Bidirectional associations between screen time and children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviors
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: While it has been purported that excessive screen time can lead to behavioral problems, it has also been suggested that children with behavioral dysregulation receive more access to screens to manage problematic behavior. In this study, both temporally stable and longitudinal associations between screen time and externalizing and internalizing behaviors across childhood are examined to directly address this issue of directionality. METHODS: Data are from a prospective cohort of 10,172 Irish children, collected between 2010 and 2018 when children were ages 3, 5, 7, and 9. Children's screen time (hours/day) and externalizing and internalizing behaviors (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) were assessed via caregiver report. Random-intercepts cross-lagged panel models were used to estimate longitudinal bidirectional associations while controlling for temporally stable (i.e., 'time-invariant' or 'trait-like') differences between children. RESULTS: Temporally stable differences between children were observed for both screen time and behavior problems. Longitudinal trajectories for screen time lacked stability; however, and externalizing and internalizing behaviors stabilized increasingly during later childhood. Greater externalizing and internalizing behaviors at age 3 were directionally associated with increased screen time at age 5. Greater screen time at ages 3 and 5 was directionally associated with increased internalizing behaviors at ages 5 and 7, respectively. More screen time at age 7 was directionally associated with fewer internalizing behaviors at age 9. Screen time was not associated with later externalizing behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Bidirectional associations between screen time and internalizing behaviors were observed for preschoolers. Directional associations between screen time and internalizing difficulties were observed across childhood. These findings can inform screen use guidelines and family media planning at different ages and stages of development.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".