Background: Media use is pervasive among young children. Over 95% of homes in the US have one or more televisions, and access to screen-based media continues to grow with the availability of new technologies. Broadly, exposure to large amounts of screen-based media is negatively related to language and literacy skills; however, questions remain as to the features of media that are detrimental to these skills and the mechanisms by which they are connected.
Methods: A nationally representative sample of 922 children aged 3-7 years was recruited. Parents completed phone-based questionnaires of children's language, literacy, and self-regulation skills and a 24-h time diary in 2009. Path models were used to estimate the direct and indirect associations between context and content of media use with language and literacy skills.
Results: Background and entertainment television, but not educational television, were negatively associated with language and literacy. Further, the link between background television and language and literacy skills was fully mediated by self-regulation.
Conclusions: Television left on in the background and entertainment programming (or that which is not child-directed) is particularly detrimental for language and literacy skills. Additional research is needed to further explore self-regulation as a mechanism by which screen use predicts academic skills.
Impact: Background and entertainment television are negatively associated with language and literacy skills in 3- to 7-year-old children. We find no relation between educational programming and language and literacy skills. Self-regulation is a potential mechanism underlying the relation between background television and language and literacy skills. Anticipatory guidance for parents would be to consider turning off screen-based media devices when no one is watching. Parents should be mindful of the types of content their children are watching on screen-based media.