Screens Over Screams: The Efficacy of Digital Media as

a Coping Mechanism for Adolescents in High Family

Conflict Households
Kylie Woodman, Yibei Chen, Paula Wang, & René Weber

University of California, Santa Barbara

Department of Communication - Media Neuroscience Lab
http://medianeuroscience.org
Background Information
Digital media’s association with poor mental
health (Tang et al., 2021)

Parenting Challenges with Kids (PaCK)

Research (Woodman, 2018)

● Child media use

○ (+) Family conflict (r = .30)
○ (-) Parental psychopathy (r = -.40)
○ (+) Parental substance use (r = .40)

● Adolescent media use and family conflict

(Wang et al., 2020)
Background Information
Uses and Gratifications
● People are active and motivated in
selecting the media they choose to
consume for certain gratifications
Mood Management Theory (MMT)
● Media consumptions is capable of altering
mood states
Digital media as a flexible coping mechanism
(Wolfers & Schneider, 2020)
● There is little research examining the
efficacy of digital coping
Transactional Stress Model
● Problem focused coping (Social Buffering)
● Emotion focused coping (MMT)
● Avoidant coping
 Hypotheses
Hypotheses: IV: Family Conflict

H1: Family conflict is positively correlated with DV: Youth Outcomes

Screen time and youth outcome severity
H2: Increased screen time in high conflict families
will mediate internalizing and externalizing symptom
development
● Internalizing (depression, anxiety, attentional issues)
● Externalizing behaviors (acting out, getting in trouble)
Moderator: Digital Coping

● Socially Oriented Screen (SOS) time

● Non-Socially Oriented Screen (non-SOS) time

Digital Media
Coping Efficacy

Youth
Outcomes:
Family Conflict
Internalizing &
Externazing
Methods
Measures
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD)
Study
11,872 youth across 21 locations in the United
States
Representative in race, ethnicity, & gender
Longitudinal panel study
● Baseline: 9-10 year olds
● 1YR: 10-11 year olds
● 2YR: 11-12 year olds
● Family Environment Scale (FES)
○ 9 True/False questions - youth report
○ "We fight a lot in our family” or “Family
members sometimes hit each other.”
● Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
○ 112 questions - parent report
○ Internalizing subscale
■ “Complains of loneliness,” “Feels
worthless or inferior.”
○ Externalizing subscale
■ “Gets in fights with other children”
● Screen Time Questionnaire (STQ)
○ SOS: social media, phone calls, text, video
call, & multiplayer video games
○ Non-SOS: watching
television/videos/movies, single-player
video games
Hypothesis 1: Family Conflict Correlations
Family Conflict x Screen Time Family Conflict x CBCL CBCL x Screen Time

✔ ✔ ✔

t = 30.53 p < .001 t = 29.11 p < .001 t = 18.34 p < .001

 Hypothesis 2: Media Coping As a Moderator
Interaction Graph of 1YR Conflict and 2YR Internal/External by Screen
Time Screen Time

Youth
Family Outcomes:
Conflict Internalizing
& Externazing

Variable Coeff Sig

Family Conflict t = 12.84 p < .001
Screen Time t = 5.50 p < .001
SOS t = 3.27 p = .001
nonSOS t = 11.44 p < .001
Interaction t = -0.8 p = .42
Discussion
Within a national early adolescent dataset we found Limitations/Future Directions
● Screen time is positively associated with family
conflict
● Family conflict is related to internalizing and
externalizing symptoms What kind of content/ media behaviors
Screen time does partially mediate the relationship
would be helpful?
between family conflict and Internal/External
HOWEVER, screen time seems to enhance or
exacerbate these symptoms What kinds of specific problems are being
enhanced?
Screen time does not seem to be an efficacious coping
mechanism to mitigate mental health associated with
family conflict Explore other methods of capturing coping
Non-Socially Oriented Screen time is the primary efficacy.
moderator, relating to an increase in internalizing and
externalizing symptoms for youth experiencing family
conflict compared to SOS
Thank You!
Questions?
Kylie Woodman kyliewoodman@ucsb.edu
http://medianeuroscience.org