The impact of screen time on child and adolescent wellbeing
The present project aims to better capture the mental health consequences of child and adolescent screen use habits through longitudinal research.
There is increasing concern over the potential impact of youth screen use habits on their mental and physical wellbeing. To date, research on this topic has been limited by a lack of designs capable of addressing the possibility of reverse causality, or the possibility that poor mental health may lead youth to use screens, rather than the other way around. Our team aims to address these limitations by conducting longitudinal studies, that consider bidirectionality in the associations between youth screen use and its possible consequences.
Funding :
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Canada Research Chairs program
Research partners :
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Pause ton Écran
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Bien-être numérique
Examining the impact of digital media use by children during the COVID-19 pandemic
The present study aims to document how child and parent media use habits during the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to child global development and health.
To inform harm-reduction and positive digital media use strategies by children during and post pandemic, a better understanding of the benefits and harms of digital media on preschoolers is needed. For this reason, the present project employs a comprehensive approach to examine media use by considering the context of use (ex., viewing alone vs coviewing), function (ex., passive viewing vs video chatting), and content (ex., educational vs violent) of digital media use in addition to more standard assessments of duration of usage.
The overarching objective of this research project is to examine how preschooler’s digital media use during the pandemic prospectively contributes to their health and developmental at the time of school entry, through three aims :
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Our first aim is to examine how child digital media use during the pandemic contributes to health, physical, cognitive and psychosocial outcomes.
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Aim two is to estimate associations between child digital media use during the pandemic and later teacher-reported academic outcomes.
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Finally, a third Aim is to describe trajectories of child digital media use from early childhood to school entry and to identify child and family predictors of these trajectories. This aim will help us identify factors associated with changes in children’s digital media use habits over time and will benefit interventions.
As such, the findings generated by this project will help empower parents, health and education professionals, and policy makers to make nuanced recommendations regarding child digital media use.
Funding :
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Research partners :
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Pause ton Écran
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Naître et grandir
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Bien-être numérique
How do Quebec preschoolers’ screen use habits contribute to positive and negative developmental outcomes?
A comprehensive approach to identify child, parent, family, and community risk and protective factors
The present project aims to better understand the consequences child screen use habits on health and development in a post-pandemic context. We also aim to identify which child, parent, family, and community level factors contribute to child screen media habits.
The overarching objective of the proposed research program is to increase our understanding of how preschooler screen use contributes to positive and negative outcomes.
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Objective 1 is to describe profiles of preschooler screen use in terms of the characteristics of their screen usage (ex. duration, context). We will then examine how profiles contribute to positive (ex., empathy) and negative (ex., reduced physical activity) outcomes.
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Objective 2 is to examine how problematic media use behaviors (ex., excessive preoccupation with screens) at age 3 contribute to child outcomes by age 4.
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Finally, Objective 3 is to identify how child, parent, family, and community risk and protective factors amplify/buffer associations between screen use profiles, problematic media us, and their consequences. Our objectives will be met by recruiting 250 socioeconomically disadvantaged and 250 non-disadvantaged Quebec urban families. Parents of children will complete measures at baseline (age 3) and at follow-up with the same children at age 4.
Our project will help clarify the extent to which screen use profiles based on the duration, content, context, nature of use, and screen type, contribute to positive and negative consequences in children. Furthermore, it will shed light on which individual, parent, family, and community risk and protective factors are associated with child problematic media use and the extent to which these buffer/exacerbate the consequences of screen use by children.
Funding :
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Fond de recherche du Québec - Action concertée
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Programme de recherche sur l’utilisation des écrans et la santé des jeunes
Research partners :
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INSPQ
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Naître et Grandir
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Pause ton écran