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Infant screen exposure links to toddlers' inhibition, but not other EF constructs: A propensity score study
Author(s) -
McHarg Gabrielle,
Ribner Andrew D.,
Devine Rory T.,
Hughes Claire
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1111/infa.12325
Subject(s) - firstborn , psychology , propensity score matching , developmental psychology , cognitive flexibility , cognition , media use , screen time , cognitive development , early childhood , flexibility (engineering) , executive functions , medicine , social psychology , birth order , psychiatry , population , environmental health , obesity , statistics , mathematics
Technology is pervasive in homes of families with young children, despite evidence for negative associations between infant exposure to screen‐based media and cognitive development that has led the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to discourage parents from exposing children under the age of 18 months to any kind of screen time (AAP, 2016). Here, we apply a propensity score matching approach to estimate relations between electronic screen‐based media use in infancy and executive function in early toddlerhood. In an international sample of 416 firstborn infants, parental report of regular exposure to screen‐based media at 4 months predicted poorer performance on a test of inhibition at 14 months, but was unrelated to either cognitive flexibility or working memory at 14 months. Results of this study are therefore consistent with the view that early exposure to screen‐based media adversely affects the development of executive function.