
completed the 20-minute survey online. A total of 5575 participants
were sampled and 2814 completed the survey, resulting in a 50%
completion rate. Only 2400 of respondents qualified for the survey
and of those 74 cases were dropped from final data due to data quality
as defined by Knowledge Networks/GfJK's procedures.
Measures and coding
Child age
Children ranged in age from 0 to 8 with approximately equal
numbers of children at each age. Average child age was 4.2 years
(SD = 2.58).
Child age groups. Age was broken down into 3 categories based on pre-
vious research (Rideout, 2011; 2013; Rideout & Hamel, 2006): under
2 years (19%), 2–5 years (45%), and 6–8 years (36%).
Attitudes
Parents were asked three multi-part questions to indicate the impact
that (1) television, (2) computers, and (3) mobile devices have on child
development and educational skills. For example, parents were asked:
“in general, for children your child's age, do you think television mainly
has a positive or negative effect on their…” a) reading skills, b) speaking
skills, c) math skills, d) social skills, e) physical activity, f) attention span,
g) creativity, h) behavior, and i) sleep? Parents reported whether they
thought that the impact was (5) very positive, (4) somewhat positive,
(3) neutral, (2) somewhat negative, or (1) very negative. To see if partic-
ipants responded in interrelated ways to these 9 measures, we ran a
separate exploratory principal components factor analysis with varimax
rotation on all nine activities for each type of technology (television,
computers, and mobile devices). For each of the three technology
areas all nine variables loaded on the one factor with an eigenvalue
greater than 1 that accounted for 64% of the variance for television
(Cronbach's α = .92), 68% of the variance for computers (Cronbach's
13
α = .94), and 76% of the variance for mobile technologies (Cronbach's
α = .94). Therefore, 3 separate composite scores were calculated by
summing the scores on the 9 scales for each type of technology. In
order to maintain the accuracy of the original scale values, the compos-
ite scores were divided by nine to create an average. To further examine
the relation and possible interactions between parent attitudes and
other variables, a variable called “parent attitude groups” was calculat-
ed. A median split was used to divide media attitude scores into two
groups (high, low); parents were coded as having (1) more positive
attitudes toward technology if their mean score was greater than 2.60,
or (0) less positive attitudes if their mean score less than 2.60.
Screen time
Questions for the screen time measure were based on research
conducted by Common Sense Media (2011) for their national survey.
First, parents were asked to indicate the devices that their family had
in their household from a randomized list (TV, internet, cable, comput-
er/laptop, a tablet device, smartphone). If the parent reported that they
owned the specific device, the next question asked them to report the
amount of time they personally spent using the device on a typical
weekday and weekend day. For example, if the respondent replied
that they owned a smartphone device, they were asked, “on a typical
weekday how much time to do you spend using a smartphone for things
like playing games, watching videos, or surfing the Internet (not time
talking on the phone)?”. This was an open-ended measure in which
the parent wrote the number of hours in one box and the number of mi-
nutes in a second box to indicate the total number of hours and minutes
spent with each device on a typical weekday. The same question was
asked regarding use on a typical weekend day. Once the respondent
completed these questions for their own personal media use, they
were asked about their child's media use time for a typical weekday
and weekend for each device that they had reported that their family
owned. The questions were identical for parent and child media use
times.
To calculate screen time for each technology, the time the parent
spent on a typical weekday with each technology was multiplied by 5
and the time the parent spent on a typical weekend day was multiplied
by 2. These numbers were then summed and divided by 7 to calculate
the average screen time per day for each owned technology. This result-
ed in four continuous parent variables: Parent TV Time, Parent Comput-
er Time, Parent Smartphone Time, and Parent Tablet Time. The same
calculation was used to calculate child screen time with each owned
technology, which resulted in four continuous child variables: Child
TV Time, Child Computer Time, Child Smartphone Time, and Child
Tablet Time.
In order to further examine the relation and possible interactions be-
tween parent screen time and other variables, a variable called “parent
screen time groups” was calculated. The parent technology time vari-
ables for each device were broken down into three groups (low, medi-
um, high) based on the frequency distribution of responses (see
Table 1). For example, 24% of parent respondents watched TV for less
than an hour per day; these were coded as low TV use parents compared
to 34% of parents who watched TV for more than 3 hours per day, who
were coded as high TV use parents. Note that the amount of time and
groups varied by technology, so parents who were coded as low users
for computers spent less than 30 minutes per day, whereas low users
for smartphones and tablets did not use the devices at all on an average
Table 1
Parent screen time groups (in minutes).
Parent screen TV Computer Smartphone Tablet
time groups (N = 2326) (N = 1988) (N = 1600) (N = 939)
Low ≤60 (24%) ≤30 (23%) 0 (28%) 0 (40%)
Medium 1.01–179 (46%) 31–119 (40%) 1–59 (31%) 1–59 (29%)
High 180 + (34%) 120 + (37%) 60 + (41%) 60 + (31%)
14 A.R. Lauricella et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 36 (2015) 11–17

Table 2 between multiple independent variables, interaction variables

Descriptive statistics for technology access, attitudes, and use. were also included. Three interaction variables were calculated for
Screen technology use each technology using the original continuous variables and center-
(hh:mm) ing the values around the means: (1) Parent Screen Time × Child
Parents Children Age, (2) Parent Attitudes × Child Age, and (3) Parent Screen
Home Attitudes
Time × Parent Attitudes.
access mean (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
Each of the overall regression analyses was statistically signifi-
Television 99% 2.69 (.73) 2:30 (2:07) 1:44 (:92)
cant (See Table 3). For each technology, parent screen time, atti-
Computer 86% 2.68 (.59) 1:55 (1:58) :26 (:50)
Smartphone 69% 2.53 (.68) :68a (1:42) :13a (:32)
tudes, and child age were significantly associated with child screen
Tablet 40% 2.51 (.66) :44a(:61) :29a (:43) time (see Table 3). Furthermore there was a significant interaction
between parent screen time and child age for all devices except com-
Note. Attitude scores ranged from (1) very negative to (5) very positive.
a
Time spent with each device was calculated only for families that own the device. puters. There was also a significant interaction between parent
screen time and attitudes for all devices except for tablets.
To understand the interaction findings more clearly, a series of
posthoc analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyses using a Bonferonni
day. Further, parents who are low users on one device are not necessar-
correction were conducted for each technology.
ily the same parents who are low users on other devices.
Child screen time was entered as the dependent variable and par-
ent screen time group (low, medium, high), attitudes group (low,
Results high), and child age group (under 2, 2 to 5, 6–8) were entered as
the independent variables for each technology (television, comput-
Prior to all descriptive statistics and analyses, the data were weight- er, smartphone, tablet) (see Table 4 for descriptive statistics). (See
ed to represent the demographic make-up of the United States using Tables 5 and 6.)
the weighting provided by Knowledge Networks/GfK. Knowledge For child TV use, there was a significant difference in the
Networks/GfK used a post-stratification process to adjust for any survey amount of time the child spent using television as a function of par-
non-response, non-coverage, and under- or oversampling resulting ent TV time group (see Tables 5). For all age groups, higher levels of
from the study specific design. parent TV use were associated with higher levels of child TV use, F(2,
426) = − 25.60, p b .01 (see Table 4). Similarly, parent attitudes
Descriptive statistics were associated with child TV time for each age group. Parents who
had more positive attitudes about the impact of television had children
Almost all parents (99%) reported that their family owned at who watched more TV (see Tables 6).
least one TV. Ownership was slightly less for computers (86%) and For child computer use, parent computer time was significantly
smartphones (69%), and only 40% of parents reported owning a tablet associated with child computer time for all three age groups. Child
device (see Table 2). Results also indicated that parents are active tech- computer time increased significantly as parent computer time in-
nology users, spending, on average, 2.5 hours watching TV and almost creased (see Table 4). Similarly, parent attitudes about the impact
2 hours using a computer per day (see Table 2). If parents owned of computers were associated with higher child use of computers
smartphones, they spent more than an hour on their device, and if for the two younger age groups, but not significantly for the older
they owned tablet devices, they spent close to 45 minutes per day age group (see Tables 5).
using it. Children's time was highest for television viewing (1.75 For child smartphone use, parents who spent higher amounts of
hours); children spent considerably less time with computers (25 mi- time with smartphones had children who spent more time with
nutes), smartphones (15 minutes), and tablet computers (29 minutes) smartphones for the 2- to 5 and 6- to 8-year-olds groups; however
(see Table 2). Parents reported positive attitudes toward all devices parent smartphone use was not significantly associated with child
but attitudes were highest for TV and computer (see Table 2.) smartphone use for the under 2-year-old children (see Table 4). Sim-
ilarly, parent attitudes were only significant for the oldest age group,
Statistical analysis in which higher parent attitudes toward mobile media use were as-
sociated with higher levels of child smartphone use (see Tables 5).
To test the relation between parent media use, parent attitudes, For child tablet use, parents who were high tablet users had chil-
child age, and child screen time, linear regression analyses were dren who spent significantly more time using tablets across all age
conducted for each technology. To further understand the relation groups compared to parents with lower levels of tablet use (see

Table 3
Linear regression results assessing children's screen time as a function of parent screen time, child age, parent attitudes toward technology, and interaction variables.

TV (N = 2225) Computer (N = 1877) Smartphone (N = 1533) Tablet (N = 908)

B B B B

Parent Screen Time .41⁎⁎⁎ .14⁎⁎⁎ .22⁎⁎⁎ .31⁎⁎⁎

Child Age .19 ⁎⁎⁎ .24⁎⁎⁎ .13⁎⁎⁎ .32⁎⁎⁎
Parent Attitudes .22⁎⁎⁎ .17⁎⁎⁎ .12⁎⁎⁎ .22⁎⁎⁎
Parent Screen Time × Child Age .45⁎⁎⁎ −.01 .07⁎⁎ .11⁎⁎
Child Age × Parent Attitudes −.10⁎⁎⁎ .06⁎ .01 .10⁎⁎⁎
Parent Screen Time × Parent Attitudes .45⁎⁎⁎ .12⁎⁎⁎ .11⁎⁎⁎ .04
R2 .31 .13 .11 .24

Note. N for each model is reported in the first row with the name of the device. All values are standardized beta coefficients.
⁎ p b .05.
⁎⁎ p b .01.
⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.
 A.R. Lauricella et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 36 (2015) 11–17
Table 4). For the preschool and older children, more positive parent
attitudes toward mobile media were associated with higher levels
of child tablet use. For children under age 2, there was no significant
relation between parent attitudes and child tablet use (see Tables 5).
Discussion
Young children are growing up in homes that are filled with screen
media technologies, and they are frequent users. Consistent evidence
indicates that many children spend more than the American Academy
of Pediatrics (2013) recommends with screen media including televi-
sion, computers, and mobile devices (e.g., Rideout, 2011; Rideout &
Hamel, 2006). The question remains: what factors are associated with
children's screen media use of new media technologies? This study pro-
vides novel evidence about parent and child variables that are related to
child technology use of four popular devices: television, computers,
smartphones, and tablets. Results from this study indicate that parents'
screen media use is a very highly associated with child screen media use
for all four types of devices. Further, both parent attitudes and child age
were significantly associated with child use of all four devices. Interest-
ingly, there is a strong interaction between these main effects such that
child age, parent attitudes, and parent screen time together play a
dynamic and complex role in children's screen time with these technol-
ogies. These findings suggest that families with young children may
establish a home media technology environment that is influenced by
the child's age, the parents' own personal use of technology, and paren-
tal attitudes about the impact of use. Therefore, policy directed at
influencing child technology use should potentially focus on the home
technology environment as a whole rather than on just one specific
demographic factor.
There are three main findings from this study. First, the results from
this study are consistent with past research that has demonstrated that
media technology use increases with child age (Rideout, 2011, 2013;
Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Child age was a significant predictor of child
use for all technologies, suggesting that regardless of device, screen
technology use increases with child age even when controlling for
other variables like parent attitudes and parent technology use. Given
the vast increase in cognitive, motor, and language abilities during the
first 8 years of life, it is understandable that older children would
spend more time with screen media than younger children. Further,
while newer mobile media devices are easier to manipulate and operate
than computers, older children are awake for more hours and may have
more opportunities to engage with screen media technology than the
very youngest children in this sample. Finally, policy recommendations
to limit screen time (e.g., AAP, 2013) and popular press have focused on
the youngest children, those under age 2, which may also have
increased parent awareness of screen media controversies which may
have lead to the lower rates of use for children under 2 years old.
Table 4
Child screen time device use as a function of child age and parent technology time use.
Parent screen
Age time groups TV
Under 2 Low 39.33 (69.23)a
Med 40.75 (77.26)a
High 94.94 (159.13)b
2 to 5 Low 60.03 (70.60)a
Med 112.60 (104.39)b
High 181.26 (192.96)c
6 to 8 Low 61.33 (72.04)a
Med 97.95 (79.10)b
High 168.37 (124.26)c
Note. Significance difference scores tested within age group separately for each platform and are indicated by superscript letters. Mean scores with different subscript letters are signifi-
cantly different from mean scores within that age group and that media device. The exact amount of time for parent media use differs by platform as is stated in Table 1.
15
Second, this study offers new information about the relation
between parent technology use and child technology use for devices
beyond just television. As is demonstrated in Table 3, across four tech-
nology devices, parental time with technology is very strongly associat-
ed with child time with technology. These findings are consistent with
findings of television use (Bleakley et al., 2013), but provide further
understanding of the relation between parent technology use and
child technology use for computers, smartphones, and tablet devices.
Further, these findings support the social cognitive model (Bandura,
1977), and suggest that parent modeling of technology use may be
influencing the way in which children use the devices as well. With
more access to technology devices, we can speculate that the relation-
ship between parent and child technology use is not merely a function
of increased joint technology use in which parent and child are co-
watching the same television program for example, but potentially
an increase in individualized time with separate devices. We are
conducting additional research to determine if in fact parents who are
higher technology users are using more technology together with
their young children or whether, as we speculate, these findings repre-
sent increased rates of individual use of technology for both parent and
child.
There was a robust interaction between child age and parent screen
time and children's screen time. For each age group, parents who spent
the highest amount of time with TV, computers, smartphones, and tab-
lets had children who spent the most time with these devices. The inter-
actions were especially startling for TV and computer use. For children
under age 2, child TV and computer time was significantly higher if par-
ents were high media users themselves. Specifically, TV time more than
doubled for 2 -year-olds with parents who were high TV users com-
pared to children whose parents were medium or low TV users. For
preschool-aged children, there was almost a one hour increase in
children's TV time as a function of the parent's media use, resulting in
over 3 hours of TV time for 2- to 5-year-olds whose parents were high
TV users. These findings are consistent with findings from Bleakley
et al. (2013) work on children's television time.
Similarly, computer use was 5 times higher for children under age 2
whose parents who were high computer users compared to children of
parents who were medium users. Computer use for 2- to 5-year-olds
and 6- to 8-year-olds jumped considerably with increased parent
computer use. These interaction findings suggest that multiple factors
influence children's screen media use. It has been well established that
as children get older they watch more TV (e.g., Rideout, 2013) and not
surprisingly that seems to exist across all media platforms. However,
we have to take into account the parents and their own media use
behaviors here as well. As children get older, if their parents are more
interested and invested in media technology themselves, the parents
are likely using it more, and potentially create fewer limitations and
rules to constrict their children's media use. As children gain indepen-
dence, competence, and experience with media technology, parents
Child screen time
Computer Smartphone Tablet
.25 (4.42)a 0a .44 (4.89_a
4.60 (23.43)a 3.12 (10.78)a 5.53 (20.70)ab
22.22 (122.51)b 7.11 (45.22)a 11.89 (40.92)b
8.83 (40.11)a 2.26 (19.33)a 17.17 (47.65)a
19.07 (43.69)b 9.54 (22.42)b 20.13 (39.53)a
34.83 (82.71)c 32.70 (64.46)c 58.14 (59.53)b
17.81 (31.84)a 6.11 (20.02)a 28.11 (53.89)a
41.38 (98.82)b 10.93 (21.13)a 42.47 (65.24)a
58.95 (79.42)c 19.27 (55.51)b 59.96 (65.62)b
16 A.R. Lauricella et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 36 (2015) 11–17

Table 5
Child technology device use as a function of child age and parent attitude toward specific technology.

Child screen time

Age Attitude groups TV Computer Smartphone Tablet

Under 2 Low 26.10 (61.38)a .47 (46.15)a .34 (4.05)a 3.73 (13.35)a
High 80.47 (126.56)b 18.73 (102.79)b 5.31 (39.52)a 7.50 (35.98)a
2 to 5 Low 97.18 (123.40)a 12.93 (34.26)a 15.04 (50.74)a 18.79 (39.99)a
High 131.97 (138.45)b 27.87 (71.96)b 18.35 (46.55)a 34.86 (60.47)b
6 to 8 Low 104.01 (103.71)a 42.49 (60.33)a 9.10 (35.97)a 27.05 (54.92)a
High 117.83 (110.70)b 46.78 (97.45)a 14.59 (39.80)b 51.65 (65.91)b

Note. Significant difference scores are tested within age group separately for each platform and are indicated by superscript letters. Mean scores with different subscript letters are signif-
icantly different from mean scores within that age group and that media device.

who use the technology more themselves, will likely support or encour-
age their child's use as well. This study provides evidence for the pow-
erful ways that both child age and parent media time influence child
screen media time.
Third, consistent with recent research by Cingel and Krcmar (2013),
parent attitudes are key contributors to children's screen time. General-
ly, parents who view the impact of media technology more positively
have children who spend more time with the specific technology. This
is not surprising considering the age of these young children. For
children under age 8, parental rules likely influence the rates and
frequency in which young children use media technology; therefore
parental attitudes may influence technology use rules and thus child
technology use.
Interestingly, the interaction between parent attitudes and child age
significantly predicted child use of TV, computer, and tablets. The
posthoc analysis further demonstrates that while technology use does
change with age, parent attitudes influence the amount of time children
spend with media for each age group. Across all age groups, parents
with more positive attitudes toward TV had children who watched
more TV compared to those with less positive attitudes. For children
under age 2 and from 2- to 5-years, children used computers significant-
ly more if their parents had high attitudes toward computers; however,
by the time the child reached 6- to 8-years old, parent attitudes were no
longer significant. In contrast for both smartphones and tablets, for the
youngest kids (0–2), there was no difference in child use based on par-
ent attitudes; however, parents of 6- to 8-year olds with more positive
attitudes had children who spent more time on the mobile devices. It
appears that parent attitudes toward various devices may change with
the age of the child but that these attitudes often do influence the
amount of time the child spends with screen media technology. It also
appears that not all technology is influenced in the same way by parent
attitudes. For young children, parent attitudes are particularly influen-
tial for TV and computers and less so for more mobile devices like
smartphones and tablets. As children reach the elementary school
ages (6- to 8-years), parent attitudes seem to be a more influential
factor on the mobile device use. This may be a function of access and
ownership with older kids being more likely to own their own or have
access to more mobile devices (Rideout, 2013).
Parent attitudes also influenced child screen time as a function of
parent screen media use. Interestingly, parents who were low users
themselves but had positive attitudes toward the technology had
children who spent the most time with both television and computers.
Similarly parents who were low or medium users of tablets but had pos-
itive attitudes toward them had children who spent more time with
tablets than parents with less positive attitudes. It seems that parent
attitudes toward the type of technology can drive child use of the tech-
nology even when the parent is not a particularly frequent user him- or
herself.
According to Bronfenbrenner (1979), parent attitudes may influence
the child's technology use directly within the microsystem as parents
with more positive attitudes toward technology may encourage or
allow their children to engage with more media activities whereas
parents with more negative attitudes toward technology may create
and enforce more rules to regulate or minimize use. Furthermore,
parents who are more frequent technology users themselves may
have more positive attitudes toward the impact of technology on their
young children, and together these factors may result in higher levels
of child technology. Therefore, parents who consider the impact of
media use to be more positive may create a household environment in
which children are welcome to use devices when they have free time,
whereas homes in which parents have a less positive attitude about
the impact of media use may set the stage for a home environment
that is less focused or reliant on media technology. Therefore, it is
possible that the parent's own media use and attitudes influence both
the microsystem and mesosystem in which the child is developing,
and thus influence the child's own use of media technology.
Policy implications
This study has important policy and intervention implications. First,
this study demonstrates the dynamic and complex role of media in the
homes of very young children. Parents are avid media users, have strong
attitudes regarding the impact of media technology on their children,
and are largely responsible for setting up the home media environment.
These factors must all be considered in the development and implemen-
tation of any sort of intervention of policy. Recommendations from the
American Academy of Pediatrics (2013) to limit children's screen time
do not provide any suggestions for how this should be done. The
findings from this study suggest that parents' media use is a very strong-
ly associated with child media use; therefore it seems that effective

Table 6
Child technology device use as a function of parent use and parent attitude toward specific technology.

Child time

Parent use Attitude TV Computer Smartphone Tablet

Low Low 91.08 (112.25)a 20.80 (51.68)a 12.50 (47.86)a 11.34 (34.79)a
High 122.09 (140.88)b 35.06 (100.73)b 13.97 (42.87)a 24.94 (55.41)b
Med Low 61.69 (99.47)a 14.80 (40.17)a 5.43 (17.04)a 12.30 (30.16)a
High 92.39 (89.15)b 24.58 (49.65)b 13.60 (46.55)b 31.87 (59.05)b
High Low 86.52 (123.19)a 22.68 (30.29)a 8.62 (21.49)a 40.12 (57.29)a
High 115.26 (104.61)b 22.88 (52.05)a 17.31 (55.74)a 50.31 (69.13)a

Note. Significant difference scores are tested within age group separately for each platform and are indicated by superscript letters. Mean scores with different subscript letters are signif-
icantly different from mean scores within that age group and that media device.
 A.R. Lauricella et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 36 (2015) 11–17
strategies for decreasing child media use may need to address the par-
ent and their own media use behavior as well as the media environment
of home more generally.
While this study provides evidence that parent screen time, parent
attitudes, and child age are all associated with young children's screen
media use, there are some limitations to this study. This study utilized
a nationally representative sample of parents in the United States,
such that it is generalizable to American parents, but may not be gener-
alizable to families from other countries. Additionally, this was not an
experimental study; the findings presented here are correlational in na-
ture, and so the direction of influence cannot be determined. It is
possible that some or all of these variables may not be predicting child
technology time but may be influenced by child technology time in
some fashion. For example, it is possible that children who spend
more time with technology impact their parents' media behaviors.
However, with children of such a young age, we speculate that this is
unlikely to be the direction of causality. More likely, however, parents
of children who spend more time using technology may see the positive
effect it has on their child, which could increase the positive valence of
those parents' attitudes toward technology. Additionally, this study is
limited in that we only examine the amount of time spent with media
technology and not the content that parents and children were engag-
ing with on those platforms. There is evidence that the effects associated
with media exposure are influenced by the type of content that the child
is using. For example, watching high quality educational programming
has been associated with better preschool and even high school aca-
demic performance (Anderson, Huston, Schmitt, Linebarger, & Wright,
2001; Fisch & Truglio, 2001). Unfortunately, this study was limited
and did not examine the type of content children were engaging with;
therefore we are unable to speculate on potential effects of increased
child screen time to different types of programming. Finally, it is possi-
ble that other variables that were not included in these models influ-
ence children's time with screen technology. Specifically, the measure
of parent attitudes toward media was limited in the types of beliefs
and attitudes it captured. For example, it focused primarily on the
impact of each device on child development outcomes but did not
assess parents' attitudes or beliefs regarding these types of media as
valuable entertainment tools.
In conclusion, children continue to use new media technology and
spend considerable time with technology in their homes. This study
provides new evidence that multiple variables are associated with the
amount of time young children spend with media technology each
day. While child's age, parent attitudes, and parent screen time influ-
ence the amount of time young children spend with technology as indi-
vidual variables, the way these variables interact is crucial for predicting
how much time young children spend with screen media. It is impor-
tant that policymakers recognize these multiple components that are
17
associated with an increase or decrease in screen time across all
technology devices when trying to implement or develop strategies to
influence children's screen time. Rather than simply recommending
that children spend less time with screen media, policymakers should
consider the family dynamic and home environment and creatively
develop ways to influence screen media use at a more family-focused
level. Since child screen time is highly associated with parent screen
time, policymakers should develop strategies that will help parents
change their own technology use behaviors or educate parents about
the benefits or consequence of various types of technology use in
order to influence young children's screen time.
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