The content and context of infant media exposure is differentially associated with developmental outcomes

With the advent of portable touchscreen devices early screen exposure is increasing, even though potential long-term effects of very early screen-based media use remain unknown. High levels of screen time has been negatively associated with attention, inhibitory control and language development issues. The content and context of media exposure are a better predictor of outcomes than overall amount (Barr & Linebarger, 2017). Specifically, background television exposure has been reported to disrupt infants’ toy play and parent-infant interactions. Infancy is a period of rapid communicative and cognitive development. Examination of associations of early media use during infancy is warranted to examine whether how screentime displaces or augments time available to jointly engage with infants. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the frequency of media exposure in 8-month-old infants was related to their communicative and cognitive development, as measured by mother-report questionnaires. 180 mothers of Italian 8-month-old typically developing infants completed: (i) a questionnaire on family media exposure in different contexts (adapted from Barr et al., 2020), (ii) the short form of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories to assess child language comprehension and production (Caselli et al., 2015), (iii) the Developmental Profile 3 (DP-3; Alpern 2007) to assess infant development, and (iv) a socio demographic questionnaire (see Table 1). A multiple linear regression tested whether gender, siblings, maternal education, infant temperament and frequency of infants’ media exposure were related to developmental outcomes. Results showed that the time infants spent listening to an adult reading (either paper or electronic books) was positively related to their scores in the cognitive subscale of the DP-3 (R2 =.164, F13,134 = 2.029, p = .023; β = -.246, p = .029). Another series of multiple linear regression tested whether gender, siblings, maternal education, infant temperament and frequency of interactions between mother and infants during media exposure were related to developmental outcomes. It emerged that the time mothers spent to read their child paperbooks at playtime was positively related to the cognitive and to the communicative subscale and to the general score of the DP3 (R2 =.191, F17,156 = 2.165, p = .007; cognitive subscale: β = .208, p = .015; communicative subscale: R2 =.195, F17,156 = 2.227, p = .005; β = .304, p < .001). Moreover, the frequency of the mother-child interactions during television view was positively related to the number of infants’ gestures (R2 =.197, F17,157 = 2.270, p = .004; β = .248, p = .026). Conversely, the time the television was on while nobody was watching it was inversely related with the infant scores in the adaptive behavior subscales of the DP3 (R2 =.102, F17,156 = 1.047, p = .411; β = -.170, p = .046). The findings replicate and extend prior findings to younger infants in Italy. Positive linguistic parental strategies during book reading (electronic or paper book) and during child-directed screen time are positively associated with the infant’s cognitive and communicative development, whereas television left on in the background is detrimental for cognitive skills.